Have you baked bread without an oven? No, well then lets make these easy vegan English Muffins! All they need is a skillet and what you get is a golden crusty slightly chewy bread that's soft and moist from the inside.
English Muffins are flattish, yeast-leavened breads cooked on a griddle. I chanced upon them during our stay in the US. They are used for making a variety of breakfast sandwiches and are apparently the bread of choice for Egg Benedict, according to WIKIPEDIA . But we grew to love them as they are EXCELLENT toasted! Smeared with butter and maybe some jam, they are the simply BEST toasts you would've eaten!
This recipe from THE KITCHN is quite straightforward even though it requires a starter and overnight rise. Enough to scare off beginner bread bakers. But really fear not! The starter is a five-minute job and then you leave it for the yeast to do its job quietly for some time. The longer the starter sits, the better will be the flavor for your English muffins. That said, you can use it for the dough after an hour.
I used dry active yeast here as I do for all my breads. A small pack of that along with some basic pantry ingredients is all you you need for these muffins.
I wanted to make them dairy-free, hence used soy milk and olive oil. But do ahead and use regular milk and melted butter instead. They will come out just as well.
If you've made the starter in the morning, come evening, prepare the dough and again leave to rise overnight in the fridge. Come morning, take that skillet out and make fresh bread in minutes! You get soft chewy muffins in minutes...It works, I promise you it does.
This dough does stay well in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Don't want to wait for a day? No problem! Go ahead add the bubbly starter to make the dough and use the dough the same day when it's doubled. The flavour will be milder, but still really good!
It's a wonderful recipe to make for the weekend for that lazy brunch you love. Store the leftover English muffins in the refrigerator, and get ready for the most delicious toasts or quick breakfast sandwiches on weekday mornings.
So put your bread baking fears aside and give these lovely craggy delicious Easy Vegan English Muffins a chance. I bet you'll love them!
If you try this recipe, do let me know. I’d love to hear from you! Please tag me on Instagram @tashasartisanfoods, using the hashtag #tashasartisanfoods. You can also FOLLOW ME on INSTAGRAM, PINTEREST for more fabulous recipes!
Easy Vegan English Muffins
Ingredients
Starter
- 3/4 cup All purpose flour
- 1/2 cup Water
- 1/2 tsp Dry active Yeast
Dough
- 1 cup Soy Milk, plain You can use any milk of choice.
- 1 tsp Dry active Yeast
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp olive oil You can use melted butter.
- 1 tsp salt
- 1.5 cup Wholewheat flour
- 1.5 cup All purpose flour Yo may need another 1/2 cup flour while kneading.
- 3-4 tbsp Cornmeal/Sooji/Semolina For the baking tray
- 1-2 tbsp Oil/butter For the skillet
Instructions
Starter
- Mix the water, flour and yeast in a small bowl, till smooth.
- Cover the bowl and put in a warm corner for 1 -12 hours. The starter will get bubbly and double in volume. The longer you let the starter sit, the better the flavour of the English muffins. **
Dough
- In the bowl of your stand mixer or large bowl, combine the milk and yeast. Scrape in the starter and whisk well to combine it all.
- Stir in sugar, olive oil/butter, salt and 3 cups of flour, till you get a rough scraggy dough.
- With a dough hook on your stand mixer, knead the dough till it comes together. This took me about 10 minutes. Add extra flour if the dough is very sticky. I needed to add about 1/2 cup more. The dough is ready when it comes together in a smooth, soft ball. It will be tacky to touch but not too sticky.
- You can knead this dough by hand as well, on a well floured surface. The dough is very sticky to begin with, but it does come together nicely while kneading.
- Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight. This dough can stay in the refrigerator for upto 4 days,according to the original recipe. ***
- Turn the dough out on a well floured surface and cut into 12 equal pieces. Roll into balls. And place on a baking tray sprinkled with cornmeal /sooji/semolina. Sprinkle the tops with some more cornmeal/sooji/semolina.
- Place the tray in a warm spot until the dough doubles in size, typically 1 - 1.5 hours. Mine were really puffy in 30 minutes.
- Heat a skillet/ saute pan to medium heat. Brush with oil/ butter and gently place the rolls 3-4 at a time onto the pan. Cook till the bottom of the muffins are golden brown 6-7 minutes. Flip carefully and cook on the other side for another 6-7 minutes.
- Please adjust the heat if your muffins are browning too much or too fast. You can also finish these muffins in a preheated oven at 180C.
- Cut the muffin horizontally, eat warm and fresh, slathered with butter. These are EXCELLENT toasted and keep well in the refrigerator for 5-6 days. Enjoy!!
Notes
Morgan says
All I have is white whole what flour and AP flour. Can I use the white whole wheat instead of the whole wheat or can I replace all of the flour in the recipe with the white whole wheat? Thanks!
Natasha Minocha says
Hi Morgan, I think you can replace white whole wheat with whole wheat flour mentioned in the recipe. Happy baking! 🙂
Sarah Morin says
Could I use whole wheat instead of all purpose?
Natasha Minocha says
Yes, absolutely!