English Muffins

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We don't eat English muffins a lot in our house and even when we plan to eat muffins I seem to forget to buy them. Adding to the fact that there are lots of chemicals in the store bought kind I decided to give my hand at making some. The recipe says to cook them then wait a day to eat them. I highly recommend you do that. Mine were gummy the first day but the second day they were just right. These do freeze well and I did freeze some for future use. I did not have English muffin rings so I shaped the muffins by hand. Not a perfect job but fairly close.

English Muffins
King Arthur's Bakers Companion

Starter
1 1/2 cups (6 1/4 ounces) unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 cup (6 ounces) water
1/8 teaspoon yeast

Mix all the starter ingredients in a medium sized bowl to form a smooth batter. Cover and leave at room temperature for at least 4 hours, or up to 16 hours. The starter should be puffy and full of holes when it's ready to use.

Dough
1 3/4 cups (7 1/4 ounce) unbleached all purpose flour
2 tablespoons (1/2 ounce) cornstarch
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons (7/8 ounce) sugar or non-diastatic malt powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) butter, melted
3/4 cup (6 ounces) milk, warm
1 to 2 tablespoons cornmeal for sprinkling on the pan

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the starter and all the dough ingredients, except the cornmeal, to form a smooth batter. The batter needs to be beaten for 5 to 8 minutes. Cover the bowl and place in a warm spot until the batter has doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Lightly grease 10 to 12 English muffin rings and place the rings on a lightly greased or parchment lined baking sheet that's already been sprinkled with a small amount of cornmeal. If you don't have English muffin rings, simply drop the batter onto the pan and shape it with your fingers. The muffin won't be perfect but will taste just fine.

Stir the dough, then drop a scant 1/4 cup dough into each ring. Sprinkle lightly with cornmeal. Smooth the dough, if desired, with your fingers, dipped in water first. Cover the pan and place in a warm place to rise for 1 hour, or until muffins have grown by at least a third.

Preheat the oven to 350 degree. Bake the muffins for 25 minutes, until they're lightly browned on both sides. The muffins may be forked split and eaten immediately (they'll be soft) or, for crunchier muffins, cool them completely, split them and toast.