English Muffins!

When I was younger, I used to spend school holidays with my aunt in Singapore. She would buy this pack of English muffins and we would have them for breakfast - toasted with butter and jam. I now crave that kind of muffins - soft, a bit chewy and go really great with jam. There is this similar kind of bread in Turkey called bazlama and it looks exactly like English muffins but the taste is not quite there.

So of course when my mind is made up that I want to try and make something, I will search the internet to see whether it is viable to make (I checked croissant recipe and decided that it's too difficult). I watched some YouTube videos and read some blogs, and they all have different ways and variation of ingredients. Some use eggs, some don't, some use milk, some use water, etc. Some knead and use a cutter, some don't knead and just let it sit overnight.

So in the end I decided to try the overproofing method, where you leave the slighty liquidy sticky dough overnight to fully rise and then fall, to create the 'nooks and crannies' as they call it when you split the muffin in half.

At first I tried using this recipe. But I kind of buat pandai and used 1 cup of white flour and 1 cup of whole wheat flour instead of 2 cups of white flour as stated in the recipe. Somehow my muffins had this overpowering yeast smell and slightly bitter.

from the first recipe

they look okay, but I didn't like the taste

I considered my first batch as a failure. I never had much luck in bread-making and anything to do with dough, but at this point I have already become obsessed with making the right English muffins. I checked for another recipe and stumbled upon this blog (https://delishably.com/baked-goods/Homemade-English-Muffins). I decided to try again with her ingredients but with the first recipe's methods. And this time I didn't add whole wheat flour - just normal all purpose flour. They turned out great. I am so happy and because they are so easy to make, I don't mind doing them again :)

This is how I made them :

Ingredients :

1 & 1/4 cup fresh milk
1 Tablespoon sugar (brown or white)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups plus 2 Tablespoons white flour
1 Tablespoon plain yogurt
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
2 teaspoon yeast
Semolina or cornmeal, for sprinkling

Method :

Heat milk to a simmer, add butter and sugar
Transfer to a mixing bowl, when the milk becomes lukewarm add yeast. Wait 10 mins to activate the yeast.
In the meantime measure the flour and add salt.
Put yoghurt into the milk mixture and add the flour. Beat the mixture with a spatula or hand mixture. The dough should be sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and leave overnight to overproof it (it will rise and fall).
The next morning, scrape the dough and give it a bit of a mix. sprinkle some semolina or corn flour on a tray. Scoop out the dough and place on the tray and sprinkle some semolina on top of the dough too.
I find that waiting for the dough to rise for 30 minutes will give it a nicer shape before cooking them on an ungreased skillet on the stove using small heat. Let the muffin cook on the skillet slowly, about 8 minutes each side. Afterwards you can also put into 175 degree Celsius oven for 5 minutes to finish it up. Wait for them to cool down, split them open with a fork and enjoy!