Homemade English Muffins

English muffins are a delightful breakfast option, and homemade English muffins are even better! Made with fresh milled flour, these English muffins are fluffy and perfect for spreading with jam and butter! Make these with einkorn flour or fresh milled modern wheat.

Course Bread, Breakfast

Cuisine American, British

Keyword Einkorn English Muffins, English Muffin, English Muffins, English Muffins Recipe, Fresh Milled Flour English Muffins, Homemade English Muffins

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 25

Rise Time 1 30

Total Time 2 5

Servings muffins

Calories 153kcal

Ingredients

2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons maple syrup
9 g instant yeast (1 packet, or 2 1/4 tsp)
3 cups fresh milled flour (360g) We use einkorn
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter melted
1 large egg
Cornmeal or Semolina

Instructions

Heat – Combine the milk, water, and sugar in a small pan and heat to 110°F. If using dry active yeast, add the yeast to the mix and set aside for 5 minutes before continuing. Otherwise, continue on as normal.
Combine – Add the flour, salt, and yeast (if using instant) to the bowl of an electric mixer with a paddle attachment (not a dough hook!). Mix briefly to combine.
Add – Into the milk/butter mix, add the egg and melted butter. Pour into the flour mix while mixing on low. Raise the speed to medium and mix for 7 minutes, or until the dough is smooth. It will be fairly sticky, but should hold its form when shaped (see the top image in the collage above).
Rise – Transfer the dough to a buttered bowl and cover for about an hour. You can let the dough rise overnight in the fridge, instead. If you do that, just let it warm up on the counter for about an hour in the morning.
Shape – Transfer the dough to a floured surface and flour the top. Gently roll or press the dough out until it’s about 3/4″ thick. On another clean surface, or on a parchment-lined baking tray, sprinkle with cornmeal or semolina for the cut dough pieces. Use a 2 1/2″ round cutter and cut as many muffins out as you can. Place them on the cornmeal-dusted area. Repeat until all dough is gone, re-rolling the scraps as needed.
Second Rise – Let the biscuits rest for about 30 minutes.
Cook – Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Once heated, sprinkle the surface with cornmeal/semolina and add 3 muffins to the pan. I would keep the muffins to 3, as they can be tough to flip until you get the hang of it! Cover the pan and reduce the heat to medium-low, then cook for 6 minutes until each piece is browned on the bottom and the top appears dry. Then, flip each muffin and cook for another 6 minutes, until browned on the other side.
Repeat – After each round (both sides), remove the finished muffins and clear out the old cornmeal. I do this with a basting brush and just sweep the cornmeal into my kitchen scraps bowl. Add fresh cornmeal/semolina and cook the next batch. Repeat until all muffins are cooked and enjoy them hot!
Toast - While optional, toasting these English muffins really brings out all the little characteristic holes in the bread!

Notes

Ingredients

Here is a quick look at the ingredients and any possible substitutions.

Milk – We use whole milk, but any type of animal or plant milk that you have will work!
Maple Syrup – Granulated white sugar is typically called for, but we prefer maple syrup. Use any sweetener you want though, as long as it will feed the yeast! Stevia and no-calorie sweeteners will not.
Yeast – We have used both dry active and instant yeast for this recipe, and prefer instant yeast. If you want to use dry active, just take 1/4 cup of liquid from the total called for in the recipe and heat it to 110°F. Add the yeast and sweetener and mix well. Allow to bloom for 5 minutes before continuing with the rest of the recipe.
Flour – We use fresh milled einkorn flour, but if you want to convert to all-purpose or whole wheat einkorn, you can use The Einkorn Kitchen app to convert this recipe instantly! If you are using fresh milled modern wheat, you will need to increase the liquid by about 1/4 cup.
Salt – Skip the table salt if you can, and use a high-quality sea salt for best results!
Butter – Both salted and unsalted butter work well in this recipe, but we tend to use salted.
Egg – Use a whole egg to help condition the dough. Don’t skip if you can help it!
Cornmeal – This is used for dusting the skillet during baking and gives the classic English muffin texture to the finished bread. Semolina can be used instead, but either way, make sure that the cornmeal is very fine, or it will cook to a hard texture and be very crunchy on your muffins, which is not desirable!

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