English Muffins Recipe

English muffins are a quietly clever bread: they are not baked in an oven at all, but cooked on a dry griddle inside ring molds, which is why they come out flat-topped, pale gold, and split-able into two craggy halves. Fork-split (never sliced) and toasted, the interior is all nooks and crannies — the open, holey texture that catches butter and jam and is the entire reason to make them.

Those nooks come straight from the ratio. At 78% hydration the batter-like dough is wet and slack, full of large irregular bubbles that set into voids as the muffin cooks. A drier dough would give you a smooth, cakey crumb and miss the point entirely. Milk supplies all that liquid and a tender richness; a little oil (5%) and sugar (2%) round it out, and the low 0.5% yeast keeps fermentation slow for flavor. Salt sits at 1.8%.

The technique that separates good English muffins from great ones is heat control on the griddle. Too hot and the outside browns before the inside cooks through, leaving a raw center; too cool and they dry out before they set. Low and patient is the rule — you are essentially baking them on the stovetop, several minutes a side, often finishing the thickest ones in a warm oven. Cooling fully before splitting lets the crumb firm up so the fork can find the seams.

Most traditional versions build flavor with an overnight pre-ferment, and that is the better-tasting route if you can plan ahead. A same-day version with a bit more yeast also works when you want muffins this morning rather than tomorrow.