These muffins were fried in clarified butter, and looked (and
sounded) absolutely amazing. I didn’t actually use their recipe, since I wanted
to experiment with a simpler, faster method; but if it makes you feel any
better, I did cook them in clarified butter.
Speaking of which, I’ve never done a video for clarified
butter, but you don’t need one, since all we do is melt some unsalted butter
(the only kind I ever use), and once it’s melted, take a spoon and skim off the
white, foamy milk solids from the top. That’s it. Once clarified, you can use it
without fear of the butter burning from high temps, or long cooking times.
Over the years, I’ve tried several different methods,
including the traditional batter cooked in ring molds system, but I think this
technique is much easier, and produces something very close to a classic
English muffin. I hope you give these a try soon. Enjoy!
Makes 6 English Muffins (recipe can easily be doubled):
- First mix:
1 1/2 tsp dry active yeast
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup warm water
- Wait 15 minutes to see if yeast is alive, then add:
2 tsp vegetable oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 egg white
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup warm water
- Mix dough and let double
- Form 6 seamless balls of dough, press on to a lined baking
pan, coating both sides with non-hipster
corn meal.
- Allow to double in size and fry in clarified butter for
about 7-8 minutes per side, or until cooked through. Let cool before splitting!
26 comments:
Damn, literally just looked at your site for an English muffin recipe last week and couldn't find one, used some random google recipe and they were a bust! I should have waited another week, your recipes are always infallible.
Uh-oh...
This could be dangerous...
Something I was really surprised about when I joined the military 10+yrs ago, English muffins are hard to find. I am a born and raised Californian even though I no longer reside there. Are they kinda like bagels, where they seem most popular in certain states, namely New York and California? Thank you for the awesome recipe as always!
Chef Johhhhnnnn is the man again! The only place I'm able to find English muffins in China is at McDonald's morning menus. Good. I can make these, every, single, day!
This....Looks fantastico.
Thanks for the laughs this morning -- the video had me chuckling and the recipe sounds delicious! On my to-try list...
Chef John, is that 1 and 3/4 cup of flour, or One 3/4ths cup of flour? I've tried making the dough a couple times now (the first I thought I must've added the wrong amount of water), but this time to the tee and the dough is far far too stiff.
Very delicious recipe.love it.
Damn you! Damn damn damn. I've been eating low starch for several years. I do admit that this year preparing for and climbing Mt St Helens I've been eating more starch than usual. Perhaps that was my weakness. I wanted to try making English muffins back when I found I needed to lay off the grains. The interest never faded. I had an egg white I needed to use up in the fridge.I told myself I would freeze them individually. Perfect storm.
Short story. The finished product looked pretty lame. But I stood at the kitchen counter and ate half the batch with butter as my only dinner. Damn. I should be about fifty pounds heavier tomorrow morning.
Why an egg white but not the yolk? What will a whole egg do different to the recipe? I'm just curious.
Your tuna melt recipe calls for basic white or French bread, but anyone who's anyone knows that you ought to an English muffin. I highly suggest that anyone who makes these use them as they were intended- for tuna melts. Chef John's recipe can be found here: http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-tuna-melt-open-face-insert-hypocrisy.html?m=1
And as always... enjoy!
Can I use instant yeast? I can't find active yeast in Belize!
A use for that leftover egg white
that just doesn't belong in ice cream
made these and they tasted great.
http://imgur.com/kIkvfD1
I love your recipes, and am going to try your SF style bagel and this english muffin recipe TODAY. But I have to disagree with you on the "unsalted" butter. I used to buy unsalted butter, until I learned that unsalted butter has another ingredient in it to give the butter the flavor of salt without the salt. MSG. They mask it by stating on the ingredients: cream, "NATURAL FLAVORS" which is a euphemism for MSG.Anything can fit the definition of "natural flavors" or "natural flavoring" and it's usually some form of manipulation from either oils of plants or spices, but more than that, it's manipulation of ingredients created in a bioengineering lab. Anything that states "hydrolyzed yeast extract" or anything like that is MSG. So I buy my butter salted. Even organic unsalted butters, with rare exceptions, contain MSG to compensate for the flavor you're not getting with the salt.
