- 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.