Sunday, March 21, 2010

English Muffins, At Last!

As promised, here is the recipe for English Muffins. It's from The New Betty Crocker Cookbook and while it's time-consuming, it's pretty easy to do.

Ingredients:
  • 2 cups warm milk
  • 1/4 cup butter, softened
  • 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
  • 4 1/2 tsp (2 packets) active dry yeast
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 5 cups all-purpose flour (plus a little more for kneading)
  • cornmeal
How it's Done:
  1. Proof your yeast. In your mixing bowl, combine warm milk, sugar, butter, and yeast. Let it sit, undisturbed, for ten minutes. It should double in volume. If it does, proceed. If it does not, throw it out and go get some fresh yeast.
  2. Stir in salt and flour.
  3. Knead 6 to 8 minutes until smooth and elastic.
  4. Coat with oil. Place in a large bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled in size, about 60 minutes.
  5. Punch down. Turn dough out onto a floured countertop. Cover it and let it rest 10 minutes.
  6. Roll to 1/2" thickness. Using a 4" biscuit cutter (or, ahem, the can that used to hold a whole lot of chickpeas, which you removed both ends from and washed), cut circles.
  7. Lightly moisten each side and dip both sides in cornmeal. Continue until all circles (you should end up with 12) are coated. Cover them and let them double in size in a warm place. This will take about 30 minutes.
  8. Now it's time to cook the muffins. On a dry griddle heated to 325 degrees (or medium), cook a few at a time, turning every 5 minutes, for about 30 minutes. Store the rest of the uncooked muffins in the fridge while you cook a batch.
  9. When you're ready to serve them, split them with a fork, not a knife. Fork-splitting gives them the nooks and crannies.
  10. Be prepared to never want Thomas's again...despite the long hours involved. Yum.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Singing Etta James...At lastttttt.....my love has come alongggggg...........

ARUNA said...

They look so great!!!

Andrea the Kitchen Witch said...

Hooray!! They turned out fantastic, simply beautiful! Can't wait to try these myself :)

Michelle said...

Andrea, I don't know where your cmment went on my southern cookin post...but I wanted to commisserate with you. I always feel bloated Sunday night. lol In May, I'll be focusing on Spa Cuisine, lightening up for the summer. SO no more bloat. Admittedly, though, it has been fun and delicious to live like Paula Deen for a month ;) And the English muffins..can't beat 'em. I may make them from scratch from now on.

Unknown said...

They look great, Michelle! I have a recipe for english muffins from Alton Brown that I keep saying I'm going to have to make...I've been saying it for over a year now, maybe it's time! :)

Alicia said...

What do you mean by "proof your yeast"? I would love to try these. We love english muffins.
Do they freeze well?

Michelle said...

Hi Alicia! Proofing your yeast means to make sure it's healthy and active before proceding with your recipe. To proof your yeast, simply combine the recipe's yeast, liquid, and sweetener, and allow it to sit undisturbed for about ten minutes. Make sure the liquid is the right temperature (generally 110 to 120 degrees)before adding the yeast. If your yeast is fresh and active, the mixture will become bubbly and approximately double in size in those ten minutes. If that happens, you can happily procede with your recipe. if not, you have dead yeast (it might have been too old, or just a bad batch) and you will have not wasted all your ingredients. Instead, you start over with fresh yeast. Proofing your yeast is just insurance for your recipe. Hope that helps!

Michelle said...

And to address your other question, abotu freezing. Yes, they freeze wonderfully! I suggest fork-splitting them before freezing, and wrapping each one individually. They taste perfect after freezing.

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