English Muffins
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Dissolve the yeast in ⅓ cup of cold water.
Add the dissolved yeast and salt to the warm water, then gradually stir into the flour.
Beat the dough thoroughly, cover, and let it rise in a warm place until spongy (about 5 hours).
Shape and cook
Sprinkle flour on a bread board and shape the dough into balls about twice the size of an egg.
Roll the balls into cakes about ⅓ inch thick and place them on a lightly greased warm griddle.
Let the cakes rise a little, then cook them slowly on the griddle, turning often to maintain their shape.
It will take about 20 minutes for them to rise and 15 minutes to cook.
Serve
Tear them apart, butter them, and serve.
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
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the muffins their structure and chew.
- Compressed yeast or liquid yeast
- Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become spongy.
- Warm water
- Hydrates the flour and activates the yeast so the dough develops.
The step that matters
Cooking the cakes slowly and turning them often. Slow cooking on a griddle lets the centre set and rise without scorching the outside. Frequent turning keeps the cakes flat and evenly cooked, helping them hold their shape.
“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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