How to Make English Muffins like Model Bakery

Homemade English muffins sound pretty cool right? What if I told you that Oprah has these flown in from Napa Valley fresh, do I have your attention now? Also, she listed them on her favorite things list for 2016.

Ok, so these mean business. The Model Bakery has been open since 1908 serving the Napa Valley and is a staple. One thing about these English muffins is that they are nottt cheap, $40 gets you a dozen muffins and a jar of preserves. $40!!! The Model Bakery cookbook is $20, and you can buy the ingredients for the extra $20 to make them all at home, perfect for us!

In my opinion, English muffins can easily be overlooked because who has had anything more gourmet that the Thomas ones from the store. Let me tell you, you are in for a real treat here. This recipe amps any breakfast to a whole new level, think about making breakfast McMuffins with them, with your favorite jam, or served with just butter. Everything will taste better with them, and you can keep them in the freezer if you do not want all at once.

Time to take a look at what a real English muffin is and can taste like, let’s begin.

Cookbook – The Model Bakery

Ingredients

Biga –

Bread Flour – 1/2 cup / 75 grams
Water – 1/4 cup
Instant yeast – 1/4 tsp

Dough –

Water – 1 1/2 cups
Instant Yeast – 1/4 tsp
Olive oil – 1 tbsp + 1 tsp
Fine sea salt – 1 1/2 tsp
All purpose flour – 3 1/2 cups, and as needed
Yellow Cornmeal – 1/4 cup
Melted clarified butter – 6 tbsp – and as needed – Do this in advance. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Put about 7tbsp of butter in two ziploc sandwich bags, place the butter in the boiling water for 10-15 minutes, until the butter and milk solids are melted and separated. Take bag out of water, and hang in refrigerator so the milk solid go to one corner of the bags. Once the clarified butter it solidified, cut the corner of the bag to release the milk solids, scrape away anything left on the butter. Leave out at room temperature.

Tools –

Stand Mixer

Step 1 – Make the Biga

At least 1 day before cooking the muffins, combine the flour, water, and yeast in a small bowl to make a sticky dough. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 12-24 hours, it will rise just slightly.

This is not quite like a poolish if you have made that before, this looks more like a mini dough ball.

Step 2 – Make the Dough

Combine the biga, water, yeast, olive oil, and salt in a stand mixer bowl with the paddle attachment. Mix on low for about one minute, mixture should look creamy. Mix in 3 cups of flour to make a soft, sticky dough. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, let stand for 20 minutes.

Mix in enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough that barely cleans the mixer bowl. Put on a dough hook. Knead on medium-low speed until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface, it should feel tacky but not stick.

Step 3 – Proofing

Shape the dough into a ball, oil a medium bowl and turn to coat with oil, leaving the dough smooth side up, cover with plastic wrap. Let stand in a warm place until almost doubled in volume, about 2 hours.

Step 4 – Shaping the Dough

Scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, cut into 12 equal pieces. Shape into 4 inch rounds, sprinkle an even layer of cornmeal over a half sheet pan, place the rounds on the cornmeal about 1 inch apart. Turn over the rounds to coat both sides with cornmeal, loosely cover with plastic wrap. Let stand in a warm place until the rounds have increased by half, about 1 hour.

Step 5 – Make the Muffins

Unlike probably what you think, these actually don’t get baked. The are going to get pan fried.

Melt about 2 tbsp of clarified butter into a large heavy skillet, over medium heat (or even a little less). Getting the heat will take some trial and error, our first batch came out a little too crisp, so I would recommend starting with a lower heat than you think.

Once hot, add the dough rounds to the skillet, cook and adjust the heat accordingly, add more clarified butter as needed. The undersides should be nicely browned, about 6 minutes, turn and cook the other side until they are browned and puffed, another 6 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel and let cool.

It will be tempting to bite into one right away, but let them stand for at least 20 minutes to complete the carry over cooking! Repeat with the remaining muffins, wiping the cornmeal out of the skillet as needed (I did this after each batch).

Split in half and dress up as you would like. We ate them with butter, jam, and even made out own bacon and egg McMuffins! Trust me, you will not be disappointed in how these turn out, and will make you wonder how subpar every English muffin you have ever had is. Let me know what you think in the comments below!

And for the ratings…

Difficulty of ingredients to find – 3/5 stars – Probably a trip to a normal market
Perceived difficulty going into recipe – 3/5 stars – Not easy, not hard
Difficulty after recipe – 3/5 stars – Not easy, not hard. The one part you can really screw things up in when you are actually cooking them, we scorched the first side and got the heat right after that
Time taken – 5/5 stars – over 4 hours, there is at least 3 hours of proofing time alone
Taste – 5/5 stars – Easily the best English muffins I have had
Make again? – 5/5 stars – Everyday if I could