English Muffins!

I finished the Hillside Houses quilt top this morning. What began as a sunny day turned into a chilly gray with a sprinkle now and then. So I decided to warm the house up and celebrate my finish with a batch of English muffins.

English muffins are easy to make, as yeast breads go. They don’t require a long rising time, so they’re relatively quick to make. And they use ingredients that you probably have on hand, so you can decide to make them at 1:00, and taste one hot out of the oven at 2:45.

A couple of tips—I use canned milk for these. I keep canned, evaporated milk on hand for cooking. The recipe calls for a 1 3/4 cups of milk; I use a 12 ounce can of evaporated milk and add enough water to make up the difference. I have not tried this recipe with evaporated skim milk. To maximize the rise of your muffins, push straight down with your biscuit cutter—don’t twist. I don’t know why this works, but it does. Works for biscuits, too. This recipe makes a fantastic burger bun if you cut your muffins larger. I always make at least two burger buns out of every batch. If you make all 3” muffins (give or take) you should get at a yield of at least 15.

The muffins are baked on a dry griddle first, to force a high rise. Your muffins should double in height on the skillet.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 C milk

3T butter

1 large egg, beaten

4 1/2 C all purpose flour plus a bit for dusting your rolling surface

1T sugar

1 1/4 t salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast, or 1 packet

Cornmeal for dusting

Heat milk and butter in a saucepan on low heat until butter melts, but don’t boil! Stir in egg until well incorporated. Stir milk mixture into dry ingredients, and beat until it comes together as a soft dough that’s a little sticky, but not terribly hard to handle. If your dough is very sticky, beat in an additional 1-2 T of flour. Knead for 2 minutes on a lightly floured surface until the dough is smooth and velvety. Pat or roll into a slab 3/4” thick. Cut with a 3” or 4” biscuit cutter. Reroll the scraps. Lay the cut muffins on a baking sheet that you dusted with cornmeal. Flip them over to dust the other side, as well. Cover with a cloth and let the muffins rest for 30-45 minutes in a warm place. They won’t rise much at all, but you will see that they’ve puffed a little bit. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Heat a dry griddle to 300 degrees, about the same temperature as you’d use for pancakes. Carefully transfer the muffins to the griddle. Cook for about 4-5 minutes. You’ll see the muffins rise dramatically. When the bottoms are golden brown, turn the muffins over and cook the other side the same way. When the second side is nicely browned, transfer the muffins back to the baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. When done, the interior temperature will read 195 degrees. Yields fifteen 3 1/2 inch English muffins.