Adventures in Bread Making-English Muffins

I have been making bread in my bread maker for several years.  There is nothing like the smell of fresh bread baking.  Unfortunately, there are some breads that just cannot be made the easy way.  English Muffins is one of those breads.

I love English Muffins.  I love them plain with butter and jam and I love them fancy in Eggs Benedict.  All those little nooks and crannies to catch fresh butter. Yum.  So I thought I'd give them a try.

I searched several places for recipes and decided on this one to try first.  It had lots of good reviews and good notes about making them.  I've never made bread without my bread maker so I figured I could use all the help I could get. 

English Muffins
Makes approximately 18 muffins.

Makes servings USMetricAdjust Recipe (Help)

1 cup Milk (I used whole milk)

2 tablespoons White Sugar

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry Yeast

1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

1/4 cup melted Shortening (I used butter. I was out of shortening)

6 cups All-Purpose Flour

1 teaspoon Salt 

Warm the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat. Mix in the sugar, stirring until dissolved. Let cool until lukewarm.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine the milk, yeast mixture, shortening and 3 cups flour. Beat until smooth.

 

Add salt and rest of flour, or enough to make a soft dough. Knead. Place in greased bowl, cover, and let rise.

 

Punch down. Roll out to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut rounds with biscuit cutter, drinking glass, or empty tuna can.

 

Sprinkle waxed paper with cornmeal and set the rounds on this to rise. Dust tops of muffins with cornmeal also. Cover and let rise 1/2 hour. Mine took about an hour to rise. I keep the house cool.

 

Heat greased griddle. Cook muffins on griddle about 10 minutes on each side on medium heat. As you can see, I broke out the Electric Skillet.  I set it on 250 degrees and toasted both sides approximately 10 minutes. 

Keep baked muffins in a warm oven until all have been cooked. Allow to cool and place in plastic bags for storage.

 To use, split with a fork and toast. Great with butter and/or jam or make a sandwich!

Final analysis: Both Hubs and I thought they were totally yummy but they were not quite what I wanted.  There were some nooks and crannies but not like the store-bought kind.  I will try this recipe again but next time, I will not add the whole 6 cups of flour called for in the recipe.  The dough was pretty dense.  I think this might also help with the nooks and crannies issue.