English Muffins - First Try

I really like English muffins and used to be able to buy pretty nice ones in the store. I still buy them, but always complain about the mashed condition they always seem to be in – they’d be perfect for paninni egg mcmuffins. I spoke with the baker in the family and she agreed to try making a batch of homemade ones using a recipe from the Culinary Institute Of America . I liked it because it had less sugar than the others I found and here are a few pics of the process. This is the dough after raising.


Bev made up the bread and after raising, it weighed 24 ounces, so since it was to make 12 muffins, she cut it into 2 ounces pieces. I pattied out the muffins and may have got them a little thin. Here they are in the pan of cornmeal ready for fry/baking and a first one as a test on the griddle.



When we bought our cook top, it came with a double burner griddle, which rarely gets used for just the two of us, but comes in very handy for jobs like this. It’s non-stick so I sprayed with Pam to add a little oil. Here they are on side one and then on side two. As I understand it, they are essentially being baked on the griddle one side at a time.


The finished product.



After finishing, I split one, toasted it and ate half with a little butter and half with butter and jelly – just to try it. I liked the flavor – not too sweet as I was looking for. As with most English muffins, they got crispy but didn’t show the effects of the toaster.


I generally liked the way they turned out for the first try and look forward to eating these so we can make another batch. I think we may have let the yeast work too much in the ball so they didn’t raise as much as I expected as individual muffins or they just needed to raise longer - the weren't as thick and light as I was hoping for. Any English muffin recipe’s or advice would be appreciated.

So here’s the breakfast I’ve been looking forward to – Egg McMuffin Ala Larry. It’s a split and lightly toasted homemade muffin, with homemade Canadian bacon topped with Cabot sharp cheddar after flipping, and an egg cooked in a ring. I cooked them both in the same pan and with a lid on and the steam from the meat helped the egg cook quickly and without the need to flip.


And here's the finished sandwich and I'll have to say it was nearly as good as McDonalds :). Next time I'll jazz up the eggs a little, but wanted to make a direct comparison this morning.


I originally thought I wanted the muffins to be bigger around, but they seem to be just right for the egg ring.

Have a great day.

Larry