Homemade English Muffins are SO much better than storebought

You won't believe just how much better these English Muffins are than storebought. So darn moist and chewy, almost crumpet-like on the inside. Tons of nooks and crannies to soak up all the butter and jam. Makes for the perfect breakfast sandwich. Forget about Egg McMuffins! Make this recipe for yourself and level up your breakfast game.

English Muffins

Ingredients
- 325mL water, room temperature
- 167g (3/4 cup) Greek yogurt, room temperature
- 40g (3 tbsp) oil
- 3/4 tsp (3g) instant yeast (sub: 1 tsp active dry yeast)
- 560g (4 cups) AP flour
- 1 1/2 tsp (10g) fine sea salt
- 28g (2 tbsp) sugar
- 2-3 cups cornmeal, for dusting (sub coarse semolina)

Make Dough
1. In a large mixing bowl, stir together water and Greek yogurt. It’s okay if some lumps remain. Add in oil and instant yeast, followed by flour. Finally, add salt and sugar on top of the flour.
2. Use a spatula to stir the dough together until it has mostly come together then switch to hands. Lightly knead together until no dry flour remains. Work out any hard lumps of dry flour. The dough will still be pretty rough at this point.
3. Cover and rest 30 minutes.

Stretch & Fold (x3)
1. Perform “Stretch & Fold #1”: use wet hands to grab one side of the dough from against the bowl and stretch the dough up gently until it resists pulling but doesn’t tear. Fold the stretched dough over the rest of the dough. Rotate the bowl 90 degrees and repeat 3 more times going all the way around the bowl. Cover and rest 30 minutes.
2. Repeat the previous step two more times, totalling 3 sets of “Stretch & Folds” over 90 minutes. The dough should become smooth and stretchy.
3. After the last set of folds, cover and rest for 1 hour at room temperature. Then, place in the fridge.

Cold Proof
1. Rest dough in fridge for 10 hours minimum, up to 48 hours.

Shape & Second Proof
1. When ready to cook English Muffins, prepare a half sheet pan by generously dusting with cornmeal. Take rested dough out of the fridge. From this point, work quickly to shape the muffins because cold dough is less sticky and easier to work with.
2. Scrape dough onto the counter and divide into 12 equal portions.
3. Using damp hands to prevent sticking, shape each portion of dough by patting out, turning over, pinching together, turning over again, and rolling with cupped hands into a smooth ball. Place dough balls onto cornmeal lined tray (in a 3x4 grid), leaving 2” between each dough ball.
4. Dust cornmeal over the tops of all the dough balls. Cover tightly with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel. Proof in a warm place for 1.5-2 hours, until the dough balls are puffed up and about doubled in size.

Cook Muffins
1. Pre-heat a 12” non-stick skillet over medium-low heat for 3 minutes.
2. Cook 4 muffins at a time. Transfer dough balls to the skillet with 2 spatulas, using the cornmeal to prevent dough sticking to the spatulas. Once the dough is in the pan, give each dough ball a few firm smacks with a spatula to slightly flatten out.
3. Cover with a lid and cook until the bottoms are lightly golden, about 6 minutes. Halfway through, remove the lid and gently rotate the muffins with hands or spatulas for even cooking. Replace the lid and keep cooking.
4. When the bottoms are lightly golden, use spatulas to flip over each muffin. Once flipped, give each a few more smacks with a spatula.
5. Keep cooking, with lid off, until the other side is also lightly golden, about 6 minutes, rotating half way.
6. When both sides are evenly golden brown and the muffins have been in the skillet for ~12 minutes total, check for doneness by taking internal temperature which should be at least 200F (93C). Transfer to a wire rack to cool then move on to the next batch.
7. Let muffins cool for at least 15 minutes on the tray. Then, split in half by poking all the way around the circumference of a muffin with a fork, then pulling the two perforated halves apart. Toast until crispy and spread with lots of butter. Enjoy!

