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English Muffins

"Werner Gansz" <wwgansz@madriver.com>
Wed, 3 Dec 2008 13:13:52 -0500
v108.n044.4
For most folks who grew up in the US, the gold standard for english 
muffins are the Thomas(r) brand, famous for their "nooks and 
crannies" that hold the melted butter when fork-split and toasted.  I 
have no idea if they are similar to English english muffins but for 
many years they were almost the only english muffin you could get in 
US supermarkets.  I have been trying to achieve a good home-baked 
version for many years without success.  Most often the interior is 
too cake-like, or even bread-like, and often has an undercooked 
interior.  Most recipes call for a moderately wet dough, dry fried on 
a skillet or griddle.  The recipe and procedure below finally 
achieved both the "nooks and crannies" and a fully baked interior. 
Fork-split, toasted, and buttered they are delicious.

The basic recipe is adapted from _The Wooden Spoon Bread Book_ by 
Marilyn M. Moore.  She has both an english muffin recipe and a 
crumpet recipe.  I tried both and each had problems.  The muffin 
recipe had the wrong texture (cake-like) and the crumpet procedure 
didn't fully bake the interior.  The solution to the under-baking 
came from Peter Reinhart's _Bread Bakers Apprentice_; use the oven to 
finish baking.  The solution to the texture problem is to use the 
very wet dough in Moore's crumpet recipe.

Many bakers make a sandwich bread in loaf pans using english muffin 
dough. I think this recipe is too wet for loaf pan baking.  It is 
almost 1:1 liquid to flour by volume!  That's more than 100% 
hydration by weight and is more like a pancake batter than a dough.


Makes 10 to 12 English Muffins

2 1/2 cups milk, reconstituted from dry powder or scalded and cooled to 110 F
1 Tb melted butter
1 tsp sugar, honey or malt syrup (I use honey)
3 cups All Purpose Flour
1 tsp table salt or 1 1/2 tsp sea salt
1 scant Tb Instant Yeast (scant means slightly below the rim)
Regular PAM and either semolina or corn meal for baking

Mix the milk, (warmed slightly to help dissolve the honey/sugar), 
sweetener, and melted butter.  Mix the flour, salt and yeast.  Add 
the liquid to the dry ingredients.  If you don't use a machine, don't 
even try to knead the batter, it's hopeless, just mix until 
smooth.  If you have a machine, use the flat beater and mix on speed 
4 for at least 15 minutes.  Kneading will create a gluten structure 
that traps the bubbles and develops better nooks and crannies.  Pour 
the batter into a bowl large enough to allow for doubling (if the 
batter overflows it will be a mess; too big is better than too 
small), cover and let stand for 45 min to 1 hour or until doubled.

Meanwhile, place a cookie sheet in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 F.

The procedure below assumes the use of standard muffin rings, 1" high 
x 3 3/4" dia.  If you make your own rings from tin cans, you will 
have to adjust the quantities.  Whatever you use should be no more 
than 1" high.

Use PAM to grease the inside of the rings.  Spread the PAM evenly 
around the rings with your fingers.  Stir the batter down 
vigorously.  Let stand while you preheat the griddle (at least 10 to 
15 minutes to get the bubbles in the batter forming again and to 
stabilize the temperature of the griddle).

I used a two-burner griddle which easily handles 6 rings with space 
between them.  Preheat the griddle to "very low" with the greased 
rings in place. How low?   Much lower than for pancakes.   It should 
take at least 10 minutes per side to brown the muffins.  You are 
trying to balance browning the bottoms with allowing enough time for 
bubbles to rise to the top through the wet dough.  In a perfect world 
the bottoms will be brown at the same time the tops just start to 
lose their shininess but are still soft when you flip them.  Even if 
you have a large griddle, practice with one or two rings first.

Spray the griddle inside the rings lightly with PAM and sprinkle with 
some semolina or corn meal.  Measure out 1/2 cup of batter, not 
overflowing, and pour it into a ring.  (I use a plastic 1/2 cup dry 
measure.)  It should fill to about 2/3 full.   During baking the 
dough should rise just to the top of the 1" ring.  Use a metal 
spatula to peek under the muffins and check for browning.  The heat 
is right when the bottom is brown and top is just starting to set 
(lose its glisten).  Flip the muffins and brown the tops (about 8 to 
10 minutes).  If the tops were still soft enough the holes on the top 
surface should seal and you get that classic Thomas' look on the 
top.  Use metal tongs to remove the rings, clean off stuck dough and 
then re-grease them with PAM for the next batch.

When the muffins are browned on both sides they will still be raw 
inside. Remove them and quickly put them on the cookie sheet in the 
oven.  If they don't all brown at the same rate on the griddle, don't 
wait for them all to get done.  They can't be allowed to cool down, 
get them into the oven immediately as they are browned.  Start the 
next batch of muffins on the griddle.  After 10 minutes, test the 
muffins in the oven, the centers should be 200 F.

English muffins freeze well.  Wrap tightly in Al foil, then put them 
into a freezer bag.  Thaw in a toaster oven with the Al foil still on.