English Muffins
If you are ever in St. Helena, a quaint town in the heart of the Napa Valley, you must visit The Model Bakery . It is hands down our favorite bakery. They not only make excellent Almond Macaroons , as we previously shared with you, they also make the best English Muffins ever. Even Oprah is a fan and has included them in her Favorite Things list two years in a row. We don’t live in the Napa Valley area and so don’t have ready access to the bakery. That, and the fact that their muffins are a little pricey ($2.30 each), inspired us to try to recreate them ourselves.
After we first tasted them we tried to recreate them ourselves without much success. Lucky for us, the bread gods were listening and The Model Bakery published a cookbook with the recipe for their English muffins. You can find the cookbook here if you are interested in trying more of the delicious recipes.
Even after making The Model Bakery recipe several times, our English muffins just weren’t quite like the ones from the bakery. Mostly, they weren’t as tall and airy and they weren’t uniform in shape. After tweaking the recipe a bit, we have come fairly close to replicating the heaven that is their muffins. The ingredients remain exactly the same, it’s just the process that we’ve altered a bit. We’ve incorporated our changes into the recipe below.
The process of making these muffins takes a bit of time and we’ve found it nearly impossible to make them in time for breakfast due to the rising/resting times…but we have been able to make them in time for brunch. Do not be put off by this! The hands on time is minimal and they are truly worth the wait. They are delicious any time of day (hello, afternoon tea!) and they freeze really well.
One last piece of advice…split them with a fork and toast them. You will be glad you did!
Jump to Recipe
The Biga should be nice and bubbly.
Dough before and after initial 2 hour rise.
Dough balls formed and ready to rise.
After resting for about 2 hours, the balls will have spread and puffed, and are ready to cook.
Cook in batches in clarified butter, about 5-6 minutes per side.
Flip the muffins when they are golden brown and puffy.
Remove to a paper towel lined baking rack to cool.
English Muffins
Ingredients
- Biga
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 cup (75g) bread flour
- 3/4 tsp instant/quick-rising yeast
- Dough
- 1 1/3 cups water
- 3/4 tsp instant/quick-rising yeast
- 1 TBL plus 1 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 3 1/2 cups (510g) unbleached all-purpose flour as needed
- Other
- 1/4 cup (35g) yellow cornmeal preferably stone-ground
- 6 TBS melted clarified butter (ghee) as needed
Instructions
- To make the biga: At least 1 day before cooking the muffins, combine the flour, water, and yeast in a small bowl to make a sticky dough. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 12 hours or up to 24 hours. The biga will rise slightly.
- To make the dough: Combine the biga, water, yeast, olive oil, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Affix the bowl to the mixer and fi t with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the mixture looks creamy, about 1 minute. Mix in 3 cups/435 g of the flour to make a soft, sticky dough. Turn off the mixer, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let stand for 20 minutes. (To make by hand, combine the water, biga, yeast, oil, and salt in a large bowl and break up the biga with a wooden spoon. Stir until the biga dissolves. Mix in enough flour to make a cohesive but tacky dough. Cover and let stand for 20 minutes.)
- Mix in enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough that barely cleans the mixer bowl. Replace the paddle with the dough hook. Knead on medium-low speed (if the dough climbs up the hook, just pull it down) until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface to check its texture. It should feel tacky but not stick to the work surface. (To make by hand, knead on a floured work surface, adding more flour as necessary, until the dough is smooth and feels tacky, about 10 minutes.)
- Shape the dough into a ball. Oil a medium bowl. Put the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil, leaving the dough smooth-side up. Cover with plastic wrap. Let stand in a warm place until almost doubled in volume, about 2 hours. (The dough can also be refrigerated for 8 to 12 hours. Let stand at room temperature for 1 hour before proceeding to the next step.)
- Using a bowl scraper, scrape the dough out of the bowl onto a lightly floured work surface. Cut into twelve equal pieces. Shape each into ball – we find this easiest using a cupped hand against a silpat, The balls will sag a bit on top, and that’s ok (see photo). Sprinkle an even layer of cornmeal over a half-sheet pan. Place the balls on the cornmeal about 2” apart. Sprinkle more cornmeal over the tops of the balls and loosely cover the pan with plastic wrap. Let stand in a warm place until the rounds have increased in volume by half and a finger pressed into a round leaves an impression for a few seconds before filling up, about 1 ½ - 2 hours, depending on the temperature of your kitchen.
- Melt a generous 2 Tbsp of the clarified butter in a large, heavy skillet (preferably cast-iron) over medium heat until melted and hot, but not smoking. In batches, add the dough rounds to the skillet. Cook, adjusting the heat as needed so the muffins brown without scorching, adding more clarified butter as needed. The undersides should be nicely browned, about 5-6 minutes. Turn and cook until the other sides are browned and the muffins are puffed, about 5-6 minutes more. Transfer to a paper towel–lined wire rack rack and let cool. (It will be tempting to eat these hot off the griddle, but let them stand for at least 20 minutes to complete the cooking with carry-over heat.) Repeat with the remaining muffins, wiping the cornmeal out of the skillet with paper towels and adding more clarified butter as needed.
- Split each muffin in half horizontally with a fork. Toast until lightly browned. Serve hot.