English Muffins
Wow! Straight from the oven these muffins have got to be one of the best things I have ever made! OMGosh! Totally amazing! 😀 You should must make these! Like right now!
The Muffin Recipe
This recipe uses straightforward ingredients, similar to breadmaking. Plain flour, yeast, sugar, salt, butter and milk. Obviously if you are vegan you can use plant based alternatives for the butter and milk – we used Vitalite for butter and Oatly Barista for the milk. The other ingredient which if you have or can get will make these almost perfect is polenta. This is only for dusting, so you can still make these muffins without it!
Light, fluffy, English breakfast muffins. Definitely worth it!
- 480 g plain flour
- 7 g dried yeast (approx 2 tsp)
- 20 g sugar (approx 4tsp)
- 7 g salt (approx 1tsp)
- 325 ml milk (we used Oatly Barista)
- 40 g butter (we used Vitalite)
- * polenta for dusting
- * butter for cooking
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Put the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl and mix to combine.
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Heat the milk to hand hot (we did this in the microwave) and add the butter. Stir to melt.
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Gradually add the liquid to the flour mix whilst mixing together (we used our hands). Continue until all the liquid is used. This may seem like a very sticky dough and you might think there is no way you can use that much liquid, but it will work!
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Tip the dough out (no flour required). Knead the dough – pull it, stretch it, fold it and repeat for 10 whole minutes. No cheating! The dough will get smoother and less sticky as you knead. Extra flour is not needed! Just keep moving the dough.
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Place the dough back in the bowl (wash if you want but it's fine as it is), cover with something like a flexible chopping board, a silicon sheet or a shower cap, then place a teatowel over the top. Leave for at least one hour. The dough will double in size. If your room is warm, this might only need the hour, otherwise up to 90 minutes is fine.
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Gently remove the dough and press (you can roll if you wish) until you have a large flat 1cm thick shape. Regularly pick the dough up as you go to ensure it doesn't stick to the work surface. Using a large (7-8cm) pastry cutter (round edge not fluted) cut as many rounds as possible. Re-press/re-roll the dough and repeat until all the dough is used. You should ahve about 14 circles.
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Polenta (cornmeal) is traditional for coating muffins, but flour will do (or cornflour). Put it on a plate or in a bowl, then place each muffin on it, flip over and remove. Place the muffins on a non stick tray with space to grow. Repeat until all the muffins are ready.
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Cover the muffins again (as before) and leave for a further hour.
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Heat a griddle pan or large shallow frying pan over a low heat. Melt a knob of butter in the pan and place as many muffins as will fit without touching. Leave for 4-5 minutes, then carefully flip over and cook for 1 minute less (3-4 minutes) on the other side. Remove and place on a baking tray to finish cooking. Place the tray in the oven Gas Mark 3 (325f / 160c) for 5-10 minutes. Repeat until they are all cooked.
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For the best taste – three things! Eat as soon as they come out of the oven. Pull them apart with your fingers rather than slicing with a knife. Add a bit of butter so it melts! Perfect!
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Obviously these can be eaten when cold but I would suggest reheating them either in a microwave for a few seconds, a dry frying pan, or a toaster.
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Enjoy!
What do I need?
Now, this is one recipe where I would try and stick to the ingredients and instructions as much as possible! If you are new to cooking or your kitchen needs a refresh, here are a few useful things for this recipe. We do receive a small commission if you click and purchase through these links.
How to serve your muffins
Hot! Well, warm! These deserve to be eaten as soon as they are ready! The smell will be so intoxicating you will just have to split one immediately and butter it (before it even reaches a plate)! So, just with butter is my favourite, but cheese works too, and marmite! Or, you could I guess go sweet and put jam on them! Peanut butter, beans, houmous even… just thinking out loud now!
Storing
We don’t actually think you will have many of these left to store, but just in case, they are fine just covered on the worktop! They can also be frozen if wrapped well, dated and labelled! Pop a couple in the freezer before you eat them all, for an instant delicious hot muffin any time you want!
Sharing
Errr, no! I would really not recommend sharing these at all! Honestly they are so good you will want to eat them all yourself! However, if you want to share so you have an excuse to make some more, go ahead! I’m going to virtually share these over at Angie’s Fiesta Friday co-hosted this week by Liz @ Spades, Spatulas and Spoons. If you’ve never been to the Fiesta, it’s a great place where everyone gets together and shares their food. There’s also other posts to see – maybe sewing ideas or home decorating tips. As always, there’s loads of friends old and new to meet! Come over and join the Fiesta!
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Speak soon
Laurena x