- If you're looking for the ultimate breakfast treat,
then you've got to try my English muffin recipe.
10 times better than store-bought.
And if you like this video,
don't forget to hit that Like button and subscribe.
Hey, you're watching Preppy Kitchen, where I, John Kanell,
teach you how to make delicious homemade dishes
to share with your family and friends.
These English muffins will be ready in a snap,
so let's get started.
I combine 1/2 a cup of water with 3/4 of a cup of milk,
two tablespoons of sugar.
And now we're going to pop this into the microwave.
We want this to get nice and toasty,
i.e., 110 to 115 Fahrenheit, before we add the yeast.
Always give your mixture a good mix
before taking the temperature,
because you've got that sugar
gets a bit hotter than the milk.
Right now, we're going to add
one packet of yeast right inside.
Give it a little mix.
We're going to set this aside
while we measure out the dry ingredients,
of which there are two.
For these English muffins,
we need 2 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour; that's 330 grams.
(gasps) Just right.
I'm also going to add in one teaspoon of salt.
And that's it for the dry ingredients.
Give it a little mix.
And then once that yeast is nice and bubbly,
we can combine the two.
Normally, we would use a dough hook for dough,
but not today.
We're using a paddle attachment.
This dough is not like a normal bread dough.
It is so loose and slack.
That's how you get the nooks and crannies.
Anyways, this isn't going to work.
Just use a paddle attachment.
Once your mixture is nice and frothy,
add three tablespoons of melted butter
and one egg without the shell.
All right, mix that up.
Add the dry mixture into your stand mixer.
Let's pop on a paddle attachment.
We're going to add this liquid mixture in
while the mixture's going on like stir, lowest speed.
This batter is going to be loose.
You're gonna look at it and say,
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, this isn't right."
But special English muffins are very different
than a normal muffin.
We're going to increase speed to medium,
and mix for seven minutes or so.
All the kneading is happening in this bowl.
I'm not going to do anything on the counter.
I'm going to set a timer and do some dishes.
(cheerful music)
Okay, it's been seven minutes.
Look at the difference in this dough.
It's totally transformed
and it's so much more smooth and silky.
Still very slack, but look at this.
All right, so here's the deal.
You have two options.
You can let us rise for an hour or so,
or I find it's better to let it rise overnight.
English muffins are always the very best fresh,
so you can do all the prep work the night before,
then in the morning, just bake them up.
I'm transferring the dough into an oiled ball.
And be generous with your oil,
because, as you can see, this dough is quite sticky.
It actually took a while for me to develop this recipe
and be really happy with it.
English muffins are one of those things
that I never thought were amazing
until I made them the right way.
And then they're like, oh my gosh,
the most delicious thing ever.
So cover this up.
We'll be right back.
But you can do this the night before.
Let's pull that dough out of the warming drawer.
Look at that risen masterpiece of loose dough.
Here's the plan.
We're going to flour the surface we're going to work on.
Turn this upside down.
Take your time.
Can use a little bit more flour on my hands.
And then just pat it down to be about an inch thick.
The secret to a nice English muffin
is not making it too thin,
so let it keep its shape.
I lined a pan with parchment paper.
I'm sprinkling some corn flour, cornmeal,
or semolina on here.
I'm using a three-inch circle cutter.
And I'm just going to cut carefully.
And then we're going to transfer this
carefully onto our baking sheet.
And you can see it's sticky,
so we can just corral it back into shape.
Place it right there.
And then repeat the process.
In between, you're going to add flour to your cutter,
because this is going to get totally gummed up
and not cut really cleanly.
Your dough is soft, it's pretty delicate,
so just be gentle with it.
And if it flattens out a bit too much,
you can just push it back into shape.
It's not going to be this flat,
because this has a second rise of just half an hour.
But in that half hour time, it'll really puff up a bit more.
I'm using a little spatula
or a offset spatula, rather, to transfer these,
because I don't want them to stretch out.
(gasps) I forgot to flour my cutter.
Thank you, Brian.
I have all these scraps left.
They're not garbage.
We're just going to corral them back together.
Cut them out one more time.
There you'll have one big muffin
and maybe a little tiny extra scrap.
I'm going to cover my muffins up
with just a sheet of parchment paper.
You can place this in a nice warm place to rise up,
or just leave them on the counter half an hour,
and we'll be right back.
After a short rise, my English muffins
have gotten larger, a little puffier.
Now, we're going to set a big skillet over very low
and let it warm up slowly.
Once you can feel the heat when you hover your hand over,
don't touch, it's ready to cook.
Carefully place your muffins onto your hot-ish pan.
Use a spatula to carefully and gently scoop your muffins up.
You can cook three or four at a time,
or even one if you want to go extra slow.
Once your muffins are placed,
you're going to add a cover on top.
And then they're going to cook for five to six minutes.
At the five-minute mark, you can check your muffins.
Take a peek.
And this looks good, so carefully flop it over,
just like that.
They're not super hot, so you can actually use your fingers
to place them back down carefully.
That's how you get finger marks
on a lot of the English muffins
that people would make at home.
Cover it back up.
We're going to cook it for about four to five minutes,
or until the bottom is golden now,
and then they're ready to pry apart.
If you want, you could bake these in muffin rings.
I'll show you what this looks like.
This is just a circular cookie cutter,
but it's the same thing.
You'll just cook it directly in this
and then plop it out afterwards.
Cooked in a muffin tin,
they have a crazy, perfect edge, and they rose really high.
I do like the look more of this, the homey, handmade kind.
This is going to be the best thing ever
with a lashing of butter, maybe a little bit of jam
and a bit of coffee.
Pry them open with a fork.
There's no need to toast a fresh English muffin.
It is the best thing ever.
If you liked this video, check out my breakfast playlist.
It's like the perfect bite.
Crunchy, soft in the middle.
All those nooks and crannies ready for the butter.
I'll see you in the next video.