English Muffins

Little-known fact (at least to me...), but the 'muffin man' in the nursery rhyme refers to a purveyor of English muffins rather than the heavier variety of muffins widely made today at places like Tim Hortons.  Back in the early 19th-century, the muffin man was a common sight.  It would seem that everyone knew the muffin man in Jane Austen's England.  I came across a recipe for Homemade English muffins on Michael Ruhlman's blog recently that I decided to have a go at.  Below is the play-by-play from our home English muffin factory.

Homemade English Muffins

(from Ruhlman.com)

60g unsalted butter

1 tbsp sugar

450g milk

7-8g dry active yeast

1 large egg

450g all-purpose flour

7g salt

2 tsp baking powder dissolved in 1 tbsp water

cornmeal (for dusting

Step 1:  Dissolve the sugar and butter in a small saucepan.  Easy enough.

Step 2:  Add the milk and stir it into the sugar/butter mixture.  I left it on the stove until the milk warmed up slightly (lukewarm) and then removed the saucepan from the element.

Step 3:  Stir in the yeast and the egg.  Done.  It doesn't dissolve completely, but seems fine.

Step 4:  Mix the flour and salt in a medium-to-large size mixing bowl.

Step 5:  Add the milk mixture and stir until well combined.  This is before stirring ...

Step 5 (cont.):  ... and this is after stirring.  Exciting stuff.

Step 6:  Cover and let it sit for 1-1.5 hrs.  After 90 minutes the dough should have almost doubled in size.  Immediately before cooking, stir in the baking powder dissolved in water.  The dough will collapse (not a problem).  The picture below is after stirring.

Step 7:  Heat a medium cast-iron skillet on medium to medium-low heat, dust with cornmeal, and scoop 1/4-1/2 cup portions of dough onto the skillet.   You can use a round 3" english muffin form to set the initial shape (we used a biscuit cutter as a substitute).  Cook for 14-20 minutes.  The main problem we had was that we had to flip them frequently to keep the crusts from burning (which happened quite fast in the skillet).   We ultimately went with skillet time of 12-15 minutes and finished the muffins with another 5-10 minutes in the oven at 425*F, which seemed to work well.

Step 8:  Muffins cooling.  

Step 9:  Eat toasted with butter, jam, the newspaper, slippers, a labrador retriever at your feet, a rainy day outside, etc.

Very pleased with the result.  Check out Michael's blog for more great recipes.