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English Muffins

A yeast-based bread baked on a griddle, split and toasted with butter.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Dissolve the yeast cake in warm water with salt.

  2. Mix in enough warmed flour to create a very thick batter.

  3. Set the batter aside to rise until it looks like a honeycomb.

Cook the muffins

  1. Preheat a griddle to moderate heat.

  2. Sprinkle flour in a saucer.

  3. Using a tablespoon dipped in flour, take a piece of dough the size of a croquet ball.

  4. Drop it in the saucer.

  5. Shape it into a round mass.

  6. Place it on the griddle.

  7. Repeat with the remaining dough.

  8. Cook until almost done.

  9. Brown the other side.

  10. Make the muffins a day in advance.

Toast and serve

  1. Split them slightly all around.

  2. Toast on both sides until crisp.

  3. Quickly rip them open.

  4. Place small bits of butter inside.

  5. Reassemble.

  6. Butter the outside.

  7. Cut across.

  8. Set in the oven to melt the butter.

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 cake
Ferments the batter, producing gas that makes it rise and become airy.
Flour
Forms the structure of the batter and dough once it is set on the griddle.
Warm water
Hydrates the flour and activates the yeast.

The step that matters

Set the batter aside to rise until it looks like a honeycomb.. The rise develops the open, bubbly texture that gives the muffin its crumb. Underproofed batter yields a dense result, while the bubbles create the holes that catch butter later.

“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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