DIY: English Muffins

in Bread, Breakfast, DIY

Homemade English Muffins

“Dough! Are you making dough? I can have some dough?”

The clank of the mixer bowl snapping onto mixer sends The Little running to the kitchen from anywhere inside our fence line. She has always had super Spidey hearing. When she was a newborn, the sound of milk pouring over my cereal downstairs in the kitchen would be enough to wake her from a nap upstairs. Every single time.

Unless we’re talking about cracking eggs or making pizza/bread dough, she’s not overly interested in helping in the kitchen. And this is what it usually looks like when I ask “Do you want to help Mommy measure the flour/cut cookies/do anything else besides eat raw bread dough or crack a couple of eggs?”

do not pin

Lately, she’d rather paint or draw. Or wear a princess fairy dress.

It’s like we’re barely related some days 🙂

But the promise of a pinch or two of bread dough can cut a tantrum short and get my scattered toy mess of a living room picked up in no time. So we’re making a lot of bread lately.

King

English muffins are one of those bread things that are plenty easy enough to drop into your cart at the store but are so much more delicious when made at home, you just need to find a couple of hours on a weekend to let the dough rise and then some hands-on shaping and cooking time.

Just be warned – after eating Eggs Benedict or a breakfast sandwich on homemade English muffins, the store-bought variety will never even come close to living up to them. Even when drowned in all that magical Hollandaise sauce.

Need help deciding what to do with all those English muffins? We clearly vote for Eggs Benedict:

Eggs Oscar Eggs Trivette Eggs Benedict Burger King Crab Eggs Benedict Eggs Benedict Chipotle Hollandaise Sauce Buttermilk pancakes Eggs Spin-edict

Or this beauty that’s coming soon to a blog near you:

Homemade English Muffins

English muffins couldn't be easier to make and taste so much better than their store-bought counterpart.

Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 cups lukewarm milk
  • 2 1/4 tsp (1 pkg) yeast
  • 3 Tbsp butter, softened
  • 1 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 Tbsp sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 4 1/2 cups flour
  • Oil for bowl and hands
  • Cornmeal for pans

Instructions

  1. Place milk in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and sprinkle yeast over top.
  2. Let sit for 10 minutes and then add the butter, salt, sugar, egg, and flour.
  3. Mix on low until the flour is incorporated and then switch to medium and beat for 5 minutes - dough will be very soft and sticky.
  4. Scrape dough out into an oiled bowl and cover, letting rise for ~2 hours.
  5. Keeping your hands well oiled to prevent the dough from sticking, pinch golf ball sized pieces of dough off (2 oz, if you have a kitchen scale), form a ball, and place on a griddle pan that is generously dusted with cornmeal.
  6. Lightly press down on the balls once on the pan (I could fit 8-10 on my griddle and then I put the remainder on a baking sheet to cook in two batches).
  7. Let rest for 20 minutes.
  8. Turn burner or grill to medium low and cook until golden brown, ~12 minutes on each side. (If they brown too quickly, reduce the heat.)
  9. Carefully transfer the second batch to the griddle so as not to deflate them and cook until done.
  10. Let cool completely on a rack before splitting open with a fork.
  11. Muffins will keep fresh on the counter a few days and freeze well.

Notes

Yields: 16 muffins

Slightly adapted from King Arthur Flour

Estimated time: 3 hours

28 comments… add one
  • Oh my word, the look on her face is priceless! I’ve been meaning to try your Eggs Benedict recipe forever, this is just the push I need.

  • I need to make homemade english muffins again, you’ve reminded me how good they are!

  • I eat (store-bought) English muffins every day. I totally need to make these myself – thanks so much for sharing this!

  • sami

    Oh my, I do a lot of bread and never thought of making english muffins. Thanks for the push…these will be in my kitchen some time this weekend.

  • This recipe is what I needed! Last week I was watching Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple (Joan Hickson) At Bertram’s Hotel and Miss Marple was going crazy over the fantastic seed cake and English muffins–everything a proper English tea should be, she said. I paused the video and went on a hunt for recipes for a “proper English tea.” I’ve been hungry ever since. Thank you!

  • Pouring cereal would wake her up!? Amazing! These look so delicious, but I never thought to make them myself. You’re right that I think we sometimes just get in the habit of dropping things in our shopping cart, but there’s nothing like bread you make yourself.

  • I buy an absurd amount of English muffins since I eat one EVERY DAY for breakfast…and really I should be making them myself and saving money. And smothering them with hollandaise sauce. Maybe not EVERY day. But most days.

  • We’re on the same wavelength lately! I just pulled the Bouchon recipe and am planning on making some of these this weekend. These look great, I’m happy with just a dab of butter on them.

  • I am making these this weekend! My daughter loves english muffins. One question, do we use salted or unsalted butter? Thank you so much.

  • I’ve never made homemade English muffins, but our family loves them for egg sandwiches on the weekend. This looks like something we’re going to have to add to our baking list! And my little girl only comes running when there is the word “cookie” in front of the word “dough”! 😉

  • i made homemade english muffins once, and they were awesome. but then i got busy & kept buying the storebought ones. these look amazing!!

  • These look absolutely perfect! I’ve been wanting to make these for years!!

  • awww… look at that little cutie!
    my little one just crawls around the kitchen while i am baking and he likes to play with my bottles of sprinkles but he is not even 1 yet…lol.

    i didn’t know english muffins could be so easy to prepare at home…

  • Delia

    C loves to help with ALL of it. Especially the flour & sugar measuring part. Only I have a hard time keeping his fingers out of the bowl to “taste” ingredients. Not so bad, unless I’m sending the item to school!

  • I love these English muffins, and I really need to know about that gorgeous poached egg/salsa dish!

  • KMunoz

    These look delicious! I’d love to make them, but I don’t have a stand mixer. Any tips on making it by hand?

    • The dough is really slack. Do you have a stiff rubber spatula or bench scraper that you can oil and scrape & fold in a large bowl for a few minutes to get the gluten to develop? It will be a workout 🙂

  • I tried making English muffins from scratch just a couple weeks ago — it was much more involved than this and they turned out much too dense to classify as English muffins. It was more like a biscuit. I think I’ll give this recipe a shot next time.

  • Ivy

    Do you think I could use a gluten free flour mix?

    • I don’t have any experience with gluten free flour mixes. If you try it out, let me know!

  • Terri

    What kind of flour and yeast is used in this recipe?

  • Oh I’m so glad I found this recipe and your site! Can’t wait to make them!

  • Marissa

    do you know what the nutritional content is? Is there a way to substitute for the butter and also use whole wheat flour?

  • Ramsey

    So, you just cook them in a griddle pan on your stove? I feel like I need more pictures to walk me through this recipe. lol

    • Donna Lenz

      I used my cuisinart panini and griddle combo. I just opened it flat and used the griddle feature on about 325. It was easy. I prepped them on a cookie sheet and let them do the 20 minute rise on there, preheated the griddle and cooked them about 12-14 minutes per side. They didn’t get as brown as the photos but they are awesome!

  • Donna Lenz

    Wow!! I made these today and the whole family loves them!! No more store bought English muffins!! I used whipped butter to save a few calories and they are delicious, thank you!!

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