Whole Wheat English Muffins

Of all the recipes we’ve tried, this is one of the finest so far. My wife and I will take these over the Oroweat 100% whole wheat English muffins any day, and those Oroweat ones are pretty good. This recipe came from a local woman. Thank you Rhonda for the recipes. This utilizes our hard red winter wheat.

INGREDIENTS

For the dough starter:

3/4 cup (3 1/3 ounces) Hard Red Winter Wheat Flour

1 tsp. vital wheat gluten (optional)

3/4 cup water

1 teaspoon active dry or instant yeast (alternatively 2 tablespoons active sourdough starter)

Mix together and let set for 18-24 hours. Cover with cling wrap and dish towel

INGREDIENTS

For main dough batch:           

1 cup milk, whole or 2%

1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry or instant yeast

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 teaspoon salted butter

3 to 3 1/4 cups (13 1/2 to 14 1/2 ounces)

1/2 cup vital wheat gluten

Cornmeal for dusting

Butter for the skillet

Directions

Whisk together the milk, yeast, and starter: In the bowl of a stand mixer or large mixing bowl, combine the milk, sugar and butter, heat in microwave for 30-60 seconds. Melt butter but milk just warm and not hot. Add yeast in milk mixture. Scrape the starter into the bowl and use a whisk to break it up and dissolve it into the milk. It should become quite frothy.

Add flour a little at a time.  Kneed for at least 5 minutes, cover with plastic wrap and a dish towel, Let raise about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Kneed another 5 minutes, roll into a log and cut into 12 muffins. I put in muffin rings, cover and let raise another hour. Melt butter in frying pan (I use a cast iron) on medium heat, add muffins, cover, cook for 4 minutes, turn, cook another 4 minutes covered. The muffins can either cook in rings or taken out before you cook- I prefer to take them out as the rings are very hot.