Monday, September 14, 2009

English Muffins



Yesterday I ambitiously set out to create the perfect loaf of ciabatta, foccacia, and batch of English muffins. The double flour/double hydration addition ciabatta came out hard as a rock and tasted terrible, the poolish for the foccacia is still sitting on my counter top, but the English muffins were so perfect it was worth the time wasted on the other two.

It was my first time making English muffins and I had been meaning to try this recipe for some time. Overall, it was pretty simple. The only trouble I had was moving the proofed muffins to the skillet. They stuck to the baking sheet even after the addition of corn meal so a few of them were not perfectly round. But who cares? They were still great!


English Muffins

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
4 cups bread flour
2 1/2 tsp instant yeast
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 small egg whites
fine cornmeal

In a large bowl pour in lukewarm ( 110F ) water. Add instant yeast, baking soda and 2 cups of bread flour. Mix till smooth. Allow to sit for 5 minutes uncovered. In the meantime, add egg white into a separate bowl and beat with an electric mixer. You want them to become stiff and moist. Once the egg white have formed stiff peaks; add to dough batter. Using a rubber spatula fold in egg whites till incorporated into the batter. Start to add in the rest of the flour, a 1/4 cup at a time. After the first 1/4 cup mix in salt. When the mixture becomes to hard to mix in the bowl. Pour out onto a flat surface. Knead for about 5 to 6 minutes till it becomes smooth and silky. Add a little oil to a clean bowl and place the dough into the bowl. Turn dough over till all sides are very lightly coated. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest till double in bulk, about 1 hour. Afterwards, pour out onto a flat surface. Press to release some of the air from the dough. Using a rolling pin roll out to a 1/2 inch thick. Allow dough to rest for 3 minutes to relax. Using a 3 inch cookie cutter, cut out circles. Place the cut out pieces onto some cornmeal. When you have left over dough just gather together and cut out a few more circles. Sprinkle the tops with more cornmeal. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 45 minutes. About 5 minutes before you are ready to cook the english muffins turn on your griddle or fry pan to 350F or medium heat. Spray with a little oil spray and once the griddle is hot. Place the muffins on and fry. If you are using a fry pan you may only be able to fry 3-4 at a time. Fry on one side for about 4 minutes. Then turn over and fry for another 4 minutes. Do this once more to a total of 16 minutes.

14 comments:

NMOS said...

Those english muffins look delicious. There's nothing like having one of those for breakfast toasted with butter.

Simply Life said...

Making your own english muffins - impressive! They look great!

hearts81 said...

You know... I have never tried making my own English muffins... but the minute we get settled, I am just going to have to tackle it. Living in a hotel kind of gets you hooked on them!

Velva said...

Holy cow! I never thought to make a fresh homemade english muffins. Your english muffins are impressive!

Queen B. said...

I AM SO TOTALLY IMPRESSED !

Ozoz said...

Lovely looking.....Saw these in the UK....but nice. Welcome to the foodie blogroll www kitchenbutterfly com

Rhandi said...

Yum! I bake a lot and have never thought to make homemade english muffins, I am going to tackle these babies this week. Did you actually use bread flour or just all purpose? I think I will give it a whirl with all purpose. Thanks for the great idea!

Katy ~ said...

Followed you here from the Foodie Blogroll. I make an English Muffin bread, hae never tried to make them into actual muffins. Yours look positively fabulous!

ShellyH said...

Welcome to the foodie blog roll. Wow, making homemade English muffins is impressive!

Flavor Farm Girl said...

Rhandi, I used all purpose flour.

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!

chow and chatter said...

your English muffins look wonderful great job, we live and learn with cooking Rebecca

Unknown said...

Oh wow, I've never thought about making English muffins, but I can just imagine how delicious they would be, especially with some homemade apple butter.
Happy Twirls

Devon said...

This is perfect for impressing brunch guests.

Alisa said...

That looks good!I followed your blog from the foodieblogroll and I'd love to guide foodista readers to your site if you won't mind.Just add your choice of foodista widget to this post and it's all set, Thanks!-Alisa@Foodista