These were by far my favorite English muffins, and my other half agreed. He could not stop raving about them. Guess what? They, too, start with the Just Mill It Italian bread base. So let’s get started for all the wonderful, deep nooks and crannies your heart desires.
The Base
The Changes
- Grains: Spelt
- Hydration: Use the lowest number for COLD water, since spelt doesn’t absorb as much as wheat
- Sourdough starter: Use within the range specified
- Additional ingredients: cornmeal – just mill it from dent corn if you have stone mill, or popcorn if you have an impact mill – about 1/4 – 1/2 cup
- Method: After the bulk ferment, gently spread the dough out onto an oiled counter, and cut out circles (or squares if you like square muffins). Dust both sides of the muffin in cornmeal and set on a tray covered with parchment. Cover and let sit in the fridge overnight before baking for best results.
- Baking: Preheat oven to 475 F and bake on each side for about 7 minutes. Remove from the oven when the internal temp of a muffin is 190 F.
- After the bake: Let cool on a baking rack. After about 10 minutes of cooling, pierce all around the sides of the english muffin with a FORK. Do not open the muffins until they are fully cooled. DO NOT SLICE OPEN ENGLISH MUFFINS WITH A KNIFE! ALWAYS pierce with a fork all around, and then gently pull them apart.
Forked vs Sliced
Below, notice how different these English muffins turn out when sliced versus pierced with a fork and gently pulled apart. The sliced English muffins look more like Ciabatta rolls on the inside – and they should – because the dough for Ciabatta and English muffins is VERY similar. The technique is one of the things that distinguishes between the two.
Can I Use?
Can I use hard wheat? Absolutely, but you MAY want to increase the hydration another 10% (which is the same amount as the boiling water if you don’t like math). That said, I just baked up 9 English muffins in my air fryer with hard wheat and durum for the grains using the SAME amount of water as these spelt english muffins. They are gorgeous.
Can I use Einkhorn? Absolutely, but I’d likely decrease the cold water by half the amount of the boiling water number, and consider adding water slowly to see how it does.
Can I use yeast? Sure, but there won’t be as many nooks and crannies unless you use MUCH less yeast. Drop the yeast to 2 g for the larger sizes and let the dough take a long time to rise. It will be to your advantage. Even so, there will be less nooks and crannies than when using sourdough starter.
Join our Community
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