- Leftover muffins should be split in half, then put back together, sealed tightly, and frozen. When ready to eat, pull out frozen muffin and divide the two halves. Cook in a toaster until golden and crisp, which may take slightly longer than usual. They’ll taste as good as if they were fresh!

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:55 Recipe Begins - Make Dough
02:17 Proof + Stretch & Fold
03:19 Cold Proof
03:34 Shape & Second Proof
05:18 Cook Muffins
07:34 Split & Toast & Enjoy
08:09 Breakfast Sandwiches Baby!
09:24 Outro

[sheldoskitchen]

Here to answer some questions that keep popping up in the comments:

Q: You said at 05:24 that aluminum heats more evenly than cast iron? That's just not true???
A: It's a prevalent myth that cast iron heats evenly. I don't know what brought this notion about, but it's been so often repeated that it's taken for fact. In reality, cast iron is pretty terrible at heating evenly. It's inherent to the material itself. Cast iron has a thermal conductivity of 52 W/m K (watts per meter Kelvin) as opposed to aluminum at 237 W/m K and copper at 413 W/m K. In other words, aluminum is 4.5x better than conducting heat than cast iron and copper is a whopping 8x better. The higher the thermal conductivity, the more readily heat is conveyed across the surface of the metal, meaning more even heating.

One of the main advantages of cast iron is its high heat capacity. Once it gets hot, it stays hot.

In order to truly heat cast iron evenly, we need to keep these properties in mind: low conductivity, high heat capacity. Cast iron should be pre-heated for a long time at a lower heat, for at least 5 minutes, preferably 10 minutes. During this time, the heat can slowly spread to the entire pan, not only heating it evenly but also using up more of the pan's heat capacity; think of it like charging a battery. Once the pan is "charged", it'll stay hot longer and have more heat to give off. This is especially handy when searing meats where sustained high temperatures are a necessity.

Anyway, I digress and can chat about cast iron all day, but back to the question: unless a cast iron pan is pre-heated for at least 5-10 minutes, an aluminum pan will always heat more evenly. I'm not knocking cast iron at all and it'll turn out delicious muffins, but I'd prefer not to waste energy/time pre-heating the pan when an aluminum skillet works just as well.

Sources:

Q: Can I use plain yogurt instead of Greek yogurt?
A: Yes definitely. Since regular yogurt is wetter than Greek yogurt, hold back about a 1/4 cup (~60mL) of the water in the recipe. Only add the water as needed once the dough is all mixed up in order to match the dough consistency shown in the video.

Q: My dough is too sticky. Help!
A: Every flour has a different absorbency and that coupled with environmental differences, makes it difficult to give an exact amount of liquid to use in a recipe. With all bread recipes, use your best judgement. Follow visual and textural clues as opposed to hard numbers (same goes for kneading time and proofing time, etc).

Once the dough is mixed up, it should have the same consistency as shown in the video (around 02:17). The dough will be sticky but shouldn't be wet. It should form a coherent mass that is able to somewhat retain its shape as opposed to immediately spreading out.

If the dough is feeling too wet, add some flour (up to a 1/4 cup or 35g) and knead it in until the dough is feeling less wet. If the opposite is true and the dough is feeling too dry, add water a tablespoon at a time while kneading. Make note of how much water or flour you added this time so that you'll have a good reference for next time.

Q: I can't get cornmeal, will something else work?
A: Coarse semolina will do the job. If you can't get that either, it's a little more tricky. Just flour may work but I'd worry about scorching the flour. May try un-toasted sesame seeds. It'll create a different muffin but will be delicious. English Muffins crusted in toasted sesame seeds? That sounds pretty good to me.

Q: Can I use whole wheat/whole grain?
A: Certainly can, but expect denser muffins. A great place to start is to replace half of the flour in the recipe with whole wheat. That way, you get the goodness of whole wheat but also the strength and lightness of white flour. Whole wheat flour tends to be more absorbent than white flour so adjust accordingly by adding more water as needed.

