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English muffins

These traditional muffins are entirely different to American-style muffins baked in paper cases. The recipe uses a yeast dough so they take longer to make. I’ve used easy-blend yeast to save a little time, or see the Cook’s tips for using a bread machine. These are traditionally served at teatime, but I think they make a really special treat for breakfast.

MAKES 8–10 / READY IN 1 HOUR 15 MINUTES

450g | 1lb strong white bread flour

5ml | 1 tsp salt

50g | 2oz butter, plus extra for greasing

7g sachet easy-blend dried yeast

5ml | 1 tsp golden caster sugar

250ml | 8fl oz warm milk

1 Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Microwave on medium (500W) for 1 minute, to warm slightly (there’s no need to warm the flour if you don’t have a microwave – it simply helps the yeast to work faster).

2 Melt the butter in a bowl in the microwave for 50 seconds on high (850w), or in a pan.

3 Add the easy-blend yeast and sugar to the warm flour. Pour in the warm milk and butter.

4 Beat well until smooth and elastic. Cover and leave to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes or until doubled in size.

5 Turn onto a well-floured board and knead, working in a little more flour if necessary to make the dough easier to shape. Round up the dough, roll into a thick sausage shape and (using the sharpest knife you have) slice into 8–10 portions, each about 3cm | 1½in thick.

6 Use a plain cutter to help shape each one into a round with straight sides. Place on a greased baking sheet, well spaced out. Cover with greased plastic wrap and put in a warm place to prove for 30–40 minutes or until springy to the touch.

7 Heat a griddle until really hot, grease lightly with butter. Lift the muffins carefully onto the hot griddle and cook a few at a time over very low heat for 8–10 minutes until pale golden underneath. Turn and cook the other side.

8 Wrap in a cloth and keep warm if cooking in batches. To serve, insert a knife in the side, pull the top and bottom slightly apart, and insert slivers of butter.

Cook’s tips

 Mix the dough with a heavy-duty electric mixer or, if you have a bread machine, you can just use it to knead and prove dough, then you can shape and bake it conventionally.

 Leave the dough to rise in a warm place, such as on the hob whilst the oven’s on or in the airing cupboard.

 Speed up the proving by microwaving the dough on defrost for 2 minutes.

 Freeze half the shaped dough before baking. Bake from frozen (just add a few more minutes to the cooking time).

How to adapt recipes for a bread machine:

Check your instruction booklet as there is usually a very specific order in which you must add the ingredients to the bread bucket. Adding the ingredients in the wrong order could cause the recipe to fail. Most machines need liquid added first, followed by dry ingredients, then yeast. Confusingly, a few models use the reverse order. This is important for machines that have a rest time before the cycle starts as the yeast must be kept separate from the liquid, sugar and salt.