A Homemade Life: Homemade English muffins

Years ago, I made whole wheat English muffins as a birthday gift for a relative several years in a row. They were very well received, but I'd forgotten all about them until recently. I was sort of brainstorming with myself as to what foods we normally buy that I might make homemade, and remembered those muffins. I went looking for the recipe but didn't find it right away. The one I found first was for oatmeal English muffins, and so I tried that. They are delicious! So I'm sharing that one today. I'll share the whole wheat one another time.

Oatmeal English Muffins

1 cup boiling water
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup canola oil
1 egg, lightly beaten with a fork
1 pkg. active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp.)
1/4 cup warm water
pinch of sugar
3 to 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

In large mixer bowl pour boiling water over oats. Stir in brown sugar, salt and oil. Cool mixture until lukewarm.

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and pinch of sugar. Let stand 5 minutes, until bubbly. Stir the yeast mixture and the egg into the oat mixture. Stir in enough flour to make a moderately stiff dough. (I find that the 3 cups is usually plenty.) Cover the dough and let it rest in a warm place for 30 minutes. It does not need to double.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll out to a 3/8-inch thickness. Cut into rounds with a 3-inch (or larger) biscuit cutter. Place the rounds on baking sheets sprinkled liberally with cornmeal. Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes.

Bake the English muffins on a lightly greased (or nonstick -- my choice) griddle over medium heat for 20 minutes, turning them every 5 minutes. (I advise you NOT to put an English muffin in the center of the griddle. I did that the first time, and it made some of the muffins far too dark -- almost burned. On my griddles, I found I could fit 6 muffins in a circle around the edge, and that worked well. I also kept 2 griddles going at once, and so was able to cook all 18 muffins in a shorter amount of time.)

Yield: 16 to 18 English muffins.

I have gotten 18 muffins from this recipe each time I've made them. My cutter is about 2 3/4" in diameter, which produces English muffins just a tad smaller than we like them. I will be keeping an eye out for a larger biscuit cutter the next time we are anywhere near a kitchen store.

To see other homemade life ideas, go visit Life on a Back Road. Lots of inspiration there!