The savoury side of muffins
Unlike the American muffins of which you can find examples here and here, English muffins or simply muffins to us Brits are small savoury yeast-leavened breads cooked on a hot plate or griddle.
Imagine ~ crisp semolina (or cornmeal) dusted top and base (crusts?) with a fluffy interior crumb and soft squidgy sides.
I’ve made these muffins twice. My first batch didn’t rise well because I didn’t warm the milk beforehand also the cold winter weather means they take longer to rise, I mentioned before I am not the best at patience.
The second batch I remembered to warm the milk, sat the dough near the radiator (that had recently been on) for the first prove (this took 1 hour 30 minutes opposed to 1 hour) the muffins then did their second rise by the preheating oven. The oven was for fish fingers, kids love melted cheesy muffins with fish fingers.
Unlike many muffin recipes I’ve seen, this dough is rolled and cut using a straight-sided round cutter, same as you would do with scones or American biscuits. This method of cutting makes sure your muffins have their ‘muffin top’ appearance.
They’re lovely for breakfast, brunch, with lunch or dinner! I enjoy muffins the classic way; toasted, sliced horizontally and slathered with salted butter. You can be more adventurous and add toppings such as jam, honey, nutella, cream cheese and salmon or make that classic dish eggs Benedict, using halal bacon.
English Muffins
- 300g/10½ oz strong white bread flour, plus extra for flouring
- 6g fast-action yeast
- 6g salt
- 15g/½oz caster sugar
- 15g/½oz softened butter, cut into small pieces
- 1 medium free-range egg (about 22g/¾oz), lightly beaten
- 170ml/6fl oz milk (should make a soft dough – you can add up to about 30ml/1floz extra if needed)
- oil, for greasing
- semolina or polenta, plus extra for dusting
- Warm the milk to hand warm temperature, not too hot you don’t want to kill the yeast!
- Tip the flour into stand mixer bowl fitted with dough hook attachment. Sprinkle the yeast on one side of the flour and the salt into the other side of the flour. Add the sugar, butter, egg and milk, then mix all the ingredients together to form a soft dough.
- Knead for 5 minutes (10mins by hand) or until soft, smooth and stretchy.
- Lightly grease a large bowl with oil. Place the dough in the oiled bowl, cover and leave to prove for about one hour, (in winter 1 hour and half by a radiator that was recently on) or until doubled in size
- Dust the work surface with a mixture of the semolina/polenta and flour. Tip the dough out onto the work surface and roll out to about 1cm thick.
- Lightly dust two baking trays with half of the semolina or polenta.
- Using a 9cm straight-sided cutter, cut out eight muffins (you may need to re-roll the dough to cut all 8) Place four muffins, evenly spaced apart on each of the dusted baking trays. Dust some more semolina or polenta over the top of the muffins.
- Leave to prove for another 30 minutes.
- Preheat the hot plate or a heavy-based frying pan for at least 5 minutes on the hob to a low heat. Griddle the muffins for approximately 6 minutes, then flip over and griddle for another 6 minutes on the other side or until cooked through.
