The recent spate of posts about English Muffins triggered yet another
attempt (#7 or #8 over 7 years) at getting these things right. As
noted by others, the interior of the muffins have always come out
undercooked, basically raw dough. Reinhart's solution in BBA is to
have a hot oven handy to put the muffins into for 10 or 20 minutes
after baking on the stove top but I thought that was cheating. I
used a recipe for Crumpets in "The Wooden Spoon Bread Book" by
Marilyn Moore. She has an English Muffin recipe that is a firm dough
cut into rounds and baked on a griddle and a Crumpets recipe with a
batter-like dough poured into 3 3/4" muffin rings and baked on a
griddle. I chose the Crumpets recipe because it was more likely to
create the large "nooks and crannies" that Thomas' English Muffins
are famous for. It did.
The trick that made it work this time is that I created an oven on
the stove top. I used a large griddle that straddles two
burners. It has a thick base to retain and distribute heat
evenly. I also have a 5 qt pot that can be turned upside down on the
griddle and just covers four 3 3/4" muffin rings. When upside down
it rests tight on its rim, not on its handles so it traps the
griddle's heat. Other arrangements might be a cast iron pan with a
cover, however, since the muffins have to be turned with a spatula, a
high sided cast iron pan will make turning difficult. A better
"oven" than my pot would be something that has a vent to release
moisture, maybe something made out of aluminum foil.
Combine
2 cups scalded milk
1 Tb Butter
1 tsp Sugar
1 tsp Salt
Let cool
Presoak
1 pkg (1 scant Tb) Active Dry Yeast in
1/2 cup warm water
Put 3 cups all purpose flour in a mixer with flat beater attachment
and run on low
Add milk mixture
Add yeast presoak
Turn mixer to medium speed (3 on KA) and mix for 5 to 6
minutes. Pour batter into large bowl and let double, 45 minutes to 1
hour. Stir down the batter and add
1/4 tsp Baking Soda dissolved in 2 Tb warm water
and let stand for 15 to 20 minutes. Turn on griddle burner(s) to
medium for a few minutes then to very low and let the temperature
stabilize. You may have to fiddle with burner settings and baking
time. The burner should be much lower than for pancakes. The muffin
should bake 15 minutes on the first side, 7 to 10 on the
second.) Use PAM to grease the inside of the muffin rings. Have
some corn meal ready. Corn meal creates the traditional bottom
texture of the muffin. I found out that it also retards browning on
the bottom side and lets the muffin stay on that side longer and
therefore helps the muffin bake through.
When the batter and griddle are ready spray a light coating of PAM on
the griddle. Then put as many rings as can fit under your "oven" on
the griddle and let them warm up. Sprinkle a thin layer of corn meal
into each ring. Pour a heaping 1/2 cup of batter in each ring and
place the "oven" over the rings. Resist the temptation to raise the
"oven" and look. It should take a minimum of 10 minutes, better 15
minutes on the first side. The corn meal will retard burning on the
bottom. When the first (under) side is light brown, the top looks
"holey" and firm and the sides have pulled from the ring you can use
a pair of tongs to lift the rings off the muffins and turn them over
with a spatula. (This works fine on the on the first batch but the
second time the ring was used, even with a new coating of PAM, it
stuck). If they stick, it is easier to turn them over first, then
push on the baked muffin surface while lifting the rings to release
them. Now replace the "oven".
The second side will bake faster. When the second surface is deep
speckled brown remove the "oven" and turn the muffins back to bottom
side down and bake for 5 minutes without the "oven" to dry them
out. The corn meal now baked into the bottom surface should protect
it from burning.
Try to cool one muffin from the first batch quickly in the fridge and
"fork split" them open to see if they are baked inside before
committing the rest of the batter to baking. If the nooks and
crannies didn't appear try adding water to thin the batter before
continuing. Adjust burner settings as necessary. Clean off old
batter and re-PAM the rings before continuing.
Good Luck.
Werner