These homemade English muffins are so delicious and SO easy to make. In just a couple of hours with a few ingredients and a griddle (yes, a griddle!), you can have more than a dozen soft, fluffy, nook-and-cranny-filled English muffins ready to enjoy with butter, jam, etc. Can I get a YUM?
(NOTE: This post was originally published in 2014 (!). We’ve since then updated it with new photos, but it’s the same recipe you know and love.)
Whenever I eat/make English muffins, I think about how they’re probably the only food on Earth to which I would refer as having “nooks and crannies” and how I don’t even really know what a cranny is but I know they’re in English muffins along with the nooks and that both are absolutely required as butter receptacles in the perfect English muffin and hooray for run-on sentences about English muffins.
But seriously, have you ever had an English muffin without the nooks and crannies? It’s just not the same. It’s like eating a hockey puck of bread. But add the nooks and crannies and, suddenly, that hockey puck is actually a soft, chewy, delicious circle of bread just begging to be toasted and topped with butter, jam and/or cheese with a runny egg on top, oooooh yes. Dream a little dream with me about that for a sec.
OK, back to the muffins. One of my goals this year for the bloggity blog is to post more classic bread-related recipes — things like these English muffins, for example — so you lovely people can be more like, “Hey, I really want a good recipe for [that very common thing but in homemade form],” and you can search for it on my blog and it’ll be there, waiting for you, shining bright like a diamond. Or a buttery English muffin.
Best Ingredients You’ll Need
Here’s what you’ll need to get yourself on the homemade English muffins train:
- Bread flour (you can use all-purpose flour, but the muffins will not be as sturdy, nor will the nooks/crannies be as prominent)
- Sugar
- Instant yeast (or active dry yeast, but use about 2 3/4 teaspoon instead!)
- Salt
- Egg
- Milk
- Butter
- Semolina, farina or cornmeal, for the griddle
How to Make This Recipe
The process of making English muffins from scratch is nothing that can’t be done in a couple hours with the right tools. But it always — always — helps to read through the recipe from start to finish before you even pull out a pan; that way you know just what you’re getting into and can be prepared as you go. No sweat!
What makes English muffins unique in the bread world is the process of cooking them so they actually turn out looking and tasting like English muffins. You simply divide the dough into round, flattened circles, place them on a griddle (here’s my favorite!) sprinkled with semolina or farina, then cook them low and slow on both sides until they’re golden brown and baked through. As you can see, mine were not perfect circles at the beginning and they also didn’t fully bake through when they were done on the griddle (so I had to bake them a few extra minutes in the oven), but they turned out just fine in the end. Again — no sweat! You just have to pay attention.
Plus, if you read through the recipe first, prepare ahead of time and pay attention as you go, guess what you get? NOOKS AND CRANNIES, that’s what.
How Do I Serve English Muffins?
Use a fork to gently pry open the muffins so you can preserve all the nooks and crannies. You can then toast the muffins (or leave them untoasted!) and top them with butter, jam, peanut butter, garlic butter, etc. You can use them to make breakfast sandwiches or mini pizzas for the kiddos (and for you, no judgement). There are many ways to serve English muffins, both sweet and savory.
Serve them alongside these Easy Coffee Cake Muffins for brunch!
How Do I Store English Muffins?
Homemade English muffins will keep well stored in an airtight container at room temperature for about 3 days — after that, it’s best to freeze them.
Can You Freeze English Muffins?
Why yes, you can! To freeze English muffins, place fully-cooled muffins on a baking sheet in a single layer. Place the baking sheet in your freezer and freeze the muffins for about 2-3 hours. Transfer the frozen muffins to a freezer-safe Ziploc bag and freeze for up to 2 months.
To thaw frozen English muffins, simply remove however many muffins you want to serve from the bag, and let them come to room temperature on your counter (this will take about 1 hour). Toast and serve as desired!
English Muffins
Ingredients
- 4 ½ cups bread flour
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 ¼ teaspoons instant yeast, 1 packet
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 egg
- 1 ¾ cups milk
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- Semolina, farina or cornmeal, for sprinkling on the griddle
Instructions
- In a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, add flour, sugar, yeast, salt and egg (do not stir).
- Combine milk and butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat; stir and heat until an instant read thermometer reads between 110 and 115°F. Remove from heat.
- Pour milk mixture into bowl; stir just until a dough forms. Use dough hook attachment to knead dough in stand mixer 5 minutes until dough is smooth, soft, elastic and pulls away from the sides of the bowl; OR, turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand 10 minutes until dough is smooth, soft and elastic.
- Shape dough into a ball and place in a lightly oiled large bowl; turn to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rise in a warm place 1 hour until doubled.
- Meanwhile, lightly spray a griddle or large pan (or two) with cooking spray, then sprinkle generously with semolina or farina. Heat oven to 350°F.
- Punch down risen dough; divide into 16 equal pieces. Gently shape each piece into a ball; press down to a 3 to 3 1/2-inch diameter. Place dough pieces on prepared griddle or pan about 1 inch apart (depending on the size of your griddle/pan, they will not all fit. Place the extras on a baking sheet sprinkled with semolina or farina, and cover with a sheet of parchment paper).
- Turn on griddle to low heat (about 275°F) or place pan over low heat on stovetop. Cook muffins 7 to 15 minutes each side until deep golden brown. If muffins puff up too much during cooking (and they probably will), cover them with a sheet of parchment paper and place a baking sheet on top to act as a weight. The muffins are cooked through when an instant read thermometer inserted in the center reads about 200°F.
- If the muffins are sufficiently browned on both sides but are still not fully cooked in the center, place them on a clean baking sheet and transfer to the preheated oven for about 10 minutes.
- Repeat the whole cooking/baking process (steps 7 and 8) with remaining dough.
- Cool muffins completely. Use a fork to gently pry muffins open, so you get all the nooks and crannies.
Notes
- If you only have active dry yeast on hand, use 2 3/4 teaspoons for this recipe.
- Adapted from King Arthur Flour
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this recipe? Rate & comment below!
I have only made this recipe once so far, but I think I will be repeating it. It was an easy to follow recipe with useful tips like putting a tray on top to stop them rounding up . They were so light and fluffy. A big hit with my husband.
Can’t wait to make these but I don’t need 16 all at one time. What’s your opinion about freezing the dough once it’s been formed to the individual EM shape?
Cas, I would not recommend freezing the dough before cooking/baking. Rather, I would make all of them and freeze them once cooked/baked (see the post for directions on how to do this). I hope that helps!
Thank you
My english muffins were excellent