English muffins. English Muffins

How to make English muffins. If I tell you that I have prepared some muffins , surely many of you will be thinking that I have been cooking a sweet, the American equivalent of our traditional muffins . But if I tell you that what I have been cooking are some English muffins , do not think that I have made muffins on this side of the pond.

The Inglés muffins, hot muffins or breakfast muffins , bagels are a popular source of English in UK consumed mainly at breakfast, brunch and the tea time.

This is a bun of common ingredients, flour, milk, fresh yeast and a pinch of salt. The different thing about their elaboration is that they are cooked in the pan instead of being baked. Traditionally they are consumed warm, opened in half and spread with butter and the jam that you like the most, if we are at breakfast.

But there are other times of the day where these muffins are essential, at tea time, it is traditional to take them with jam or with a generous amount of lemon curd, English lemon cream, if we are talking about brunch or early food, They are usually served in dishes such as eggs benedict , with sausages, bacon or ham, or with cheese.

As you can see, these are very useful snacks in English culture, quite unknown in our country. It is worth preparing them at home and enjoying them warm, the truth is that they are very good.

Of course, to enjoy these muffins in all their splendor and with the alveoli that form their crumb in these, the tradition mandates to open the muffins by pricking them around their perimeter with a fork, so that no one can think of cutting them with a knife, tradition is tradition.

Preparation of the dough for English muffins. Kneading and resting

1. In a saucepan, heat the milk until it is warm, not hot.
2. Add the crumbled fresh yeast and sugar and mix with a few rods. We leave the yeast to act until it bubbles, about 10 or 15 minutes. We call this process the preferment, similar to the one I use for the roscón de reyes.
3. In a bowl we mix the flour, the chemical yeast and the salt. When the yeast with milk is ready we add it to the bowl in the center of the flour. Mix with the initially warm water with a fork. From here we have two possibilities.
4. If we have a food processor, we will let it knead the dough for about 20 minutes. If we choose to do it by hand, we will work on a floured surface for about 30 or 35 minutes.
5. I advise you not to include the water all together and at once. Depending on the flour we use, with a greater or lesser degree of humidity, we will need all the water or only part of it. The ideal is to add as we see what is needed.
6. We place the dough on a floured cotton cloth. We extend it leaving it a thickness of about 2 cm. and cover with another cloth.
7. We leave the dough to ferment in a dry and warm place for about 90 minutes. I have placed the dough on a cloth on the baking sheet. I have kept it with the oven previously tempered and turned off throughout the fermentation time.

Preparation of English muffins

1. With a cut of about 9 or 10 cm. we make the portions of the muffins. We must flour the surface of the dough and the cutter in each of the cuts to avoid sticking the cutter to the dough.
2. With the remains of dough we form a ball again, stretch and continue cutting. We let the portions ferment again for about 15 minutes.
3. We put a clean frying pan on the fire, with nothing. When it is hot we place the dough portions on top of it. Sprinkle the surface of each with water and cook at medium temperature for about 5 or 6 minutes.
4. When we see that it is golden, we turn each muffin and continue cooking until it turns brown on that side.

As we cook the muffins we keep them one on top of the other covered with a cotton cloth. The intention is that they stay warm until they reach the table.

You can see all the photos of the step by step in the next album .