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English Muffins

A yeast-based bread made by baking dough lumps on a hot platter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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English Muffins

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Mix 3 quarts of water with 3 ounces of yeast to make a loose sponge.

  2. Let the sponge rise thoroughly in a warm place.

  3. Add 2 ounces of salt to the risen sponge and mix in enough flour to form a workable dough that is not too stiff.

  4. Let the dough rise again.

  5. Work the dough well.

Shape and bake

  1. Take a pan with a raised edge and cover it with 2 inches of flour.

  2. Make holes in the flour.

  3. Drop round lumps of dough into the holes.

  4. Let the dough lumps rise well.

  5. Place them individually on a hot platter and bake.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Yeast
Produces gas that lifts the dough and gives the muffins an airy, open texture.
Flour
Forms gluten, the stretchy network that traps gas and gives the muffins their structure.

The step that matters

Let the dough lumps rise well. The yeast's gas must fill each lump before baking. If the lumps are under-risen, the muffins stay dense and heavy instead of light and open.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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