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Homemade English Muffins

August 25, 2009 by Nicole 72 Comments

Toasted English Muffin

Have you ever thought about making English Muffins from scratch?  If not, maybe you should!  They are surprisingly easy and lots of fun to make.  You might not know this, but English Muffins are baked on a griddle rather than in the oven.  Since I am somewhat obsessed with watching things bake and have a tendency to plant myself on the kitchen floor in front of the oven glass, I love that these get baked on a griddle where I can get up close and personal!

I’ve made english muffins several times over the years, but this is my first time using Peter Reinhart’s recipe.  Yes, this is another installment from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge and it’s another great one!  Although sourdough english muffins are my favorite, these plain white muffins were outstanding!  Like many of the bread formulas in the book, this one calls for buttermilk, and I think that’s what made them so great.

The dough is very basic: flour, salt, yeast, a bit of sugar and shortening, and buttermilk.  Just mix it up in a bowl and then knead it until soft and smooth, tacky but not sticky.  It’s very important that the dough is not too stiff.  This is my dough after kneading:

English Muffin Dough

And a little more than an hour later, it has risen nicely.

English Muffin Dough Risen

Next, I divided the dough into six equal pieces and shaped them like dinner rolls.  I was careful with dough, taking care not to completely deflate it as I was shaping the muffins.  I placed the balls of dough on sheet of parchment that had been sprinkled with cornmeal.  Then I sprinkled cornmeal over the top of the dough, too.

Balls of Dough for English Muffins

I covered them with plastic and let them double in size, which took about an hour.

English Muffins Risen

I’ve found that the easiest way to bake the muffins is on a big electric griddle.  The temperature is easily controlled and you can bake the whole batch at once.  If you don’t have an electric griddle, you can use a stove top griddle, or whatever frying pan you have handy.  Cast iron works really well.  I heated my electric griddle to 350 degrees and I also preheated the oven to 350 degrees in case the muffins needed to be finished in there for the last few minutes.

When I placed the muffins on the griddle, they spread out just a little bit.  This is what should happen if your dough is soft enough.

English Muffins on the Griddle

Next they started puffing up!  It really is a lot of fun to watch the transformation up close!

English Muffins Puffed Up

After about 7 minutes, the bottoms were nice and brown and it was time to flip them over.  This is when they really start to look like english muffins!

English Muffins Flipped

Close-Up on Griddle

After they had cooked for another 7 or 8 minutes, I quickly transferred them to a baking sheet and into the oven for about 5 minutes, just to ensure that the middle was completely baked through.

Don’t they look perfect?  The hardest part is allowing them to cool for 30 minutes!  But like all bread, this is a crucial stage in the process.  The bread just isn’t finished until it has cooled a bit.

English Muffins Cooling on Rack

But I didnt wait too long!  The muffin was still slightly warm when I split it with a fork, buttered it, and topped it with blackberry jam.  Delicious!

Untoasted English Muffin with Butter and Blackberry Jam

But my favorite way to eat an english muffin is toasted with nothing but a little bit of butter (ok, maybe a lot of butter).

English Muffin Bite

Important:  Put those knives down!  English muffins should always be split with a fork if you want the signature nooks and crannies.  Push the fork into the side of the muffin, working your way around until it has been punctured all the way around.  Then gently pull it apart.

The recipe for these english muffins can be found on page 157 of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  If you don’t yet own the book, there are several wonderful English Muffin recipes floating around the internet.  I’ll link to some of  them at the bottom of this page.

But first, here are some English Muffins from other BBA Challenge Members:

  • English Muffins from Ährelich Gesagt
  • English Muffins from Susie’s Home and Hobbies
  • English Muffins from Two Skinny Jenkins
  • English Muffins from The Other Side of Fifty
  • English Muffin Loaf from I Can Do That
  • English Muffins from Big Black Dog
  • English Muffins from Bewitching Kitchen
  • English Muffin Loaf from The Yumarama Bread Blog
  • English Muffins from Of Cabbages and King Cakes
  • English Muffins from Round the Table
  • English Muffins from Joelen’s Culinary Adventures
  • English Muffins from My Hawaiian Home

Thank you Mr. Reinhart for yet another wonderful bread!  And thank you everyone who is participating in The BBA Challenge with me, it’s been so much fun so far and we have many wonderful breads still to come!

The next bread in the book is Focaccia and I’ll let you in on a little secret:  I made the Focaccia last week and it is my new favorite bread from the book!  Simply amazing.  I’ll be sharing it with you soon!

Want to Join The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge?

There are several ways for you to join in the fun!  First of all, you need a copy of Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  Read the first section of the book carefully, as this will prepare you for the bread recipes in the second section of the book.  Then just jump in and bake some Anadama Bread, which is the first recipe in the book.  But first, please visit The BBA Challenge Page for more details on how to participate in the group!

If you haven’t already, you might want to bookmark the BBA Challenge Page.  From there you can see which breads are coming up soon, find answers to Frequently Asked Questions, visit and/or add yourself to our World Map, see the BBA Challenge Blogroll, and check out the continually updated slideshow of BBA Bread photos from our ever-expanding group of bakers!

