English muffins
English muffins are not baked in an oven but cooked on a dry cast iron griddle — which is why they have flat tops and bottoms. The famous holes inside come from a very slack, sticky dough you must not add flour to.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Kneading 12 min
- First rise 90 min
- Shaping the rounds 15 min
- Proving 30 min
- Cooking on the griddle 35 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneKnead a slack dough
Mix the flour, yeast, sugar and salt, add the warm milk and egg. Knead in a mixer for 8 minutes, then add the butter and knead another 4 minutes. The dough should be sticky and glossy, barely leaving the sides of the bowl.
Ingredients: 450 g bread flour · 300 ml milk · 7 g dried yeast · 15 g sugar · 9 g salt · 30 g butter · 1 pcs egg
TipDo not add flour, however sticky your hands get. A slack dough is what creates the holes.
The dough should trail off the hook, not gather into a firm ball.Let it rise
Transfer to an oiled bowl, cover and leave somewhere warm for 90 minutes until doubled. The dough will be soft and full of bubbles — do not knock it back hard, those bubbles become the holes.
Ingredients: 450 g bread flour · 300 ml milk · 7 g dried yeast · 15 g sugar · 9 g salt · 30 g butter · 1 pcs egg
Shape the rounds
Tip the dough onto a surface dusted with semolina, gently press to 2 cm thick and cut rounds 8–9 cm across. Fold the scraps once and cut again. Dust the rounds with semolina on both sides.
Ingredients: 60 g semolina
TipSemolina instead of flour — it gives that characteristic slightly sandy crust.
2 cm thick — they rise further on the griddle.Prove them
Lay the rounds on a semolina-dusted tray, cover with a cloth and leave for 30 minutes. They should visibly puff and spring back from a light finger press.
Ingredients: 450 g bread flour · 300 ml milk · 7 g dried yeast · 15 g sugar · 9 g salt · 30 g butter · 1 pcs egg
Cook on a dry griddle
Heat a cast iron pan over low heat — no fat. Cook the muffins in batches of 4–5 for 7–8 minutes per side until golden and dry to the touch on the sides. The centre cooks slowly, so high heat only burns the crust. Two batches take about 35 minutes in total — keep the second somewhere cooler meanwhile so it does not overprove.
Ingredients: 450 g bread flour · 300 ml milk · 7 g dried yeast · 15 g sugar · 9 g salt · 30 g butter · 1 pcs egg
TipCheck with a thermometer: about 95°C in the middle. Lifted too early, a muffin is raw at the core.
Low heat and patience — this is not a pancake.Split with a fork
Cool on a rack. To eat, do not cut with a knife — prick around the circumference with a fork and pull apart. Only then do you see and use all the nooks.
Ingredients: 450 g bread flour · 300 ml milk · 7 g dried yeast · 15 g sugar · 9 g salt · 30 g butter · 1 pcs egg
Before you start
Overnight rise
After kneading, chill the dough overnight. Shape in the morning and prove for about 60 minutes in the warm — cold dough rises more slowly, and the flavour is deeper.
Instead of semolina
Cornmeal (polenta) works just as well. Plain flour scorches more easily on the griddle.
Freezing
Split cooled muffins in half and freeze. Drop them straight into the toaster from frozen — no need to thaw.
