On a Sunday a few weeks ago, I got to making these homemade english muffins. It has been on my mind for a while to make homemade english muffin bread or muffins and it was earlier on a Sunday. I had time to make the dough, let it rise, form the shapes, let it rest, then cook them, in time for a late Sunday brunch. And I have to tell you, IT WAS WORTH THE EFFORT AND THE WAIT! Never again will I be able to buy english muffins at the store……….they are flat, lack a lot of body and flavor, when you split them in half there is barely anything to bite into. You can make these ahead, put them in the freezer and pull one or two out as needed for a completely freshly baked and then toasted PROPER english muffin every time.
I have The Fanny Farmer Cookbook that my mom gave me right before I got married (>20 years ago!) and I still reference it regularly for traditional recipes such as this one.
As I type this, I have made a second batch, this time modifying the original recipe to add cinnamon and raisins.
The aroma wafting through the kitchen is amazing.
But here I feature the original recipe……
making sure dough is rising 
more than doubled in size! 
letting rest before cooking
letting them cool 
up close to capture the crust 
fork-split to divide in half
I have fork-split, toasted and lightly buttered the english muffin, and heated up some of this breakfast frittata that I had made the day before.
SOOOOOO GOOOOOD!
And just for fun, I was experimenting with adding a video to my blog as I tasted these for the first time! Enjoy…got to laugh at yourself.
- ½ cup warm water
- 1 pkg. dry yeast
- 1½ tsp. salt
- 1 TBSP sugar
- 1 cup warm milk
- 3½ cup all-purpose flour + more as needed
- 3 TBSP vegetable oil
- ½ cup cornmeal
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Pour the water into a large mixing bowl, sprinkle the yeast over, and stir. Let stand for 5 minutes to dissolve.
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Stir in the salt, sugar, warm milk, 2 cups of the flour, and the oil. Stir briskly with a spoon for a minute to mix well. Add remaining 1 cup flour and stir to blend smoothly. Dough should be soft and supple. If it is still sticky, add just a bit more flour at a time and work it in until it has just lost its tackiness…but is still very soft.
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Cover and let the double sit until doubled in size, ~1 hour.
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Flour work surface and your hands and turn the dough out. Knead three or four times. Pat and push the dough out so it is ~¼” thick. Using 3″ rings (or tuna cans with the bottom and top cut out) as a cutter, cut the dough out and place on a sheet that has been sprinkled with the cornmeal.
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Cover lightly with a towel or plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.
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Heat a griddle until medium hot and film it with grease. Grease the inside of the rings and place them on the griddle. Put the muffins in the rings and cook over low to medium heat for 10 minutes on one side, and then flip and cook another 5 minutes on the other side. Slide onto wire racks to cool.
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Split muffins with a fork and toast to serve. They get awesomely crunchy on the outside while warm and tender on the inside.
- cornmeal may be omitted, instead place cut out shapes on a baking sheet with parchment to rise to avoid sticking to the pan.
- if using cornmeal, you can use any variety, white or yellow, finely ground to coarsely ground
- the first time I used vegetable oil. for the cinnamon raisin version, I used grapeseed oil. you could use any type, except I would avoid olive oil because it has a lower smoking point and may taint the flavor of the english muffins. you want to use any type of flavorless oil that will not burn.
- cinnamon-raisin version: this was a trial and error batch, I used about 1 TBSP of cinnamon and 1 cup of raisins. the taste was good but next time I am going to add more cinnamon and definitely more raisins. it is purely subjective depending upon each person’s palate.
