So tasty all by themselves;
yet perfect with any topping!
Whole Wheat English Muffins
These whole wheat English muffins are one of our absolute favorites. So tasty all by themselves; yet perfect with any topping! Made from a mix of freshly milled hard white & hard red wheat, throw in some bean flour and flax seed for extra nutrition, then, dusted with freshly milled cornmeal.
Oh yeah! It doesn’t get any better than that.
Don’t you just love English Muffins with their toasty outside and warm chewy inside?
So perfect for so many treats; really the ideas are endless.
- Smother with cream cheese & jam
- Slather with butter & raw honey
- Toasted with butter & cheese
- Maybe a sausage, egg & cheese breakfast sandwich
- Afternoon mini pizza snack
Now, the choices from the grocery store offer bleached white flour, maybe some “whole wheat” flour and of course lots of chemicals. Who wants to eat that?
When you prepare foods from scratch, YOU get to choose what goes in them.
You are in control!
This Whole Wheat English Muffin recipe is so easy and delicious; you will never go back to store-bought!
Recipe
Easy Whole Wheat English Muffins
Makes about 12 muffins
Ingredients:
1 cup warmed Buttermilk or Milk
1/2 cups Warm Water
2-1/2 teaspoons Sea Salt
2 teaspoons Sucanat*, Raw Sugar or Raw Honey
1 Tablespoon Sunflower Lecithin* (optional)
4 to 4-1/2 cups Whole Wheat Flour – freshly milled
Freshly milled
Bean Flour* (optional) see Tracy’s Tip below
2-1/2 teaspoons Instant Yeast
3 Tablespoons Softened Butter
3 Tablespoons fresh ground Flax Seed (optional)
1/4 to 1/3 cup Cornmeal, freshly milled
Cold stick of butter for swirling
English muffins are cooked on a griddle or skillet with swirls of butter. Yum!
*Ingredients: See explanation in the instruction sections below or for greater detail and purchasing links, visit my Healthy Ingredients page.
*Sucanat: Is real brown sugar. See my Healthy Ingredients page for more details.
The optional ingredients are just that, optional. However, they DO enhance the taste, texture and nutrition of your bread; but you totally may omit them.
How much grain do I mill?
Take the total cups needed and divide by 1.5
Example: 4 cups flour / 1.5 = 2-2/3 cups grain
If you do not mill your own flour yet
Simply replace the needed flour with unbleached all-purpose or bread flour.
See Getting Started Milling to learn about milling your own grain, corn and bean flours and corn meals.
Did you say Bean Flour?
For added protein & nutrition add dried beans in when milling your grain. I like to use navy, baby Lima beans or garbanzo beans.
Simply add about 1 tablespoon of dried beans per every cup of grain. Have no fear, once you bake the bread you won’t taste the beans, just extra goodness. 😊
Instructions
Note: Again, if you are new to making yeast breads made with whole wheat, I encourage you to take a look at my Bread Making Tips page for some very helpful tips and more thorough explanation.
Simple Instructions
Simple Instructions -Click to expand
1. First 5 Ingredients: In large mixer bowl add first 5 ingredients. Give them a good stir.
2. Add Half the Flour & Yeast: Add half the flour and sprinkle the yeast on top. Mix well with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula.
3. Resting: Cover bowl and allow to rest for about 30 minutes. This process is very important. It allows the fresh flour to absorb moisture and develop flavor.
4. Add Butter and Flax Seed: After the resting period, remove the covering and add the butter and flax seed. Mix on low.
5. Adding Remaining Flour: Turn mixer on low; begin adding additional flour 1/2 cup at a time, allowing the dough hook to work in the flour a few turns. Continue adding flour UNTIL dough pulls away or CLEANS the side of the bowl ONE time, then STOP adding flour.
Dough may be slightly sticky, may stick to the sides again or pool at the bottom of the bowl; but, DON’T be tempted to add more flour. Just let the dough hook do it’s thing, working in all the flour.
Kneading: Start your timer and knead for 8 minutes. Knead until gluten is fully developed. Hand kneading may take about 10-15 minutes.
