English Muffins
Full of nooks and crannies, soft, and deeply flavorful without being sour.
Why I Like This Recipe
My oldest fell in love with Eggs Benedict, so I had to get these right. The first tries were dense and dry; a stiff dough needs a long ferment and a full final proof to turn soft and fluffy. These were so good my kids fought over the leftovers.
Ingredients
Sweet starter build (the night before baking)
Dough
Instructions
Sweet starter (the night before)
- Mix the starter, sugar, water and flour together and let it rise overnight, try to keep it around 70–74°F. The high sugar content cuts down the acidity and the remaining aroma and flavor will surprise you!
Dough
- Mix the dough: Mix the milk, starter and flour until it begins to come together. Then add the butter, honey and salt and mix until it smooths out. If you are hand mixing, it will look like a greasy mess for a while but it will improve with time! If you are using a mixer, mix just until it smooths out, you don't need to get to a windowpane with this recipe. If you are hand mixing, give the dough a stretch and fold it into a smooth ball 10–30 minutes after that initial mixing.
- Bulk ferment: Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled container, cover, and let it bulk ferment for 5 hours, roughly around 75°F.
Choose your schedule: At this point, you can do one of three things.
Same day bake: Cut, weigh and shape the dough into 8 balls, weighing about 94 grams each. Put them on a cornmeal or semolina dusted sheet tray. Cover and let it final rise for 3 hours in a warm spot. (This is my favorite version because then they're ready for breakfast the next morning without me multitasking getting everyone ready for school AND making the English muffins.)
Shaped and overnight fridge: Cut, weigh and shape the dough into 8 balls, weighing about 94 grams each, and then put them in a cornmeal or semolina dusted sheet tray with a lid on top, and pop it in the fridge. The next day, take them out and leave them for the final proof for 3–4 hours. If your house is cold, lean towards 4 hours.
Bulk fridge, next day shape: Put the dough in its container in the fridge overnight. Pull it out the next day. Cut, weigh and shape the dough into 8 balls, weighing about 94 grams each, and then put them on a cornmeal or semolina dusted sheet tray with a lid on top and let them final proof for 3–4 hours in a warm spot.
- Stovetop: When the English muffins slowly spring back when you poke them and a squish gives you a supple and soft dough ball, preheat your oven to 350°F. Heat a cast iron or stainless steel pan over low-medium heat for 5 minutes. Sprinkle a bit of cornmeal or semolina over the top of your dough balls and place 4 of them in your pan. Cover the pan for 5 minutes and let them steam, flip, and steam another 3 minutes. Put them on a sheet tray, and repeat with the second 4 muffins. At this point, you can test them with a thermometer, and if you're sure they've reached an internal temperature of 200°F, you can skip the next part.
- Oven finish: Bake the English muffins at 350°F for 10 minutes to make sure they are cooked all the way through.
- Split them down the middle with a fork and enjoy!
Laila's notes
- You can skip the oven bake at the end, but I found the thermometer was a bit unreliable when I was testing this recipe, and there is nothing worse than working on a recipe and then it's raw in the middle.
- If you want, you can buy metal rings and bake the English muffins on a sheet tray with the rings and another sheet tray on top. Bake these at 425°F for 12 minutes and then another 8–10 minutes after you flip them, and be careful! Remember to sprinkle some cornmeal or semolina on the top of them as well, so both sides have that texture. This is my favorite way of making them because my stove top has heat that is hard to control, so I have trouble not burning them, but for most people, the classic method works.
- I also tried baking them on a baking stone without the rings and they basically just looked like squished dinner rolls and didn't expand as much, so if you want to skip the stove top, I would use rings.
- Make sure that whether you use the mixer or you hand mix, the dough gets to around 75°F during mixing. This is a stiff dough and takes a while to get puffy, don't make dry English muffins!
- Overfermented is 100x better than under!! Remember that.
- If you make your sweet starter and then can't bake that day, you can leave it in the fridge for an extra day or two and it won't get too acidic on you. Don't push it much past 36 hours or so, and make sure to stir and smell it before you use it.
Behind the Bake
This recipe makes me really happy to share, because my oldest son has recently fallen in love with Eggs Benedict (hold the ham, add crispy bacon please). He knew that I would absolutely jump at the chance to make the English Muffins. The first few shots were super dense and dry. Just like with bagels, you have to let a firm dough ferment long enough that it loosens up and actually creates the soft texture you’re craving. If you don’t, you’ll end up with rock hard 2 day old English muffins, sitting around with no one eating them. To me, I know when a recipe is perfect by the way my family responds to it, and these were so good that my kids fought over the ones that were left the next morning AND my husband thought I had hurt myself because of my shout when I bit into one.
The two biggest takeaways I want for you are that a stiff sourdough fermented recipe will take much longer than a wetter recipe and that the final proof is essential for a light and fluffy outcome. It’s easy to hand mix, but I urge you to gently heat up the milk and use very soft butter to help kick start fermentation and to make mixing easier on you. I hope you love these as much as we do!
Laila's Tools
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