Q: Can I freeze the muffins?
A: Oh yes you can and they freeze beautifully. Make the muffins as usual. Once cooled, pre-split them and assemble the two halves back together. Place the split muffins into an airtight container or freezer bag and freeze until hardened. They'll keep for at least 3 months that way.

To re-heat, simply take out the muffin, pry apart the two halves, and pop them straight into the toaster. It may take a bit more time, but they'll toast up to taste just like fresh.

[blueshoestaptap]

This is subtly one of the best recipe videos I've ever seen. From using weight and volume-based measurements, to the low-key background music, to the tips like cast iron hot spotting, you've brought everything together in such a concise and engaging way. Love it!

[jarrardscott]

This is probably one of the only cooking channels where it goes in to details on the little intricacies and little bits of knowledge you need for baking breads. One of the best youtube bakers there is!

[heather_doestruecrime]

Okay not that I’m just watching English muffin tutorials every day or anything but this is the best video of a recipe/tutorial I’ve ever seen! In general, really for any food. Super informative, easy to follow & not boring at all

[alexiscaldera]

I made these today and they were PHENOMENAL. Next time I will double the recipe. My husband ate 4 while they were still warm!

[trynadyna]

I really love the method of forming a uniform log by creating a circle, poking it, and splitting it. That is freaking genius.

[merryxkg]

Thank you for how gently straightforward and informative this video AND your replies in the comments section have been! The tip about using a fork to break into the muffins totally changed my whole english muffin game.

[maromarin]

had to make these as soon as I saw the video! I'm not a very experienced baker but these turned out wonderfully! Your explanations are great, all the info really helps me to feel more confident in the kitchen :)

[Purpurschnecke]

I'm in love with your description!

[sydneyclairesoutham]

Aaaaah Sheldon these look so delicious! Your descriptions are always so clear, and your obvious passion for food makes these videos extremely entertaining.

[wendywhite]

Thank you for all of the many many details you gave about bread making and specifically for this type of bread. Nuances make all the difference in bread.

[jojomojo]

I loved, LOVED this tutorial! The amount of easily digested information (no pun intended) is phenomenal. I’ve been looking for a great English muffin recipe for years.

I can’t buy them in my country and a lot of the recipes seem complicated and require equipment I don’t have 🤪 thank you!

[cbeitel]

I managed it! I made these and they are brilliant. You're right, I'm never going back to buying English muffins again. Thanks :)

[MariaPetrescu]

Made these today, prepared the dough yesterday afternoon: what an AMAZING recipe!
Let me point out how extremely forgiving the recipe is... even though my dough was extremely wet to begin with, I did not manage to knead it at all and my rising times were all over the place, the results were delicious anyway!
I got a feel for the dough and managed to roll them properly after a few attempts, giving the ball of dough a little strength.
They did take a lot longer than 12 minutes to cook, at least in my skillet.
All things considered, it's an incredible staple especially if you don't want to turn on your oven!

[justinlandis]

Love your presentation and aesthetic. Your visuals and teaching are just outstanding. Every time I felt a question bubbling up you read my mind and answered it in your explanation. This happened a few times. I used to love English muffins as a child. I'm not currently eating wheat but these look absolutely delicious. Thanks.

[kristarupert]

I'd like to think I'm a pretty good and adventurous cook, but I have never baked anything that required using yeast in my life. This was my first recipe and even though I made a couple of mistakes, they STILL turned out so perfectly perfect that I can't wait to make them again! Such a great recipe, the video is super helpful to gauge size, texture and details that don't always translate in a written recipe. Thank you!

[communitycook]

I keep coming back to your videos again and again. You’re a great teacher! Thank you.

[DrSchroty]

I enjoyed watching this WAY more than I should have! Great job

[gnssgrl]

Loved your comments to explain why each step was needed as well as the comments related to trouble shooting. I found these VERY helpful as I wasn’t able to glean the same tips from my previous research. Thx!

[throughinfinity]

I made these last weekend and they turned out wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing, excellent video.