Who says bread has to take a lot of time and effort to make fresh? Nope. These Homemade English Muffins come together quickly and don’t even require an oven. And the taste? Hardly comparable to store-bought, in a good way!
English Muffins are delicious toasted, topped with butter and honey or butter and jam, and work fabulously for breakfast sandwiches, Mom’s McMuffin Style. I also like them toasted with peanut butter and jelly. Oh, yeah.
Homemade English Muffins
1½ tablespoons yeast
2 cups very warm water
½ cup butter, melted
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
5½ to 6 cups flour (white whole wheat, unbleached, or a combination of both)
cornmeal
In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the water. Add melted butter, salt, and sugar. Mix well. Stir in 3 cups of flour. Continue to stir in flour, ½ cup at a time, until a soft dough forms. Knead briefly on a floured surface. (No need to work the dough hard like bread dough. Just make sure it’s not sticky. It will be soft.)
Roll dough out to about ¼ inch thick. Cut into 4 inch rounds. (I use a large plastic cup.) Place rounds on a cornmeal sprinkled surface. Sprinkle additional cornmeal on top. Cover rounds with a towel and let rise 30 minutes. Cook on an ungreased, pre-heated skillet, about 7 minutes on each side.
Allow to cool. Split to toast. Makes about 15 muffins.
*** Don’t let the skillet get too hot. Muffins need to cook 7 minutes on each side so that they don’t end up doughy in the middle.
If I can make English Muffins, surely I can make bagels, right? Haven’t tried those yet…
What would you recommend if I did want to bake them instead of pan cook them? My husband will be so happy if I pull these off. Thanks!
Sorry, Kandi. Not a clue. I’ve never seen a recipe that bakes English Muffins. (Of course, I haven’t looked real hard because this method works beautifully for me.)
I’ve baked mine at 425 degrees for about 15-20 minutes. I’ve baked two different recipes and they both worked fine.
I’m going to try english muffins again. I always burn them or have the middle too doughy! How long and hot do you preheat your pan? Oh, and this is my favorite bagel recipe. Very easy and tasty! http://tammysrecipes.com/homemade_bagels. I make the cinnamon raisin ones.
I’ve had the doughy middle problem. I just popped the rest of the batch in the oven for a little bit to fix that without browning the outside too much. I’m going to try that bagel recipe, too…thanks!
I’ve baked mine at 425 degrees for about 15-20 minutes. I’ve baked two different recipes and they both worked fine.
I use my electric skillet, which heats up really fast. I make sure I set it at 300 or slightly lower. On a regular stovetop I’d probably stick with medium low. Can’t go wrong with Tammy’s Recipes. I’ll have to check that out!
I make English muffins about ever other week. (I use a slightly different recipe.) We only have 3 in our family (and 1 is a small toddler), so I put the extras in the freezer, pulling them out a half dozen at a time.
This is even easier if you let your bread machine do the work on the dough setting!
Will the bread machine dough this with these measurments? 6 cups sounds like a ton to me. I have never made dough that was more than 4 cups, and my machine goes for about 1:20. Would I need to adjust the time?
My bread machine jumped off the counter (truly) a couple years ago or I would definitely do that!
I just made bagels for the first time yesterday! They were very good. My one and only attempt at English muffins was a big flop, but I think I may be ready to try again. I had the doughy middle problem and grossed my family out.
The bagels were not as time consuming as I kind of expected, given the number of steps. I just finished one for breakfast! I love being able to make things myself, even if I don’t always choose to do it.
Maybe I’ll try bagels this weekend. Cinnamon raisin sound really good. Hmmm.
Yes, the doughy middle. I think the key is to not get the pan too hot, and leave them on there longer than you think you should.
These sound great, Amy! I actually bought 6 English muffin rings from King Arthur like a year ago to try their recipe and haven’t used them yet :/. Maybe I’ll try your recipe first and use one of the rings to cut them
. I think I’ll try a mix of all-purpose and multi-grain flour. Thanks!
And now I want some English muffin rings!
Love English Muffins but never thought about making my own. These sound wonderful and easy. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
I just made these today. They were delicious. We all loved them, my batch yielded 17 muffins, they turned out great.
Yay! So much fun when there’s a “thumbs up” all around.
I make English Muffins too (from a different recipe). There’s 5 of us and we go through them…especially when they’re still warm from cooking. I make a double recipe and then split them and freeze them. Then I can take out what I need and pop them right in the toaster, no need to thaw.
So smart to split them before you freeze them!
Ooh Amy,
I enjoy mine with cream cheese and jam. If you like PB & J I think you’d like them this way too.
I bet I would! And cream cheese was just 75 cents yesterday… Hmmm
I recently started having to eat dairy-free so I am just learning how to exchange dairy products (butter) for non-dairy. Do you think I could use oil instead of the butter?
Have you been able to use ghee? It has the milk solids removed from the butter.
I think you could. I’ve also subbed palm shortening for butter in some recipes. That works well.
Can I let this dough sit overnight in fridge (soaking)? My kids can only tolerate bread that I make if I do a soaked dough.
I’ve never soaked dough like that, so I’m not sure, but my friend JessieLeigh’s sourdough English muffins might be a good fit for you! http://www.parentingmiracles.net/2013/03/sourdough-english-muffins/