Homemade English Muffins

The British are coming! Well....sort of. Homemade English Muffins definitely arrived in our kitchen today though! Will finally decided he was feeling bold enough to make the English muffin recipe from Budget Bytes and I was going to assist. Well, then our internet died right when we were going to start making the muffins, so I revved up my phone and Will went upstairs to reboot the internet. By the time he had come back downstairs, I had already gotten the muffin dough in a ball and was ready to cover it for its first rise! Oopsies!

After letting the dough rise umpteen thousand times (with a few punches thrown in for good measure...and because the recipe said to do it), it was skillet time! I honestly was very skeptical of putting bread dough on a skillet. I have never heard of doing such a thing and I thought all bread belonged in an oven. I mean, you find breads in the baked goods section of the grocery store, usually implying the use of the inside of an oven. Just sayin'.

So on the skillet the first four muffins went, on medium-low heat. Beth of BB said it only took about seven minutes for each side of hers to brown. However, fifteen minutes later mine we still only turning golden. So I scavenged the comments section to discover the answer-just turn your stovetop up to medium and go! I followed that instruction and in no time, the little muffins started getting golden-brown at a much more acceptable pace. What I thought was going to take an hour, was done within thirty minutes, thank goodness!

After letting the first few cool, Will and I were like curious cats and we just had to know how they tasted. So I sliced one in half and stuck it in the toaster. Will precariously got it out (our tongs for the toaster broke a few weeks ago because someone was trying to use them for meat even though I got him REAL tongs for Christmas...ahem) and we buttered and jammed it. And to my utter disbelief, it actually tasted like an English muffin. And one that was better than what we usually get at Publix, to be precise. I was pretty damn surprised, even though all the steps had gone smoothly and looked like the pictures on BB. I just had no confidence in these little balls of dough because Will had been so hesitant to try the recipe because it looked complicated. But really, it's not hard, just involves a full day's devotion to wait all the rising times.

Anywho, it was me, not Will, who ended up making our little British delights, which turned out to be a delicious experiment. Cheers!

English Muffins (adapted from Budget Bytes; yields 1 dozen)
1 tsp active dry yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp butter
3 cups flour, divided
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup cornmeal
Non-stick cooking spray

In a small bowl combine yeast, sugar and 1/2 cup warm water. Stir to dissolve the sugar and yeast. Let sit for about 5 minutes or until foamy on top. While waiting for the yeast/sugar to foam, in a separate larger bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups of flour and the salt. Stir well to evenly distribute the salt. In a second small bowl, combine the milk and butter. Microwave the milk/butter for 30 seconds, stir and microwave again for 30 seconds. Stir the butter until it melts into the warm milk.

Pour the yeast mixture and the milk mixture in the large bowl with flour. Stir until it's combined into a pastry mix. Adding about 1/4 cup at a time, stir in more flour until the dough forms a soft, slightly sticky ball that pulls away from the bowl. Once the dough has reached that point, sprinkle a little bit of flour onto a clean surface and coat your hands in flour. Dump the soft ball of dough out of the bowl and knead it for about 5 minutes. Add as little flour as possible to the surface while kneading (too much flour will yield tough muffins). Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a bowl that has been coated with non-stick spray. Lightly spray the top of the dough and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until double in size (about 45 minutes-1 hour).

Punch the dough down, shape it into another ball, cover the bowl/dough and let rise a second time (another 45 minutes-1 hour). Punch the dough down again and turn it out onto a well floured countertop. Using a rolling pin, lightly roll the dough until it is about 3/4 inch thick. Using a cooking cutter or clean cup, cut the dough into circles. When you can't cut out any more circles, ball the remaining dough and roll it again so you can cut more and obtain as many muffins as possible. Place the cut dough circles onto a sheet pan that has been liberally covered in cornmeal. Sprinkle more cornmeal on top of the muffins, then cover loosely with a damp towel and let rise again until double in size (another 45 minutes-1 hour).

Heat a large skillet over medium to medium-low heat. Spray the pan with non-stick spray. Carefully transfer the fluffy risen muffins to the hot skillet with a spatula. Cook the muffins in the skillet until golden brown and crispy on each side and baked on the inside. It will probably take 7 minutes or more for each side, depending on the stovetop. Once complete, let muffins cool on a rack before slicing open, toasting, lathering in jam and enjoying!

Recipe: Budget Bytes: English Muffins