Homemade soft and chewy English Muffins make a great breakfast bread to enjoy with butter or jam, or fill them up and make your favourite breakfast sandwich!
If you ever bought store bought English muffins and felt intimidated to try them at home, don’t be! This English Muffin recipe is super easy and you don’t need to be a seasoned baker to achieve a successful result. Trust me, you won’t go back to store bought ones with how easy and delicious they are!
What are English muffins?
As the name itself suggests, these muffins originate from the UK. The name is to not to be confused with the other sweet American muffin. Although, both are utterly delicious. The English muffin is a small rounded yeasted bread filled with airy pockets inside, which is commonly served for breakfast, or as a little snack. The signature aspect of these muffins are the airy pockets, most popularly referred to as nooks and crannies, that you find when you pry them open. In fact, these little holes and edges make a great vessel for spreads as they store that delicious goodness in there. The melted butter fills the nooks and crannies just right! English muffins are also used to serve the famously viral Eggs Benedict. These two go hand in hand! These muffins are also a staple to get as a side to your English breakfast, or a classic fast-food sandwich that can be easily recreated at home with eggs and sausage.
How to make this English Muffins recipe
Making this recipe is super easy! Even the ingredients list, consist of basic ingredients, which you might already have at home. As any other yeast-leavened recipe I have here, I like to activate the yeast prior to start the dough. This little step might sometimes be extra, but I like to make sure that the yeast I’m using is alive and well. After mixing all the ingredients and a dough starts forming, you will notice that it’s slightly sticky. That’s good! The stickiness of the dough will actually help with the creation of all those nooks and crannies. After letting the dough rest for an hour, gently flatten the dough to about 2cm thick. As the dough is quite soft, you can easily press the dough open with your hands. Cut the circle with a cookie cutter and dust over some semolina or cornmeal.
After letting them rest for another 30, minutes so that they rise a bit more, cook the muffins on a hot cast iron or griddle on each side. To make sure that they are cooked well from the inside, I like to pop them in the oven for about 5 minutes at 200 °C/395 °F.
How to form the Muffins?
There are two methods: by hand or using a cookie cutter. My favourite one is the cookie cutter one, which I have already described in the paragraph above. The cons of this method is that if you don’t cut the circles well on the first go, you have to rework the dough again. Reworking this dough a lot can cause the muffins to become a bit denser as they lose some of their light airy pockets. The other method of forming by hand is to divide the dough into 12 parts, round them into a ball and slightly flatten them. The cons of this method, is that the muffins end up being a bit more doughy as there is a lot of working with the dough. Also, they might not be looking similar and you might have different height on each muffin.
Tips for a successful recipe
Try to cut as many rounds of dough when you open the dough and only rework it once. Pop the muffins in the oven to make sure that they are cooked through. Use a cast-iron or griddle, they are the best for cooking them! The longer you let the dough rest, the deeper their flavour is.
What to serve them with?
As these English muffins are considered a breakfast food, you can serve any other breakfast food with them. Open the muffins in half, toast and spread the warm bread with butter or jam, or both together! Nut and chocolate spreads work also so well on these muffins. Or else you can serve up poached eggs on top, to make Egg Benedict. They can be also served as a sandwich, filled with eggs, bacon, sausage patties and your favourite veggies!
Can I make this English muffin recipe ahead of time?
Yes, you can easily bake these English muffins in advance. When ready to use, simply toast them and serve. You can also prepare the dough the night before you need them, and let them slow cold proof in the fridge overnight. When ready to cook, bring them to room temperature for about 1 hour and cook as instructed.
How to store English muffins
This bread is quite delicate, so I recommend that you store this bread in an airtight container for up to 3 days outside, and 5 days in the fridge. Store in the freezer for up to 3 months. When ready to use, thaw them completely and toast slightly before serving.
English Muffins
Ingredients
- 450 g strong bread flour
- 7 g active dry yeast
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 50 g butter softened
- 300 ml milk lukewarm
- semolina or corneal for dusting
Instructions
- In a small bowl mix together the lukewarm milk, yeast and sugar. Set the mixture aside until it froths. This usually takes about 15 minutes.
- In a mixer or in a large bowl, mix the flours and salt together and make a well. Add the butter and the yeast mixture in the well.
- Start kneading or mixing the dough in the mixer. Knead for a few minutes until a smooth dough is formed.
- Place the dough in a bowl, cover and let it proof for about 1 hour until it double in size.
- Prepare a baking tray and sprinkle semolina/cornmeal over it. Set aside.
- Gently flour your working surface and open the dough to about 2cm thickness.
- With an 8cm cookie cutter cut about 12 rounds. Re-work the leftover dough only once as the dough will get tougher.
- Place the cut rounds on the prepared baking tray and sprinkle on top more semolina/cornmeal. Cover and let them rest for another hour.
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF). Line another baking tray with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Over medium heat, place a cast iron or griddle and let it warm up. Place as many muffins as you can and cook for about 2 minutes on each side until they have a nice golden brown colour.
- Place the muffins on a baking tray and finish the cooking in the oven. Bake them for about 5/6 minutes. Keep an eye on them so that they don’t brown too much.
- Remove the muffins and place on a cooling rack. Serve as desidered!
If you have any questions, feedback or comments on this recipe, please leave a comment below. Please also rate this recipe by double clicking on the stars below. If you did make this recipe, tag @apronandwhisk and hashtag #apronandwhisk, as I’m curious to see what you create!
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I have a ribbed gridle pan, will this do?
isabella
I would say it depends on how it’s ribbed. If the spaces are narrow and shallow, it would work. However, if the pan has deep and spaced out spaces, the dough might stick and the muffin might break. A normal non stick pan works pretty well. However, the ribbed griddle pan works great when toasting the buns!