A First – Making English Muffins for the BBA Group

As I’ve said before, when I’m stressed, I bake.  Preferably bread.  On my latest out-of-town jaunt to check on my dear auntie, who has been ill, I felt compelled to bake a bunch of yeasty items the day before I left for Wisconsin.  And one of these items was the English muffins in the The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread.  And, because I had never made homemade English muffins before, and I LOVE them, I was pretty excited to tackle this challenge.

Unlike a lot of recipes in the book, there was no biga, or soaker.  I used buttermilk, and the dough came together quickly and easily.   I loved shaping these little muffins, and they rose incredibly fast in my hot kitchen.  As you can see from the photos, I cooked the first three a little too long on the griddle – the color I was shooting for was a deep golden brown, not black!

But the real test came when I split them open and toasted them – would they have nooks and crannies?

Why, yes, we have some nook and cranny action!  Maybe not quite as much as Thomas’s English Muffins, but as many as Wolferman’s.  The bonus was that my husband loved these, and would like me to make them again.  I thought they could use a bit more depth of flavor.

What changes would I make?  In the future, these will get an overnight rise in the refrigerator to give the dough a chance to develop some more flavor; I may even throw in some sourdough starter to get a bit more “tang.”  In the end, though, these definitely go on the “repeat” list.

FYI, you can see what everyone is making this week at our Flickr group, on Twitter (#BBA), or check out the challenge page.  This bread has been YeastSpotted!