English Muffins

If you’re for a simple breakfast bread, these English muffins are exactly what your looking for – trust me.

You have ever had an English muffin? you are really missing out. They are the perfect alternative to using standard slices of bread, especially at breakfast time. Slice a English muffin in half and top it with sausage patty and an egg, you’ll have yourself a simple homemade McMuffin.

These English muffins are like crumpets in a way, by that I mean they are different looking and aren’t baked like a standard bread. Both crumpets and English muffins are made on a heated surface, such as a hot plate or a frying pan on the hob. That’s how you get the texture which makes them special and different.

Once you make these, you can freeze them, wrap them well and the store in the freezer for up to 8 weeks – then you have them to hand, ready for when you need/want them.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

 

Ingredients:

450g Strong white bread flour.

5g Salt.

5g Granulated sugar.

15g Fresh yeast.

250ml Water.

125ml Natural yoghurt.

Semolina (optional).

 

Methods:

Before you get into the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep. Weigh up all of your ingredients, oil a mixing bowl, get yourself frying pan and some vegetable oil or other flavourless oil into a small bowl.

Into a large mixing bowl, place in the flour and salt, then give a brief mix just to incorporate the two.

 

Then you can go ahead and add in the granulated sugar, fresh yeast, water and natural yoghurt into the bowl and mix on a low speed to start with for about 2 minutes, followed by a further 4 minutes on a higher speed.

Once the ingredients have fully mixed and a clear dough has formed, you can go ahead and flour your work surface with a small amount of bread flour.

Give the dough a brief knead, just until it’s smooth and elastic. You can then go ahead and proof the dough. Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave somewhere warm for about an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

When the dough has finished its first proof, you can knock it back. This is simply the process of removing the gasses that built up in the dough while it was proofing, showing that the yeast was active and working. To knock the dough back, add a small amount of bread flour onto your work surface and then place the dough on top and press on the dough to remove the gasses.

Bring the dough back into a ball shape and grab yourself a rolling pin and roll it out until its 2cm thick, then take a plain edge cookie cutter which is 3 inches and cut out as many as you can from the first roll. Much like with other doughs, the first roll will yield the best results and I only recommend rolling it out one more time, so two times in total, otherwise the dough becomes overworked and the end result isn’t very nice.

Take a parchment lined baking tray and scatter over a small amount of bread flour, then place the dough cut outs onto the tray, giving them space as they will rise. Cover loosely with clingfilm and place somewhere warm and allow to proof for a second time, this timer about 45 minutes or until hey have risen well.

Once you can see that the dough has proofed well, you can then prepare the cooking element. Place a frying pan on the hob over a medium-high heat and brush over with the vegetable oil/flavourless oil. You will need to brush the pan over with oil before you add each batch of muffins – this helps to give the muffins the iconic look.

Now you can transfer 2-3 muffins into the pan and cook on each side for 7-8 minuets, they should be golden brown and on either side. Cook the remaining muffins in this way.

Once they are all cooked, you’re good to enjoy them. Toast them and enjoy them with some salted butter or you could make yourself a breakfast sandwich, similar to a McMuffin.

That’s all for today guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back soon with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my other social’s – Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. The YouTube tutorial will be linked down below.