6. Grease cookie sheet: If your cookie sheet has sides, simply flip it over and grease the bottom. This makes easy removal of muffins after rising without deflating them.
7. Roll & Cut Doug: Sprinkle cornmeal on worksurface. Roll dough out to 1/2 inch thick. Sprinkle more cornmeal on top of dough. using a wide-mouth canning ring or 3-4 inch cutter, cut muffin rounds. Place them on the greased cookie sheet. Cover and let rise about 30 minutes.
8. Cook: Heat griddle or skillet to 350 degrees or medium heat. With a cold stick of butter, paper peeled back, make swirls of butter on the griddle. Carefully, not to deflate, lift each round with a spatula and place on the swirled butter. Cook until golden brown, about 3-4 minutes. Turn once while cooking, swirling griddle again with more butter before setting muffin back down; continuing to cook until golden brown. Cool on cooling rack.
Note: If your muffins are not completely cooked in the center, simply place them back on the cookie sheet and bake in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes. Cool on cooling rack.
9. Slicing: Using a large fork, press in around all sides to separate muffins. The fork will give a ruff surface on the inside of each muffin to soak up toppings. a sharp knife may also be used, but the inside will be smoother.
10. Serve: Serve plain or with your favorite topping. Pop them in the toaster bagel setting for a toasty inside.
11. Storage: Muffins may be stored in a loose bag for a few days. Extras should be shored in the freezer.
*Tracy’s Tips:
- Optional ingredients enhance the nutrition and/or texture – highly recommended
- These muffins freeze great, so make extras
- Use a small cutter and serve with honey butter as an appetizer
- Use a larger cutter for personal pizzas
Detailed Instructions
First Things First
Mill Grains, Beans & Corn
Set you mill according to the mill’s instructions or medium-fine. Pour your grains and beans in the hopper and mill away.
*For detailed milling instructions of whole grains (berries) and beans into flour instructions, See: Milling Basics: How To Mill Whole Grains and Beans Basics
*How to calculate how much grain – See Recipe section above to mill for the flour needed.
*Remember, yeast breads using freshly milled flour may require a little more or a little less flour depending how much moisture is in the grain. See Yeast Bread Tips page for more details.
My family prefers a mixture of hard white wheat and hard red wheat. Hard white wheat has a mild flavor, more like store-bought white bread. Where as hard red wheat has a deeper, nuttier flavor; it tastes more like wheat bread from the store. Mixing the two grains together gives a nice balance of flavors.
Bean Flour
Bean Flour - Click to expand
Bean Flour: I add bean flour into most of my baking: breads, biscuits, cookies, cakes, etc.
Beans have so much to offer in the way of protein, fiber and tons of nutrients. So why not power-up those baked goods!
Add 1 Tablespoon dried beans per cup of grain. I like to use dried navy beans or baby Lima beans; however, pretty much any dried bean will work.
Just add them in with your grain and mill all together.
Again, check out my Milling Basics page to learn more.
So, why not POWER-UP your baked goods?!
Milling Whole Corn
Milling Whole Corn - Click to expand
Mill your corn into cornmeal
Set your mill on the coarsest and slowest setting and mill about 1/2 cup or so of dried dent corn (sometimes called field corn); yellow, white or even blue, it doesn’t matter. And as far as I’m concerned, organic corn is the only choice. Most of the corn grown in the USA is GMO (genetically modified organism); too creepy for me.
Set your cornmeal aside; you will need it when you roll out your muffins.
I must say, there is nothing like freshly milled organic corn; so sweet and buttery tasting!
Makes the best cornbread and grits
Time to Mix & Rest
First 5 Ingredients: In a large mixer bowl add the first 5 ingredients. Give them a good stir.
Add Half the Flour and Yeast: Add half the flour and sprinkle the yeast on top. Stir well or mix on low for about a minute. Dough should be a loose batter-ish.
I use the Bosch Universal Plus Mixer – AWESOME mixer!
By Hand
By Hand: If you are working by hand, no problem, simply divide as above, then mix with a sturdy wooden spoon.