This is a myth. I'm sure somewhere there's unsalted butter with MSG in it, but no one should ever buy butter that includes any kind of not from flavorings or other ingredients that are actually butter. I have no idea where you're buying your butter, but where I get mine, which is any major grocery store in San Francisco, do not contain MSG. You got some bad info.
Do I really need to make these in a cast iron skilled? I don't have one. Will they come out the same, oh and working with that type of dough is so hard, but I will practice on that.
But the real thing I want to know is how to do these in time for breakfast! These take about four hours and I do like my sleep. Could we pop them into the fridge after the second rise?
how much clarified butter?
Just made these today. I generally use whole wheat flour, and only had that... so I adjusted the recipe a little balance things out. When I did the starter mix I added a tablespoon of sugar, and instead of using just the egg white, I used the full egg with the yolk to balance things out with the graininess of the whole wheat flour. I also added a teaspoon of turmeric to this to give it a bit of a health kick. When I floured the counter I used cornflour and avoided chef john's mistake and used a normal corn meal. I think it turned out great, especially with the aroma the clarified butter leaves behind (in my case it was grass fed clarified butter). These English muffins were a success and I'd totally make them again!
I followed the recipe carefully, but my dough was way too dry. I kept adding water in small shots until it was about the consistency of the dough in the video. My muffins turned out edible, but they didn't rise up as much as they should. If mine could ever reach the perfection of Chef's muffins, this house would be in trouble!
Thanks for a great recipe and a very awesome blog sir!
Chef John - I love your YouTube videos. I have been cooking for 60 years but when I am looking for a recipe, I always go to FoodWishes first.
Now... to your English muffin recipe. I live in a Central American country and I literally cannot buy English muffins where I live. So I make them.
But I don't use those foo foo ingredients that you use -- oil and milk. No sir: 5 things - whole wheat flour, 1 tbsp unrefined sugar, salt and yeast. And I use the yeast that doesn't need proofing.
And you cook them in clarified butter!! Tsk. I use a "comal" that has no oil and works just fine. (It's kind of seasoned from years of use.)
For a long time, I would pat out the dough after the first rise and then cut with a small bowl and then put them on the comal and let them rise there. But I realized that making the "rounds" works just as well and is easier, actually. I tried your method of letting them rise and transferring to the comal but it didn't work as well.
I also invert a large cooking pot over the comal which helps cook them without burning.
Thanks again for all your great food! I especially love your attitude about food: respect but no fear.
A brief question- I'd love to make some, but don't want to bother with the kneading and such. Could I use a Bread Machine to do the kneading for me, instead of bothering with doing it by hand?
Always come here first when looking for a new recipe!!
I'd like to try a Cranberry version of this. Would I use "craisins"? Would I need to do anything else different?
I am English, now living in Canada since 1975. I never heard of an English muffin nor saw anything like it over there. A question re the unsalted butter though. One teaspoon of Kosher salt is a fair amount of salt. Why, then, the need to try in unsaed butter? Where is the advantage?
Love your whole approach by the way.
I think the flour measurement must be wrong? 2 cups total was way too much flour and the dough was too stiff, so I turned that into rolls instead. The next batch I only needed 1 1/2 cups plus a little handful to get the right consistency. Otherwise a nice, easy recipe!
Excellent recipe, these were the best english muffins I ever had. I cooked my second one in the cast iron with a lid on and it puffed up even more beautifully.
I froze my leftover dough after portioning the pucks, before the second rise. When ready to use I let them thaw in the fridge over night, then let them rest on the counter for about 15-30 minutes more before cooking. They were as good as fresh!
I'll be doing a larger batch next time so I'll have even more frozen pucks waiting in the freezer.
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