English Muffins

Since my boyfriend, now newly fiancé, is English, it seemed appropriate to attempt to make these little babies.  (They were featured as the technical bake on Great British Bake Off--I like to tackle all the Paul Hollywood recipe challenges!  Bring it on Bread God!  This recipe is taken straight from the BBC)  Interesting fact: Even though it's an English muffin, the English still call it an English muffin.  I would have thought it would just be a muffin...anyway, I digress...

 

English Muffins
300g/10½ oz strong white bread flour, plus extra for flouring
6g fast-action yeast
6g salt
15g/½oz 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
15g/½oz semolina or polenta

 

Method

Tip the flour into a large mixing bowl. 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.
Turn the mixture out of the bowl onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes, 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 at least one hour to double in size.
Tip the dough out onto the work surface and roll out to about 1.5cm/¾in thick. Leave to stand on the work surface for 15 minutes, to prevent the muffins from shrinking.
Dust two baking trays with half of the semolina or polenta.
Using a 9cm/3½oz straight-sided cutter, cut out eight muffins. (I just used the top end of a glass) Place four muffins, evenly spaced apart on each of the dusted baking trays. Dust the remaining semolina or polenta over the top of the muffins.
Leave to prove for another 30 minutes. 

After 30 min proving.  (Ignore the wonky one in front...it was all my leftover dough and I didn't use a cutter!)

 Preheat the hot plate or a heavy-based frying pan on the hob to a very low heat. Griddle the muffins for approximately 5-6 minutes, then flip over and griddle for another 5-6 minutes on the other side.

 

 

Slap some butter and jam on.  Enjoy!