Homemade English Muffins

Last Monday, Amy bought about 2 lbs of plums which then lead to whipping up a huge patch of homemade plum jam that turned out absolutely amazing. That inspired me to find an English muffin recipe. I have been to Budget Bytes before and had success so I figured I would give it another go. I modified it just a smidge and next time I make these I'm going to substitute the butter for vegan butter and the milk for either a coconut or another nut milk. But that is for another day when I have five hours to kill.

WARNING: Addicting English muffins at the end of this.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 c all purpose flour
• 1/2 c vitamin D milk
• 2 T butter
• 1 t active dry yeast
• 1/2 c warm water
• 1 T sugar
• 1 t kosher salt
• 1/2 c cornmeal 

1. In a mug, mix the active dry yeast, sugar, and water. Whisk until the dissolved. Set aside to let the yeast come alive. About five minutes until nice and bubbly.

2. Let the yeast come alive. Make sure the yeast is fresh. I used an already opened packet from when I made bagels and had to scrap that batch and use an unopened packet to get the proper rise that I needed.

3. While the yeast is resting, combine 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour and salt in a bowl.

4. Im another mug, melt the butter and milk together. 

5. The milk and butter will be well melted after about two 30 second stints in the microwave.

6. One the yeast is nice and bubbly...

7. ...add the yeast, butter, and milk into the flour and salt.

8. Mix with a wooden spoon until combined. You'll start to see the bubbles from the yeast come out. Add 1/4 cup of flour until a nice ball begins to form. About 3/4 cup flour.

9. The dough should begin to pull away from the bowl. 

10. On a floured surface (but not too much flour), plop the ball of dough out and knead for about 5 minutes until well mixed.

11. In a well greased large bowl, add the dough and spritz with some non-stick and place a towel over the top and let rise for 45 minutes.

12. Wait 45 minutes... Hope you have something to do to kill the time.

13. Once the dough doubles, punch it with your fist a couple of times. IT'S SO SOFT AND AIRY! Reshape into a ball, cover, and let sit for another 45 minutes to rise again.

14. The dough should double in size again.

15. On a lightly floured surface, using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to be about 1/2 inch thick.

16. Using a circle ringlet, cut out your English muffins. Try and cut as close together so you don't overwork the dough if you have to use the scraps to squeak out one last muffin or two. I got this ringlet at the World Market for $1.99. It's perfect.

17. On a lined baking sheet that is sprinkled liberally with cornmeal, place the cut out English muffins and let rise, again, for another 45 minutes, covered with a towel.

18. In a greased skillet, on low heat, place your English muffins in the pan. My range is a gas range so when I lower the heat it's a small circumference in the middle. To avoid my muffins burning, I used my largest skillet and put them outer edge and kept my eye on them. When the inside half of the muffins were browning, I spun them 180 degrees to let the other side brown a bit. 

19. Flip the muffins and do the same treatment on this half of the muffins. You're almost done! Five more minutes until English muffin goodness! 4 hours later, you're so clooooose!

20. Pull those puppies off the heat and serve! They are delicious warm (but also delicious at room temp)!

I was really impressed with how these turned out. They were quite stunning with the plum jam but I could think of a million different toppings that these little breakfast vessels could hold. I took a pear from my FF2Y box and sliced it up and also took some fresh raspberries and drizzled with wildflower honey. Don't count savory out either! These we're quite tasty with vegenaise, tomato and onion!

Back to that warning at the beginning of the post. I am not kidding when I said they were addictive. I do not recommend making a double or triple batch unless you want to spend the whole day in a carb-coma because you get up every 10 minutes to eat another one. That's what happened to me, and 10 English muffins later I couldn't eat dinner and had a tummy ache. 

(but it was worth it!)

Cheers,

Kate