Easy English Muffins From Scratch

I can let my imagination go wild when making English Muffins. 

I've found myself bringing my garden indoors by adding snips of Herbs like Rosemary, Basil and Thyme. 

Sprinkle in a bit of Parmesan cheese and a pinch of fresh minced garlic and you have the makings for a mini pizza. I bet you won't find anything like that in the store.

  English Muffins are one of the things I like to make in double batches so I can put them in the freezer. They're great for the early morning risers to grab as they're heading off to work and school. 

These can be made up with a precooked sausage patty, ham or bacon and cheese ahead of time for the freezer as well. 

English Muffins are a healthy breakfast when made with whole organic grains, flour and oils. I make them all kind of ways depending on what I have on hand. 

I think my favorite are with golden raisins and cinnamon added. In the toaster it goes with a dab of pure raw honey or homemade blackberry jam and a cup of coffee. 

There are so many variations of the recipe, so I will give you the basic one and a list of options you can experiment with. They are all wonderful and easy to make.

English Muffin Ingredients

1 cup hot water

1/2 cup milk

2 tsp. raw honey

1 tsp. sea salt

3 cups all purpose unbleached flour

1 cup organic wheat bran

2 tsp active yeast

3 tbsp unsalted butter or organic oil 

cornmeal

First, mix together the hot water, milk, honey and salt in a warm mixing bowl. Add 2 cups of the flour and the yeast. With the paddle on your mixer, blend well. Cover the bowl to let rise for about an hour.

Replace the paddle with the dough hook and add the oil and the one cup of flour and one cup of wheat bran to the bowl. 

This is the point where I add extras, like flax or sesame seeds or even raisins and cinnamon. Sunflower and Pumpkin seeds are also wonderful in English Muffins. 

Mix until the dough begins to pull away from the bowl.

 Sprinkle your surface with corn meal and roll out the dough to about a 1/2 inch thickness. I use a drinking glass to cut my circles. Lay them out on a jelly roll pan and cover to allow them to rise to double in size. This takes about 45 minutes.

I use a heavy cast iron skillet to cook my English Muffins. It needs to be well oiled and on medium to medium low heat, depending on your stove. 

If they seem to cook to fast turn it down a bit. Lay them gently in the skillet and when flipping over so they don't deflate. It takes about 5 minutes for each side to turn golden brown. Let them cool on a wire rack.

They divide in half easily with a fork. Try them with some of your favorite herbs and you have the foundation of some great mini pizzas.

Happy Gardening!!

Pammy