Skillet English Muffins

I’m going to be honest with you. I never thought that I could make an English muffin. I’ve always ate store bought and never believed it was done any other way. Until one day when I was in high school, a neighbor brought over homemade muffins to my family’s house and blew my tastebuds away. It was way better than store bought. I still daydream about that English muffin. When I saw this homemade English muffin recipe from the Dirty Gourmet cookbook, I was ready to try making them myself. Matt’s response to when I told him I’d have to buy bread flour (we already had regular flour in the camper): “Just get store bought English muffins, it will be easier.” To which I responded, “You don’t understand the power of a homemade English muffin. So shut up and let me do my thing.” He backed off.

Ingredients (per the cookbook, yields 8 muffins, but I’m not kidding I made 20 muffins. I think mine were smaller in size):

• 3 cups bread flour, plus more for rolling
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 and 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2/3 cup water
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons cornmeal
• Cooking spray

This recipe in the book is actually titled “English Muffins with Strawberry Skillet Jam.” One day I would love to make my own jam, but this was not that day. I already had some delicious mango-peach preserves in the fridge and decided that was good enough.

I combined flour, sugar, yeast, and salt in a large bowl. Mix together.

In a medium size pot, I combined the milk, water, and butter. Heat over low heat until the butter is melted. Then, I poured the mixture into a medium bowl. Allow it to cool until it is lukewarm.

Once cooled, I poured it into the large bowl of dry ingredients. I stirred until the mixture was well combined and became a soft dough. I covered the top and let it rise in a warm place for 1 hour. The dough doubled in size.

I rolled out the dough on a flour dusted surface. If you don’t have a rolling pin, the authors recommend using a wine bottle. Roll the dough so it’s 1/2 inch thick.

I then cut out my muffins using a glass, but you can use a biscuit cutter if you have one! The glass worked perfect for me.

I sprinkled both sides of the muffins with cornmeal and covered them with a clean towel. Let them rise for 30 minutes.

I greased my electric skillet and cooked the biscuits about 5 minutes on each side. You want them to be lightly browned on both sides.

Serve warm with butter and jam!

We had so many muffins left over that I was able to make some fancy egg and sausage breakfast sandwiches for days after.

Review: These were amazing! To be honest, not as good as my neighbor’s recipe, but Matt and I were extremely pleased with them! I don’t have a lot of experience with baking bread so it was an exciting challenge. I felt very proud when they turned out beautifully. Warning: these do take a while to make. I spent the better part of the morning working on them. So you better set aside a few hours. The authors do say you can make the dough the day before and store in a cold place overnight (i.e. cooler or fridge). Next time, I plan to make the dough the day before and let it rise in the refrigerator overnight.

Thanks, Dirty Gourmet!