English muffins are similar the bread I grew up eating, namely, Amarostile. A type of bread where dough balls are flattened and roasted on a grid over hot coals. Which in my adult life I came to know as “South African Roosterkoek”. Though, unlike Amarostile which are cooked over fire, English muffins are cooked using a pan over stovetop.
Now, one would think that English muffins originate from England because of the name.
I was shocked to learn that English muffins originate from America. And the British only started to learn or became aware about them after Thomas’s English muffins were imported from America in the 1990s. More interestingly, English muffins are marketed as American muffins in England and Irish supermarkets.
To serve these see the
Homemade English Muffin
Equipment
- Cast Iron
- Stand Mixer machine
Ingredients
- 410 g White Bread Flour
- 7 g Dry Yeast or 17g Fresh Yeast
- 30 g Sugar
- 8 g Salt
- 30 ml Vegetable Oil
- 150 ml Milk
- 110 ml Water
- Semolina Flur for dusting.
Instructions
- In a stand mixer bowl, add flour, salt and mix. then, mix in sugar and yeast, mix.
- Pour in milk, water and oil.
- Hook the dough hook attachment on the stand mixer, roughly mix everything using level 1 speed then increase to level 4, knead for 8 to 9 minutes.
- Lightly grease a mixing bowl with oil. Put the dough into the bowl, cover the bowl with cling wrap and leave to rise until doubled in size, for about 1 hour (depending on how warm the kitchen is).
- Knock back the dough gently to get the air out. Divide the dough into 10 equal pieces, shape the dough into round ball like shapes (or roll out the dough to 2cm thick, then cut out as many pieces as you can with a large cookie cutter). Cover the dough balls with a cling wrap, let them rest for 30 minutes.
- Dust the work surface with semolina. Slightly press down the balls and dust both sides with semolina. Cover the dough again with a cling wrap and leave to prove until puffed, about 20 minutes.
- Heat a cast iron pan or a heavy-based frying pan over a low-medium heat. Cook the muffins in batches for 5 minutes on each side until golden brown.
- Transfer into a wire rack, to cool.
