English Muffins

English Muffin. I like mine toasted pretty dark.

I don't know if it's because the weather is cooling down so much, or because I rarely buy bread any more (due to my son's gluten issues), but I have been craving freshly baked bread. English muffins came to mind this week, and I tried to avoid making them, but found myself getting up early this Sunday morning to make these English muffins AND the Gluten Free French Sandwich Rolls that I make weekly for my son's breakfast and lunch for the week. Well, waking up at 8:00 just didn't cut it, and as of now, I am fifteen minutes late for church. Oops. The first batch of muffins are baking on the stove as I type, and we are going to be missing half the service. Glad I go to a very casual church.
I ended up having to place mine in the oven because they were taking so long to bake on the stove, and they were already brown enough.
What I ended up with here were very tasty home made English muffins. I think I prefer the sourdough kind, but I've already managed to eat two of these, so it's safe to say they're good. As you can see, they don't have the Thomas' English Muffin nooks and crannies, but they've got plenty of the crannies to hold all of the butter I put on mine. Now I just have to decide if I'm going to try to freeze these, or give them away.

English Muffins
    --Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cup lukewarm milk
• 3 tablespoons softened butter
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 4 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All Purpose Flour
• 1 package (2 1/4 teaspoon) instant yeast
• cornmeal for sprinkling on griddle/pan

Instructions:
Combine all of the ingredients, in order, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.
Mix on low to incorporate ingredients, and then mix on medium high for 4-5 minutes, or until dough pulls away from sides of bowl and looks smooth and shiny. You can either scrape dough down into a ball shape, cover the bowl, and let rise, or you can place it in a lightly greased bowl, cover, and let rise.
Set in a warm place to rise until it's doubled in size, about 1-2 hours.
While dough rises, get your pan/griddle ready. (I had to bake mine in two shifts because I only have the one griddle--who has more than that?) Put the griddle in place on your stove, and sprinkle the cold griddle with an even layer of cornmeal.
When dough has risen, scrape it out onto a lightly floured surface. Cut into 16 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball (see Pretzel Roll Recipe for a video of how to roll perfect dough balls). While griddle is still cold, shape each ball into a flattened dough disk, about 3 to 3 1/2 inches in diameter. Place as many disks as you can on the griddle. Cover lightly with a piece of parchment or wax paper and allow to sit for 20 minutes. Then turn the heat to medium low and cook on each side for 7 to 15 minutes, or until browned and an internal temperature reads 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
If muffins are well browned before being cooked all the way through, place in a 350 degree oven for 2-5 minutes.
Form remaining dough balls into disks and place on a wax paper lined baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal to wait. (I put mine in the refrigerator because I had to go to church between "baking" batches.)
Allow muffins to cool thoroughly on a wire cooling rack before eating. Split with a fork for maximum nooks and crannies.
Makes 16 muffins.

Muffins just formed and placed on griddle

Dough before rising