After a brief pause, English muffins are back on track

Observations

Refrigerating the at peak liquid levian had no adverse effects. After bringing it back to room temperature it was ready to go.

I have to say the low hydration, lightly enriched dough is really nice. Easy to handle and silky smooth.

Here we are a few minutes to go in bulk fermentation. The next step is dividing, shaping, and then into cool proof. More to come tomorrow.

Few things

The " Made in" carbon steel griddle said it was pre seasoned.
I resesoned it. Avocado oil very thin layer. 400° F for 25 minutes. I may reapply after it cools.
2. The temperature gun confirmed hot spots on the griddle. I will have to keep awareness high
3. The proofed muffins are very difficult to handle without degassing. Practice.

Going forward I see no benefits in buying packaged English muffins. For next weekend a double batch to send home with these two.

Wholesome ✅👍
Cost effective ✅👍
Flavor ✅👍
Satisfaction of making homemade ✅👍

Home made English muffins are so good. Yours look very tasty with those crisped edges. They are very tolerant to dough and fermentation variations, too. Here's one with 15% buckwheat and a little nigella seed -

TomP

Any tips for the griddle phase?

I think a moderate griddle temperature works best, 325 - 350 deg F as measured with an IR thermometer. I cook them on a dry griddle though some people like clarified butter. I always had trouble getting them cooked enough in the middle so I finish up with 5 minutes in an oven at 250 - 300 deg F. This is much easier and more tolerant than trying to balance out cooking the insides without overcooking the outsides.

Oh, and I like them a little smaller than many so I scale them to 80 - 85g each (I like my bagels smaller, too; most bagels these days are way too big IMHO).

Mine are also 80 g. I will try on a dry griddle. I was shooting for 350 on the IR. I am noticing it's not easy to get a consistent temp all over the griddle. I think dry may work better

The steel is well seasoned now. Thank you.

Yes, and my griddle usually keeps getting hotter from one batch to the next. I have to allow for that and keep turning the setting lower.

I actually have a very old Teflon griddle that I perfected making pancakes on, after burning quite a few. The thing is I want to move away from the Teflon. Especially this old pan, that is likely from before safety regulations were

Put in place.

Here's the griddle I use these days -

https://usa-shop.wekigai.eu/collections/frontpage/products/panache-griddle-pan

It will cook three at a time. The finish is baked vitreous material, not teflon. I sometimes also use a carbon steel skillet. I think both work as well as a cast iron skillet and are lighter. Either way, as long as I have used enough corn meal, semolina, etc., when I put them to proof, sticking hasn't been a problem.

I was thinking I need to use more semolina to keep the well proofed muffins from stick to the parchment during cool retard.

The photo below is of

The well used old Teflon griddle. If you look closely you can notice it is starting to peel at the edges. Trying to make my baked goods Heather than store brought, so I can feel good about " the little ones" consuming is important. Using a griddle that is questionable does not sit well with me. After a short ceremony the old griddle is going to be retired into the trash.
Next is a simple relatively inexpensive aluminum sheet pan, that I seasoned. The well seasoned pan is my defecated nine slice Brooklyn Sicilian pizza pan. The 16 X 16 size is no longer available. The Brooklyn company that made them out of heavy black steel did not survive COVID. Being a sucker for nostalgia enter my substitution for a 9 slice pie

for English muffins. I bought rings and tried 2 different formulas but they weren't a success at all.They never got close to cooking inside even when I baked them to finish after the griddle. It looks like they can be shaped basically like hamburger buns but flatter so not nearly as wet as the ones I tried.

Any info appreciated . c

From my notes from June of last year (you will get a kick out of the first part):

For this bake I am trying a technique I learned from TFLer @Trailrunner.
She wrote me that she's been beating in part of the flour into the
liquid like a cake, then gradually mixing in more. She says she
gets very good gluten development this way. I think this is similar
to my own recent approach, which is to form a good gluten network
first and then add in more flour and the non-gluten-forming
ingredients after that.
I used 15% unsifted buckwheat flour, the rest AP, and the 3-6-9
ratio I have used in the past. I withheld the buckwheat and salt until
later because I am going for a soft extensible dough. I'm also
going to cook them more gently, based on my batch from a few days ago.
Recipe
-------
- 205g - AP flour (Gold Medal).
- 35g - unsifted buckwheat.
- 80g starter.
- 60g milk (full fat).
- 100g water.
- 5g - salt.
- 3g - sugar
Overall hydration: 71%.

I don't use muffin rings. I have a set but they always seem like too much mess and trouble. I use a lower hydration so the muffins will hold their shape on their own.

Process
---------
- Pre-measure AP and buckwheat separately.
- Add starter, water, and about half of the AP flour. Mix.
- Gradually mix in the rest of the AP flour.
- Rest 20 minutes.
- Mix in the buckwheat flour. Knead in bowl.
- Rest 30 minutes;
- Dissolve salt in ~2g of water, mix in. S&F in bowl.
- Rest 1 hr. Stretch dough on large rectangle on bench, fold into
packet, round into ball.
- Rest 1 hr. Coil folds in bulk ferment tub (mostly curious what the
dough would feel like).
- Bulk ferment; total ~ 5 hrs (I didn't keep careful track).
- Scale, preform, rest.
- Form muffins with tortilla-like press (not thin like tortillas)
- Proof covered 45 minutes.
- Griddle 350°F 5 minutes/side, then finish in oven 5 minutes 300°F.

You don't have to press them but I find it makes for a more regular shape than just patting a ball of dough and takes less skill than rolling out a circle. I cut a gallon ziplock bag down the sides and open it up.Sprinkle with flour or corn meal. I put a dough ball on the bottom half, close the top half, and press down with a Pyrex pie plate until the form is larger than you want (it will spring back because of the gluten, of course). Rock the plate around to keep the shape circular. As the gluten relaxes and the pieces rise, they will get larger again.

Doing them again today, I would use a lower griddle temperature and a longer time per side.

🤣🤣🤣🤣 ok I’ll save this and try when I get back. No buckwheat but I’ll sub something. Thank you… 🙏

I'm pretty sure that we still have a tortilla press. Maybe that could be used for shaping the EMs, much like your pie plate method.

Paul

I would have used a press if I had one, but the glass pie plate is a good substitute for making English muffins. It needs to have a flat bottom for best results. With a press, you probably don't need to press it as thin as for a tortilla (and the dough will spring back, anyway).

Maurizio's method calls for a near collapse proof. While this does make them tricky to transfer to the griddle, it negates as my need for further shaping after balling. The ones I was able to transfer without damage naturally self shaped. Tom, next bake I will foll w your suggestion of much more #1 semolina in the proofing sheet pan.

If there's enough semolina or corn meal, I find I can tease up an edge of a muffin with my fingertips. From there I can get a spatula under it and transfer to the griddle, or even work it onto my hand and transfer it that way, depending of course on the consistency of the dough.

I tried my first attempt at English muffins about a month ago. Why didn't I try it sooner??? They're easy to make and really good. You can make them out of any dough and they keep well. I just ate the last one from a batch I made Thursday. I'll make another batch tomorrow. I think I've got the routine worked out now so they always turn out the same. i'm using a large electric fry pan to bake/cook them. I put the lid on while "frying" the second side, and that seems to eliminate the need to bake them after "frying". Jim

That being said I am going to have to perfect the process with the stovetop griddle. Thanks for your help.

That is my breakfast on a workday, I have been buying store bought for years at close to $4:00 for 6 muffins. Yes I am going to start making my own.

After you make them successfully, those store ones will seem like cardboard.

I’ve not eaten a store English muffin in years lol! I gave them up. Have done without. We shall see.