Deli Rye English Muffins

These deli rye English muffins take the nook and cranny-ness of English muffins and combine it with the flavors of your favorite deli rye bread. 

 

These English muffins are wonderful fork split, toasted, buttered and topped with an over easy fried egg for breakfast. They are also delicious toasted for your favorite deli-style sandwich for lunch. 

Multigrain English Muffins

Homemade English muffins with whole wheat, wheat germ, and rolled oats.

Split these multigrain English muffins with a fork, toast them, and slather them with butter for breakfast. You can also add some jam, or even use these for a breakfast sandwich.

No Knead English Muffins

These English muffins are soft and airy on the inside and crisp and crusty on the outside. When split with a fork, they are loaded with "nooks and crannies."

These English muffins are "baked" on a griddle rather than in the oven, and the dough is one-third whole wheat flour, which gives them a slightly sweet hearty flavor.

Sourdough English Muffins on the Griddle

I love English muffins. They are so good toasted and buttered or spread with jam.

Some of my favorite ways to eat English muffins are as part of a breakfast sandwich, as a base for a quick mini pizza, and for an open faced tuna melt. The tuna melt especially brings back memories of my sister and me hanging out together with our new babies and spending the day together (and maybe watching Days of Our Lives or All My Children while our babies were napping). Creating those tuna melts was about as "fancy" as we could get while juggling babies on our hips. The tuna melts were especially good with potato chips and dill pickles....

English Muffin Bread

I have made this English Muffin Bread many times, and can't believe I never posted it! This bread, sliced, is kind of the equivalent to English muffins, without the griddle. The bread pan is dusted with corn meal to mimic traditional English muffins. This bread is delicious toasted and spread with butter and jam. The combination of yeast and baking powder produces the "nooks and crannies" that one would expect from English muffins.

Cherry English Muffins

These cherry English muffins are probably the closest I've gotten to creating the "nook and cranny" English muffins for which we bakers strive. Plus they have cherries!!!

English Muffins | Avid Bakers Challenge

Homemade English muffins have been on my list of breads to attempt. While I had made the recipe in Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice, I wasn't that happy with the results (sorry Peter). The dough seemed too firm  and dense for English muffins.

English Muffin Bread

Sometimes you just want bread right now. This bread is perfect for those times. Most of the ingredients are probably in your pantry, and you will have bread in a hour and a half with a "hands on" time of less than 15 minutes.

This bread is full of holes, just like good English muffins, and makes excellent toast.

This month's theme for Twelve Loaves is "clean slate - starting the year with simplicity." I present to you one of the simplest breads around. Unlike no knead bread, it does require mixing, but also unlike no knead bread, it does not require two rises and a long wait. This bread is more about immediate gratification.

English Muffin Bread

Adapted from King Arthur Flour. They have some great step-by-step photos and notes on their blog. 

Ingredients

12 3/4 ounces unbleached all-purpose flour

1 T sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 T instant yeast

1 C milk

1/4 C water

2 T oil

cornmeal or semolina to sprinkle in the pan

Instructions

• In the bowl of a stand mixer, or a large mixing bowl, add all of the dry ingredients except the cornmeal, and whisk to blend. 
• In a microwave safe bowl or large glass measuring cup, combine the wet ingredients and heat in the microwave until it reaches somewhere between 120 to 130 degrees F. An instant read thermometer is really helpful here. 
• Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and beat at high speed for one minute.
• Spray or grease a 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 loaf pan and sprinkle the sides and bottom with the cornmeal. 
• Scrape the dough into the pan and smooth the top. 
• Set the oven to 400 degrees F, cover the dough with oiled plastic wrap, and let rise for about 45 minutes to an hour. The dough should just crest over the pan's rim. 
• Remove the plastic and bake the bread for 20 to 25 minutes, until the interior reaches 190 degrees F. 
• Remove it from the oven and let it cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Turn it out onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. 

Simple, right?

BBA Challenge #10 Corn Bread, #11 Cranberry-Walnut Bread, #12 English Muffins

Part 3 in my chronicle of baking my way through The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart.

BBA Challenge #10 Corn Bread

This is the only non-yeasted bread in the entire book.

This bread takes two days because it requires a corn meal soaker, but hands on time is minimal. 

This bread is topped with cooked bacon.....  and rendered bacon fat is used to coat the 10" round cake pan. 

This corn bread is lovely. It includes quite a bit of whole corn, and is quite sweet, so your reaction to this bread will depend on your taste. 

To see more blogs on this bread, Google BBA Challenge #10.

BBA Challenge #11 Cranberry-Walnut Celebration Bread

I wish I had more photos of this bread. I suspect that it is because both times that I made it I struggled with the shaping. The first time, when I tried to braid it, I ended up with a messy boule. The second time, I tried baking it in a baking pan, and the loaf out grew the pan. The good news is that I LOVED the flavor of this bread and will definitely make it again. I skipped the walnuts (although I will include them next time), and used orange extract rather than lemon. This bread is so tasty. I will definitely make it again.

To view many bakers' experiences baking this bread, Google BBA Challenge #11 Cranberry-Walnut Celebration Bread.

BBA Challenge #12 English Muffins

My English Muffins look gorgeous and they were easy to do. You first "fry" the muffins on a griddle, and then finish baking them in the oven. The frying technique was pretty cool

I was not all that excited about the texture of these muffins. The dough was very firm, and my muffins did not have a lot of holes. I am going to try the recipe in Artisan Breads Everyday. Still... aren't they pretty?

To see other bakers's reaction to this recipe, please Google BBA Challenge #12 English Muffins.