Cinnamon-Raisin English Muffins, Made Easy

During my work week, I'm such a creature of habit. It begins with my alarm going off at 5:10am, stretching out and delaying (until the last possible minute) hopping into the shower so I can try and wake up. For at least two years, I make a cup of dark roast bold coffee in my Keurig, and toast a Cinnamon-Raisin English Muffin, lightly buttered with honey and enjoy it on my way to work-- listening to my daily podcast. 

I stock up on English Muffins, when they are on sale and freeze them.   Then, the unthinkable happened. One Monday morning, I sleepily reached for a muffin. Empty. Nothing.  I checked the freezer, and the familiar plastic bag wasn't there.  Nooooooo! The drive to work, just wasn't the same for me, as I sipped my coffee and made a mental note to stock up, after work.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention, so during my break, I decided to do a little research on how to make my own English Muffins. I found a recipe on "Baking Bites".  That evening, I measured out the water, sugar and yeast.

Then, I unpacked the English Muffin Tins I had purchased some time ago-- with the intention of learning  how to make English Muffins.  NOTE: You don't have to own muffin tins. I've heard that people make them out of foil-- or the dough is supposed to be thick enough that you can do this "free form".

This is a plastic bucket with a lid, that I use a lot for making bread.  A glass bowl and plastic wrap works just as well.  To the sugar and yeast, I add warm water (at about 110F) and stir it; set it aside for 5-10 minutes until it becomes bubbly and alive.

Turn on the oven to WARM for 2-3 minutes and then turn it off.  This is my way of speeding up the proofing process.

See this cool little tool?  It's a Danish Dough Whisk, and this has become a handy little tool. It makes mixing bread dough a breeze.

It's been less than ten minutes, and I've measured out flour, raisins, cinnamon and I'm warming up some 1% milk to about 110F.  The yeast is nice and foamy...

I've dumped in the flour and cinnamon, and now I add the warm milk...

 ...and mix the dough together until smooth.

This is effortless, I tell ya!  The dough is wet, almost like a very thick pancake batter.

Add the raisins, and give the batter a good stir.

Cover the dough and let it rise.  I placed mine in my warm and snug oven.

45 minutes later, we have English Muffin Batter!

The English Muffins are actually cooked, rather than baked. I used my cast iron griddle, that I very lightly sprayed with baking non-stick spray.  I set the heat at medium-high.  If you don't have a griddle you can certainly use a skillet.

I also sprayed the muffin tins with non-stick spray.  So, this is very much liking making thick pancakes.  I've made this recipe, twice, and found that 1/2 cup of dough worked out best.  These do puff up a bit...

You will actually notice a bit of bubbles, which is a sign that it's time to flip the muffins over-- this took about 2-3 minutes.  It all depends on your stove and skillet/griddle.

A couple of tricks that I learned, is that I used a small spatula to spread the batter evenly (if you're using tins).  Otherwise, you can certainly make these "free-form" and use a spatula to shape them.  If you're using muffin tins, they get hot (and I am speaking from personal experience), so having a towel to grab them helps.  Just like making pancakes, I slipped a spatula underneath the muffin, said a prayer and....

The first once was a little messy, and borderline burned.  That's why I suggest starting at a medium heat until you get to know your griddle.

I finally got the hang of it.  Total cooking time was about five minutes per muffin.

The tins slip off pretty easily, so I could check if they were properly cooked.

I do recommend that you test one of the thicker ones.  I didn't do that the first time, and I ended up with a couple of raw muffins. Not good.

See?  It's not ready yet.  You want a toothpick to come out clean.  I let these cook for another minute, and they were done.

From start to finish, I had homemade Cinnamon-Raisin English Muffins in one hour! How fun!

I had to wait about 10-15 minutes for these to cool. 

The moment of truth, as I split one open with a fork.

I know one thing, for certain. I will never run out of Cinnamon-Raisin Muffins again!

I packed up the muffins for the next morning...

I toasted a muffin, and made my cup of coffee...

...and added honey to it. All was right with the world, again.

TASTING NOTES:  Delicious!  It has just the right balance of cinnamon.  It's so easy, that you don't even need to use a stand mixer.  These are just as good-- if not a wee bit better-- than the commercial ones that I pay up to $4.00 a package for.   The biggest difference, though, is that these need to be frozen, if you don't eat them in a matter of a day or two. Otherwise, they will begin to mold (also spoken from experience, after the first batch).  You see, there are no preservatives.

I'm so glad that I finally learned how to make English Muffins. They're less scarey and complicated than I thought.  Next, I'll work on a Whole Wheat version.  I hope that you give this a try, yourself.  Breakfast is an important way to start the day, and these would be a great way to do it.

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Enjoy,