The Fresh Loaf

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english muffin

MarieH's picture
MarieH

There have been a lot of English Muffin recipes posted all over the web. While I yearned for a homemade muffin, I didn’t relish the steps to make them. I don’t have a griddle and cooking them in batches in a frying pan seemed problematic.

I have an English Muffin bread recipe that I have used for years. It is posted here. When I read trailrunners blog post about burger buns and saw how the buns were cut into pieces I thought – hey, I can do that with my English Muffin bread dough. The handling is a bit different because the dough is very loose and sticky, more like a batter.

Success! This was a fun experiment with a great outcome. Try them if you’d like to have homemade English Muffins without all the fuss. Start to finish this recipe took about 1 1/2 hours. I have included step-by-step photos since this is an unusual technique.

Prepare the baking pan and heat oven to 400 degrees. Fit a piece of 11" x 15" parchment paper into a 9" x 13" rimmed baking sheet pan, folding 1" of the paper up all four sides of the pan. Buttering the bottom of the pan before putting in the paper will help hold it in place. Lightly butter the bottom of the parchment paper and sprinkle evenly with cornmeal.

 

Stir together in a large bowl. Note: the oat flour can be substituted with 3 1/4 oz old fashioned oatmeal, finely ground in a food processor.

3 oz (3/4 cup) whole wheat flour

3 1/4 oz (1 cup) oat flour

1/2 tbs sugar

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

2 1/4 tsp instant yeast

1 oz (1/4 cup) bakers milk powder

Heat until 120-130 degrees and add to the dry ingredients. Beat well with a wisk to make a smooth batter. The batter will be quite thin.

9 1/2 oz water

1 oz orange juice

 Add and stir in until well blended to make a loose batter.

5 oz (1 1/4 cups) bread flour

 

Spoon the batter over the parchment paper and using a wet rubber spatula, spread the batter evenly to the sides of the pan. Wet the spatula as necessary to smooth the top of the batter. Lightly sprinkle top of the batter with cornmeal.

 

Cover and let rise in a warm place for 30 - 45 minutes until very puffy. It works best to place the pan in a very large, seal-able plastic bag or to use a proofing cover. If using plastic wrap, spray the wrap heavily with cooking spray before placing on top of the batter.

 When ready to bake, score the dough about 1/8" deep into 12 pieces each 3 1/4" x 3". A bench knife that has been sprayed with cooking spray works well.

 

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and carefully slide the parchment paper onto a flat rimless cookie sheet. Cut the dough into 12 pieces, following the score lines and cutting all the way through. Spread the muffins out a bit leaving about 1/2" between each muffin. Return to oven and bake another 5 minutes until golden brown. Remove from pan and parchment paper to a cooling rack.

 

When completely cool, use a fork or muffin splitter to split the muffin squares.

 

Note: the muffin squares seem large but they shrink a bit in the toaster, so resist the temptation to make them smaller.

Justkneadit's picture
Justkneadit

With all that discard starter I just couldn't help but send it to the griddle.

Just a little closer...

I followed kjknits recipe, except I let it sit out for 14 hours and in the fridge for 2 hr. I had to make a trip the farmers market. My palate couldn't complain.

MarieH's picture
MarieH

I have been tinkering with an oat and whole wheat english muffin loaf for quite a while. I used to make this recipe with AP flour but now we try to eat only whole grain baked goods. This is my latest tinker and I am quite happy with the results. I increased the water for a higher hydration loaf hoping to get bigger nooks and crannies to better simulate an english muffin. The recipe follows the pictures. Happy baking!

  •  6 oz (1 1/2 cup) whole wheat flour
  •  6 1/2 oz (2 cups) oat flour
  •  1 TBS sugar
  •  2 tsp salt
  •  3/8 tsp baking soda
  •  4 1/2 tsp instant yeast
  •  2 oz (1/2 cup) bakers milk powder

Stir together in a large bowl.

Note: If you don't have oat flour, you can grind old-fahioned oatmeal in a food processor until flour-like.

  • 19 1/2 oz water
  • 2 oz orange juice

Heat until 120-130 degrees and add to the dry ingredients. Beat well with a wooden spoon to make a smooth batter. Batter will be quite thin.

  • 10 oz (2 1/2 cups) whole wheat flour

Add and stir in until well blended to make a loose batter. Adjust with water or flour to the consistency of muffin batter.

Grease and sprinkle with cornmeal two 5”x 8” bread pans. Divide batter evenly between the pans and lightly smooth tops with a spatula dipped in water. Lightly sprinkle top of batter with cornmeal.

Cover and let rise in a warm place for 30 - 45 minutes until about 1/2 inch above the top rim of the pan. Batter will be very puffy.

Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove from pans immediately and cool on a rack.

Because this bread has no fat, it should be used in a day or two. It freezes very  well and can be put in the toaster without thawing.

teketeke's picture

English muffin with raisin yeast water plus alcoholic raisins

April 27, 2011 - 10:16pm -- teketeke
Forums: 

English muffin with raisin yeast water + alcoholic raisins.

Updated 5/9/2011  I found out that skipping the first proof had a good result of English muffin shape and more flavor . Thanks to everybody who left some notice on my English muffin, I could find the difference. Thank you, Syd and Kimmy and Larry and Daisy and Ron and everybody! When I use the first proof, the muffin inflated like a balloon. The taste was weaken.

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