English Muffins from Sarabeth's -

English Muffins from Sarabeth's

Fantastic English muffins, quite amenable to modifications. There's very little hands-on work involved. I usually make these the night before I plan to eat them.

Prep Time20

Cook Time30

Resting/Raising time8

Total Time8 50

Course: Bread

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Ingredients

1 cup whole milk*
¾+¼ cup water* divided
2 ½ tablespoon butter cut into small cubes
2 tablespoon cane sugar
1 teaspoon sea salt
3 ½ teaspoon activated dry yeast
1 egg beaten*
2½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour*
1⅓ cuprs whole wheat flour
butter for pan
½ cup cornmeal or semolina flour

Instructions

Dough

Bring milk, ¾ cup water, cubed butter, sugar, and salt to a simmer in heavy-bottomed saucepan, stirring frequently to avoid scorching the milk.
Transfer immediately to the metal bowl of a stand mixer, and cool to room temperature (30-45 minutes).
Once cooled, in a separate bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the remaining ¼ cup of (lukewarm) water (105-110 F). Let stand for five minutes. Stir to combine the yeast and water, then add to the milk mixture.
Add egg. Using the paddle attachment, beat on low to combine.
Gradually add the flour at low speed, scraping the bowl sides to incorporate all the flour.
Once a sticky dough forms, increase to high speed and beat for 30 seconds.
Replace the paddle with the dough hook attachment (or use your hands) to knead for 8-10 minutes.
Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 (minimum) to 8 (~max) hours.

Forming English muffins

After the refrigerator rise, take the dough out and form into 12 evenly-sized balls. To help with perfectly sized rounds, I let these dough balls complete their rise in muffin tins coated with butter or spray as well as a light dusting of cornmeal. You could easily just place them on a similarly-prepared sheet pan for the rise if you prefer.
Heat your oven to 200 F, then turn it off.
Fill a 16-oz glass with hot water, and place in the oven (balanced via a baking sheet or other pan) to create a humid environment.
Put your dough-containing muffin tins in the oven.
Let the dough rise about 40 minutes.

Pan-searing

Heat a cast-iron or other skillet over medium-low heat. Melt 1 tablespoon butter (or use a neutral oil if you prefer) into pan and swirl to coat surface. Sprinkle a light dusting of cornmeal over the butter (not strictly necessary, but gives the classic English muffin coating).
Arrange 5-6 dough balls with 1 inch in between them in the pan.
Cook for 8 minutes, then flip each ball, add another 1 teaspoon butter to the pan, and continuing frying another 8 minutes or until just cooked through. (If you find your muffins are burning on the outside, turn the heat down and extend the cooking time somewhat).
Let rest 15 minutes to finish cooking through.
Rejoice, split with a fork and eat!

Notes

The following are some potential adaptions (I've tried all of them!):

Honey instead of white sugar.
For the butter intolerant, ½ tablespoon bacon fat & 2 tablespoon solid shortening
Instead of the milk & water, 1 ¾ cups buttermilk & only ¼ cup water (for blooming the yeast)
Nonfat milk instead of whole milk
50g Greek yogurt (nonfat) instead of egg
If you prefer white flour only, replace the white and whole wheat flour with the 4 cups (540 grams) flour. Feel free to substitute the whole wheat with yellow cornmeal or a mix of whole grain flours.

Instead of pan-frying, you could bake these, but they won't be quite as amazing (says myself and Caleb).

Baking:
Take muffin tins and water glass out, then pre-heat the oven to 350 while the muffins continute to rise at room temperature. Once the oven is pre-heated (and your dough has doubled in size), bake for 25 minutes, rotating midway through cooking. Remove and let the english muffins cool on a rack for 5 minutes. Remove them from the muffin tins (otherwise they'll start to steam). Split with a fork and eat!