Homemade English Muffins
20 minutes
7 muffins (probably would make 8 muffins, but I let my daughter play with the leftover dough)
Stove top, or electric frying pan or griddle
1lb of Light Whole Wheat, Boule, or any other dough from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (you can use any bread dough here, as well – I'm not affiliated with the Artisan people, I just like their stuff!) – just a note here – 1lb of dough is about a large softball size give or take
Flour to sprinkle the dough
Cornmeal to sprinkle the counter (about 1/2 cup)
For whatever kind of dough you are using (Artisan bread, pizza dough, bread dough), take the 'lump' of dough and sprinkle it with flour. Shape it into a ball by stretching the top around your fingertips so all the stretchy-ness bumps into each other on the bottom of the dough ball. Pat it slightly flat on the counter (which has been sprinkled with cornmeal).
Roll and/or pat out the dough until it is about 1/4 inch thick, or slightly more. Cut out whatever shape of English Muffin you like – the clean tuna can method works very well. If you are using the Artisan Bread, it is VERY sticky! Keep that in mind, and if the dough gets a little unruly, you made need to mix flour with the cornmeal to keep it from sticking.
Once you've cut out your english muffins, flip them over so the cornmeal coats the other side. Now, this is not what I did do to make my muffins, but what I will do next time: let the dough rest for about 10 to 20 minutes, mostly to give it a chance to warm up, but also to let the 'nooks and crannies' develop in the bread.
After the resting period, heat a dry griddle or non-stick frying pan to medium high heat (about 375* on an electric frying pan or griddle). Put as many on as you can fit and flip easily, and let the muffins cook for about 5 minutes per side. They should rise quite nicely on the griddle, and should be slightly browned on the underside when it is time to flip them. Flip them over, and cook for about 5 minutes on the other side. Take them off the heat, let them cool before you store them, and there you go! Cheap, easy english muffins. These are generally better if you toast them before you eat them, but my kids also like them plain with homemade jelly.
I had the “Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day” book sent over to me in the UK to give it a try…. I tried the mix three times and was totally disappointed every time! The mix just came out of the fridge like soup, and I ended up having to add tons of flour and kneading the heck out of it to resuscitate it!
But…. reading your post has convinced me to try it again. The more I think about it, I think the problem is probably the difference in flour we can buy here in the UK. UK grown flour is a lot lighter with less proteins – I’m going to head over to the posh supermarket and pick up some “Canadian Strong” flour – which (I think) is the same as the plain ol’ All Purpose flour I used to use in Canada. Wish me luck 🙂
Hi Jennifer – good luck! I’ve had to tweak the recipe a little bit too. Check out the website – there are a whole bunch of corrections and mixing tips on there. Have you tried baking the ‘soup’ :)? I poured mine into a bread pan, and it still turned out.
Give it another try! It’s so different from other breads that there’s a bit of a learning curve involved with it.
Thanks for visiting!
Megan