English Muffin Recipes from Around the Web:

  • English Muffins from Baking Bites
  • Sourdough English Muffins from Wild Yeast

Filed Under: BBA Challenge Tagged With: BBA, BBA Challenge, bread, Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge, peter reinhart

Previous Post: « Peter Reinhart on Bread
Next Post: Wordless Wednesday: Piazza del Duomo in Catania, Sicily »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Ashley says

    August 25, 2009 at 4:31 pm

    Wow!! Those look amazing! I absolutely adore English Muffins and these homemade ones look a whole ton of a lot better than any store bought ones. I will definitely have to try these sometime this week! Can't wait.
    Reply
  2. Kary Gonyer says

    August 25, 2009 at 4:59 pm

    Nicole....these look so beautiful. I too love the butter and blackberry jam. Perfect! I have a poolish in the fridge....and I can't wait to try these english muffins this week. And I am LOVING the BBA book, but I have to tell you something funny, I snuck downstairs the other night to get a tiny ( yeah, right) bowl of ice cream..and caught my husband reading the book. Caught. Red Handed ! Now we are both into it...thanks for the fun..looking forward to fall and holiday baking .... Kary
    Reply
  3. Conor @ HoldtheBeef says

    August 25, 2009 at 5:18 pm

    Oh they look beautiful! Not sure I'll be following in your footsteps, but I can admire your work nonetheless ;)
    Reply
  4. Exena says

    August 25, 2009 at 6:47 pm

    Those look SO delicious!
    Reply
  5. Vanessa says

    August 25, 2009 at 6:48 pm

    These look delicious! I have a list of recipes from the sites I visit that I want to try this week and these are DEFINATELY one of them! Yum!
    Reply
  6. Michelle {Brown Eyed Baker} says

    August 25, 2009 at 7:13 pm

    These are TOTALLY the most perfect English muffins I have ever seen! They are gorgeous! Great job with the recipe and the photos!
    Reply
  7. Rebecca says

    August 25, 2009 at 7:42 pm

    Yum!!! These look amazing! I can't wait to make them.
    Reply
  8. Tamara says

    August 26, 2009 at 5:07 am

    I just have breakfast, but you've made my mouth water again :D I tried making English muffins once, but the recipe didn't call for rising (it was more of a biscuit base) and they came out very tough. I'm going to search for your method and try again!
    Reply
  9. Ben says

    August 26, 2009 at 5:11 am

    I've thought about making English muffins many times, but I have never made them... yet. They look so easy to make that I really don't have an excuse to procrastinate any longer :D
    Reply
  10. Annie says

    August 26, 2009 at 5:23 am

    Wow... I love this recipe, Thanks for the wonderful recipe and photos!!!
    Reply
  11. Jodi says

    August 26, 2009 at 5:30 am

    Once again your pictures make me crave to make the them right away!!! They look so good, especially the butter and jelly one.
    Reply
  12. Cindy says

    August 26, 2009 at 6:44 am

    Nicole, your nooks and crannies are the envy of all the BBA bloggers! After reading your post I realized where I went wrong. Too much flour and not careful enough with the handling. Oh well, mistakes are how we learn. After seeing your electric griddle I am tempted to get one. This is an expensive challenge!
    Reply
  13. Wendy says

    August 26, 2009 at 7:26 am

    Wow! It looks so easy! I thought I could wait for Christmas to ask for the book from Santa, but I may just have to go out and purchase it myself. Thanks for the inspiration!
    Reply
  14. Cate O'Malley says

    August 26, 2009 at 8:41 am

    Mmm, all those glorious nooks and crannies ... the muffins look stunning!
    Reply
  15. Valérie says

    August 26, 2009 at 9:55 am

    I'd heard of the "fork-splitting" rule once on a TV sitcom ("Everybody Loves Raymond"), but I assumed they'd made it up. I learnt something today! English muffins have such a distinctive taste and texture, I love them with poached eggs! I've never made them myself, buuuut... I got the BBA for my birthday today! The world is mine to conquer! Well, the world of bread, at any rate.
    Reply
  16. Eric Green says

    August 26, 2009 at 10:51 am

    OMG! These look sooo good! I follow you on Twitter via @LoveMyPhilly and have seen your tasty recipes but these are phenomenal! I may even try these (with some Cream Cheese of course lol) These pics are phenomenal!
    Reply
  17. nicole says

    August 26, 2009 at 12:56 pm

    I cannot WAIT to try these! They look amazing. Thank you!
    Reply
  18. Gail says

    August 26, 2009 at 1:41 pm

    what a mouth watering picture! You're going to get me to order that book soon.
    Reply
  19. cheffresco says

    August 26, 2009 at 2:30 pm

    What a great idea! These look soo good! I always get so angry paying $4 for a pack of them at the store. Might have to start making my own!
    Reply
  20. pam says

    August 26, 2009 at 3:04 pm

    Toasted bread with melted butter gets me every time!
    Reply
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