English Muffins

For Christmas, my in-laws gave me a cache of bread baking supplies. Among the lot was a set of eight English muffin rings that until today have sadly sat unused. I looked at several recipes before I settled on one I found by another blogger named Barbara at Wine and Foodies.

It was a very easy recipe to put together. Even though it said to let the dough rise overnight, you can actually cut that time down to 2-3 hours. Cooking them took about 30 minutes (15 minutes per side) but that time may vary depending on your stove.

The only change I'd make to the recipe isto divide the dough into 12 pieces instead of 8. The muffins are really tall like ones you can get from Wolferman's. I think a slightly thinner muffin may be more to my liking but that may change after we give these a taste test in the morning.
English Muffins

2 teaspoons yeast
½ teaspoon sugar
8½ ounces warm water
4¼ ounces warm milk
2¼ cups high grade flour
2¼ cups standard flour
1 teaspoon salt
fine cornmeal

Put the yeast and sugar in a small bowl with half the warm water. Stir and set aside for a few minutes, then add the remaining water and the milk.

Put the flour and salt in a large bowl and use your hand to mix in the yeast, water and milk mixture. Knead the mixture which will be sticky, thoroughly in the bowl (or use the dough hook of an electric mixer).

Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel and set aside to rise until more than doubled in bulk. Although this may take only a couple of hours, the dough can be allowed to rise overnight. Deflate the dough by pulling it away from the sides of the bowl. Lift it out of the bowl and divide into 8 pieces.

Drop each piece on to a tray liberally dusted with rice flour or fine cornmeal and roll them over until well coated. Form each piece into a thick disc.Place the disks on a baking tray and place another tray on top.Leave to rest and rise 20 minutes, then remove top tray.

Place a cast iron griddle or large frying pan over low heat. When only moderately hot place four of the muffins on it and cook for about ten minutes until light beige on the bottom. Turn the muffins over and cook the second side for a similar length of time.
Wrap the cooked muffins in a dry tea towel while you cook the remaining four. Pull apart and eat while still warm.

For toasting pull the muffins apart and toast on both sides.