Resting
Turn off mixer, cover and allow flour to absorb the moisture for about 15-30 minutes.
After mixing the first 5 ingredients and half the flour & yeast, cover your bowl with a lightly dampened towel or plastic wrap. Allow to rest or “sponge” for about 10-15 minutes. This gives the flour time to absorb the moisture.
I learned this trick years ago and it has helped sooo much with the softness of my fresh milled flour breads.
Moisture is the key!
Adding Remaining Flour & Kneading
Add Butter & Flax Seed
Mix in the softened butter and flax seed.
Remaining Flour
Now add 1/2 cup of remaining flour at a time. When the dough cleans the side of the bowl ONE time, then STOP adding flour. You want your dough kind of sticky, so you may not need all the remaining flour. Tip: It is always better to error on the side of sticky. Adding more flour is easy, more liquid, not so much.
Knead dough for 8 minutes for smooth soft dough. (Kneading by hand may take about 10-15 minutes.)
Roll & Cut the Muffins
Sprinkle work surface with cornmeal. Lightly wet your hands and turn out your dough and hand knead 2-3 times, then press or roll it out to about 1/2 inch thick.
Cut into 3-4 inch rounds. I use a canning jar ring. It’s the prefect size for muffin egg sandwiches
Rising the Dough
Place cut muffin rounds on a lightly greased baking sheet.
Cover with a light kitchen towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free place about 30 minutes.
Time to Cook
English muffins are cooked on a griddle or in a skillet on the stove top. Who knew?
After your muffins have risen, heat your griddle to 350 degrees (or skillet on medium.) Adjust your heat if need-be.
If you have a griddle, awesome! Typically, the whole batch of English muffins can be cooked at one time; a super time-saver. But, have no fear, a skillet will do just fine.
For that buttery sweetness, peel back the paper on a cold stick of butter and make swirls on the heated griddle/skillet surface. Keep it handy to swirl again when you flip the muffins. Soooo yum!
Gently lift each round with a spatula, taking care not to deflate them and place on heated, butter-swirled griddle/skillet.
Muffins will puff-up more as they cook.
Muffins will need to cook for 3-4 minutes on the first side.
Keep an eye on them though, so they do not get too brown.
Turn once while cooking.
Be sure to swirl on more butter before setting muffin back down.
Continue cooking till golden brown, another 2-3 minutes or so.
Muffins should feel light when picked up.
If they are still a little heavy feeling, turn the temp down and allow to cook a little longer being careful they don’t get too dark.
OR
Place them back on the cookie sheet and cook them for about 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven.
Cool cooked muffins on a cooling rack until able to handle easily.
Cutting Time
Use a fork (I like a large meat fork) or sharp knife to separate or slice each English muffin to make two halves. The traditional way is to split with a fork. This allows for that jaggedy surface and more crevices for butter to ooze into!
Using a knife is faster; the inside of the muffin will be smoother.
With the fork, simply insert it into the muffin all the way around the edge, then separate.
OK, you may not be able to tell from the image, but the muffin on the left is more open and jaggedy; whereas the one on the right is smoother. Either way, they taste devine!
Absolutely wonderful plain
or serve with your favorite topping
Storage – Store in a loosely half-sealed bag or container for about 2 days. Remember, you are using fresh milled flour, they can spoil fairly quickly.
BUT hey, they freeze great! Place sliced muffins, with slices slightly separated on a cookie sheet, allow to freeze hard at least 30 minutes or more.
Then place muffin pairs in a freezer zip type baggie or container. When ready to eat, simply pop in the toaster to reheat using the bagel setting.
Other serving ideas
Appetizer – Use a small cutter. Serve with honey butter or other favorite spread.
Personal Pizza – Us a larger cutter for personal pizza size rounds. Great for an afternoon healthy snack with your choice of sauce and toppings. Reheat in 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes or until cheese has melted and toppings are warmed.
What's your favorite English Muffin topping?
Comment below and share your ideas
Are you ready to start milling?
To learn all the details you need to know to start milling your own fresh flours and corn meals, click the link below.
