English Muffins

This recipe comes from King Arthur Flour. Thomas brand english muffins taste acrid next to these. These are pillowy soft, and have none of the bitterness or sourness of shelf-stable muffs.

Even though the ingredient list is short, this is an involved recipe. You need a stand mixer, and I wouldn’t recommend it if you haven’t tried yeast-risen breads before. The dough feels like a baby’s butt, and it needs to be handled like one: very gently.

If you’ve tried a few yeast breads and are ready for the best English muffins ever to grace your breakfast plate, give these a go.

English Muffin success guide:

I’ve never tried this with just AP flour, as the muffins may lose some of their stretchy, chewy softness. If you can’t find bread flour, King Arthur is the best AP for this due to the higher protein content

When the dough has risen, form the dough balls with a gentle touch to prevent deflating them

Serving Suggestions:

English Muffin + Butter
English Muffin + Butter + Bonne Maman Jam
English Muffin + Bacon
English Muffin + Bacon and Egg

Ingredients

Special Equipment needed: Stand Mixer

1 3/4 cups (397g) lukewarm milk
3 tablespoons melted butter
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
3 tablespoons (25g) sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
4.5 cups (539g) bread flour, or 4.5 cups AP flour + 2 tbs vital wheat gluten
2 teaspoons instant yeast
Cornmeal, for dusting the tops and bottoms

Instructions

Combine all of the ingredients except cornmeal in stand mixer mixing bowl
Beat the dough with paddle attachment for 5 minutes at medium-high speed. When it starts pulling away from the sides, it’s ready.
Using a rubber spatula, scrape the dough off the sides and paddle into a neat ball. Cover with plastic wrap, and let the dough rise for 1 hour, or until doubled.
Take out your griddle or frying pans. If you don’t have a griddle, use two frying pans and do this in batches.
On a large well-floured cutting board, divide dough into 16 pieces. Handle the dough gently, try not to deflate it. Roll each piece in a ball, flatten, and generously dust the tops and bottoms with cornmeal. Place the dough balls onto your griddle or pan (cold), and extra muffins that won’t fit onto a large cookie sheet.
Preheat your oven to 350F
Let the dough balls rise for 20 minutes. Turn the griddle heat to medium, and cook until bottoms are golden brown. Flip and cook until the other side is golden brown. Once done, place the toasted muffins on the cookie sheet, and repeat with the remaining muffins.
After remaining muffins are toasted, bake all at once on cookie sheet for 10 minutes.