English Muffins

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I love english muffins. They have a wonderful chew, a soft crust, and a large crust surface area to filling ratio.

English muffins are a yeasted bread that are cooked in a pan, instead of baked in an oven. It’s a hybrid mix of a pancake and bread.

Cooking bread on griddle is what contributes to its unique holey characteristic. the heat is applied to one flat side, while the other side is allowed to rise unimpeded. This results in large holes in the vertical direction, referred to as the “nooks and crannies”.

Etymology

The word muffin is believed to be from Low German meaning “little cakes”. This explains why the American muffin is cake-like, although do no confuse it with a cupcake. English muffins are named so to differentiate them from American muffins, which are sweet quick breads.

Fun fact, the nursery rhyme “The Muffin Man” references english muffins. In England of old, street hawkers would go door-to-door to sell muffins, during a time when houses did not have ovens.

Variations

Like bagels, english muffins can be made with different fillings: sourdough, whole wheat, honey, blue berries. I personally enjoy sourdough english muffins a lot. They have a tangy flavour in addition to that fun texture.

Comparison with crumpets

Crumpets are very similar to english muffins in technique but differ in the ingredient composition. Crumpets are closer to pancakes, while english muffins are closer to breads:

  • crumpets are loose batter, muffins are slack dough
  • crumpets are cooked on one side only, allowing air bubbles to burst out of the top surface. The loose batter allows better heat conduction through the medium. This is customary though, there’s nothing saying you can’t cook the top surface. English muffins need to be cooked on both sides.
  • crumpets are chemically leavened (baking soda), while muffins are yeast-risen. This is both customary and pragmatic.

When it comes time to cooking, the technique is the same. The dough or batter is cooked in a ring mold on top of a griddle. English muffins can be free-form but will rise taller in a ring mold.

Splitting open with fork

You’re often told to open an english muffin with a fork. Some companies even use this phrase in their instructions or branding. But why?

When an english muffin is cut open with a knife, it results in a smoother surface. When split with a fork, it’s much gnarly and further emphasizes the nooks and crannies attribute.

Don’t attempt this on regular breads though! The lack of open structure will spell disaster and a huge mess. It’s the combination of a chewy, soft, and open structure that makes this possible:

  • chewy (strong), so that you don’t mush it in the process
  • soft crust, doesn’t require a knife to pierce
  • open, so there is less material to “split” apart

English Muffins:

I adapted this recipe from Serious Eats. It’s a no-knead, slack bread dough.

Ingredients

Ingredient Baker’s Percentage Serving size for 6 (g)
Flour (bread) 100% 210
Milk 80% 170
Honey 24% 50
Egg white 10 20
Instant yeast 1% 2
Salt 2.5% 5

Technique

  1. Mix dry ingredients together. Mix in all wet ingredients.
  2. Cover and let proof until double (4-5 hours).
  3. Cover a baking sheet with an even layer of cornmeal. Be generous here, there needs to be enough buffer for when the dough sinks in.
  4. Spoon out 75 g portions. Tidy up the shape of the muffins.
  5. Cover tops with cornmeal.
  6. Refrigerate for 12-42 hours.
  7. Preheat griddle to 325 F (160 C).
  8. Grease griddle.
  9. Carefully transfer muffins to the griddle.
  10. Cook for 8 minutes on each side.