Of all the edible things I am pining for at breakfast from the US (short list: light organic soy milk, Go Lean cereal, sesame bagels, and 0% greek yogurt), English muffins still rank as number 1. I think I literally ate them close to every other day for almost a month straight. I like them mostly with natural peanut butter, eggs, or with mashed avocado and sea salt (ok, this last one is the Chileanized version, they love avocado on toast).
So I have been back now about 2. 5 weeks and Saturday, the craving started again. Damn! What to do, what to do. Okay, well since obviously I cannot buy them here, I accepted the only solution was to learn to make them. Get psyched Liz. “It’s only bread”, I thought. It should not be too hard…
Well it wasn’t hard. Time involving? Yes. However, I cranked out 20 in one shot with relatively little pain (and jammed to the groovy new Miguel Migs, Those Things Deluxe ( album in the process). It made me appreciate the time and technique involved in this bread that I normally would grab off the shelf. Another bonus: the taste was far superior to any of the commercial ones I have tried. The muffins got crunchy outside, spongy inside, beautiful when toasted and very balanced. Here’s the skinny on how to make your own English muffins. I opted for whole wheat to make them more nutritious. Now this weekend, I am gonna give them a real test run—see how they stand up with Eggs Benedict…and bloody marys of course!
Whole Wheat English Muffins (Makes 18-20)
¼ cup warm water (110 F)
1 tbsp dry yeast
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour, plus more as needed for dusting/kneading
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk (I used skim to cut down on calories but for a richer taste, go for whole)
3 tbsp canola oil (or butter)
1 tbsp melted honey (I am so not into refined sugar; if you are in pinch, sub the honey for sugar)
1 egg
Cornmeal as needed
Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water. Let stand for 10 minutes until foamy. Mean while, in a large bowl, mix flours and salt. In a separate bowl combine the honey, milk and oil. Stir in egg, blend, then add yeast mixture.
Add the liquid to half the dry mixture. Once incorporated, add rest of dry ingredients. The dough is slightly sticky and very soft. Turn out the dough on a floured surface and knead for a few minutes. I had to add several sprinklings of flour to get it to be pliable.
Put the dough in greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Set in warm place for an hour. When the dough has doubled in size, place on work surface with cornmeal. Roll out to ½-inch thick. Cut into 3-inch rounds (I used a glass that exact size although surely a cookie cutter would have been easier…). Reuse all the scraps—don’t dump a muffin, please! Cover the muffins with a towel and let rise another half hour.
To “bake”, here’s the cool part. On a griddle or couple fry pans, heat them over medium heat. Place the muffins in the hot pan/griddle and cook for 6 minutes on one side. The muffin will puff up and should be golden brown and crusty before flipping. Flip and cook for another five minutes. Remember—soft inside but not undercooked (gooey dough). At this point, they will look like the English muffins we all know. Test one if necessary. I found that they should be firm with some give to the touch and golden brown.
Let cool on rack. I split them in half and will keep a few in the frig for 3 days and freeze the rest. They keep up to three months and when toasting, go straight from freezer to toaster. It’s that easy!
