This Oven Baked English Muffin Recipe is easy, delicious, and packed with all the nooks and crannies for your butter and jam.
Start your day with something special for breakfast.
Ingredients
Flour
Yeast—rapid, instant, or quick
Milk and butter
Pantry ingredients—sugar, salt, cornmeal
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These baked English muffins have a wonderful taste and loads of nooks and crannies for jelly and jam.
It's an easy hand-mixing recipe. No need for a hand or stand mixer. It uses the no-knead "raise until it drops" method, just mixing and letting it rise at room temperature overnight, giving great gluten formation.
It makes wonderful toasted English muffins slathered with butter and jam. It is perfect for a breakfast sandwich.
See English Muffin Bread for more of these great flavors and textures in an easy loaf of bread. Serve with Crispy Oven Baked Bacon or Oven Baked Sausage.
👨🍳How to Bake English Muffins
Warm 1 cup of milk in the microwave to about 100° to 105°—about 30 seconds. Also, melt 1 tablespoon of butter—for about 10 seconds.
Stir together the warmed milk, melted butter, one tablespoon of sugar, and one package (2 ¼ teaspoons) of quick or rapid yeast. Mix well and allow the yeast to proof for about 5 minutes until it starts to foam a little. Add 2 ½ cups of flour and ½ teaspoon salt to the yeast mixture—mix well, scraping the sides of the bowl to make a shaggy dough.
Cover the dough with plastic wrap. Allow it to sit overnight at room temperature.
The dough will "fall in upon itself." Cut some 4-5 inch squares of parchment paper for later use. Preheat the oven to 400° with a large nonstick sheet pan in the oven.
Turn the dough onto a floured work surface, gently roll it up, and then cut it into 8 equal pieces. Be gentle with the dough. DO NOT KNEAD.
Place some cornmeal in a shallow bowl. Gently form the dough into balls and coat with the cornmeal.
Place a 3-inch cooking ring on a piece of parchment paper. Drop the coated balls of dough into the ring and flatten gently to fill the ring, then "dimple" the center in about a quarter of an inch. This will help it bake flatter. Repeat for all the dough balls. Allow to rest 30 minutes for any residual rise to occur.
Remove the preheated baking sheet from the oven. Place the muffins on the tray and sprinkle with a little more cornmeal.
Bake for 10 minutes. Flip the muffins. Bake another 8 minutes or so until the color is golden brown and the internal temperature of 200°.
Move to a cooling rack. Allow cooling for at least 5 minutes before serving.
For more details, keep reading. See the Recipe Card below for complete instructions and to print.
Options
Add some raisins or cinnamon for different flavors.
I will recommend against using whole wheat flour, which will need several adjustments.
Biscuit and scone recipes you will love
Check out these biscuit or scone recipes you may like. Start with Cheddar Bay Biscuits a la Red Lobster™ and my Healthy Low-Fat Biscuits. Or try some Low-Fat Blueberry Scones, Whole Wheat Blueberry Scones, or Raspberry Scones.
Serving
Perfect for breakfast or brunch slathered with butter and jam.
But also the foundation for the perfect on-the-go breakfast sandwich.
Storage
Seal airtight at room temperature for 2-3 days. They will not last long due to the lack of preservatives. If refrigerated, they should be good for about a week.
They will freeze well for 2-3 months in a freezer bag. Thaw entirely before toasting.
❓FAQs
If you don't have English muffin rings or a cookie cutter that would work, you can use a tuna can or something similar.
You also could form them by hand, but the more you play with the dough, the fewer nooks and crannies.
No. They originated in New York City by an English baker in the late 1800s. They were flatter crumpets but were full of nooks and crannies that hold the butter, jam. or runny eggs.
The British did not become aware of their existence until Thomas English muffins were imported to England in the 1990s after they became popular in the USA in the 70s and 80s.
This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.
Have you tried this recipe, or have a question? Join the community discussion in the comments.
📖 Recipe
Oven Baked English Muffin Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 package rapid dry yeast - or quick
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 ½ cup flour
- ¼ cup cornmeal
Instructions
- Warm 1 cup of milk in the microwave to about 100° to 105°—about 30 seconds. Also, melt 1 tablespoon of butter—for about 10 seconds.
- Stir together the warmed milk, melted butter, one tablespoon of sugar, and one package (2 ¼ teaspoons) of quick or rapid yeast. Mix well and allow the yeast to proof for about 5 minutes until starting to foam a little. Add 2 ½ cups of flour and ½ teaspoon salt to the yeast mixture—mix well, scraping the sides of the bowl to make a shaggy dough.
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap. Allow it to sit overnight at room temperature.
- The dough will "fall in upon itself." Cut some 4-5 inch squares of parchment paper for later use. Preheat the oven to 400° with a large nonstick sheet pan in the oven.
- Turn the dough onto a floured work surface, gently roll up, and then cut into 8 equal pieces. Be gentle with the dough. DO NOT KNEAD.
- Place some cornmeal in a shallow bowl. Gently form the dough into balls and coat with the cornmeal.
- Place a 3-inch cooking ring on a piece of parchment paper. Drop the coated balls of dough into the ring and flatten gently to fill the ring, then "dimple" the center in about a quarter of an inch. This will help it bake flatter. Repeat for all the dough balls. Allow to rest 30 minutes for any residual rise to occur.
- Remove the preheated baking sheet from the oven. Place the muffins on the tray and sprinkle with a little more cornmeal.
- Bake for 10 minutes. Flip the muffins. Bake another 8 minutes or so until the color is golden brown and the internal temperature of 200°.
- Move to a cooling rack. Allow cooling at least 5 minutes before serving.
Your Own Private Notes
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips
- Never knead this dough.
- Add a little cinnamon and raisins for a special treat.
- If you like a thicker muffin, make six instead of eight.
- These will spoil in 2-3 days at room temperature. Store refrigerated for up to a week or 2-3 months frozen.
- If you don't have a baking ring, you can use a tuna can or something similar. You also could from them by hand but the more you play with the dough, the fewer nooks, and crannies.
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
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Originally published May 9, 2015. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
Raeanne
I tried these once already, my husband loved them. I'm tweaking a little bit to get them the way I want - I substituted non-dairy milk and my starter. I really like the overnight rise, the flavor is so rich.
wbj
Is temp in degree F or C? 100 F seems a bit low; 400 C very high ...
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan
Hi wbj,
I think you are misreading. The milk is warmed to 100-105 in step one for the yeast. In step 4, the oven is preheated to 400 degrees. All temperatures are F.
Dan
Loli
Do you grease the jelly roll pan before baking? or do you use the parchment paper squares to bake the muffins on? The pics show no parchment paper except to form the muffins on.
DrDan
If you have a good non-stick tray, you don't need to do anything. If unsure, a spray of PAM or sheet of parchment paper would do.
Dan
LHS
It was my first attempt at making English muffins. I have made lots of other breads.
The taste was good, but I think my dough was a little dry. Next time, I'll add a bit more milk or reduce the flour to 2 1/4 2 1/2 cups.
Crista
Are these baked in the ring or removed from ring to bake?
DrDan
The ring is only used to shape. No left on for baking.
Maxine
Tried these yesterday - very, very good! Not Thomas's, but still... I will make them again. Thanks for the recipe. :}
Dan Mikesell
The corn meal is more traditional than needed. I have no idea what cream of wheat would do here.
Deloris
brocade blue---
Can you get a cereal to cook called Cream of Wheat? It has similar texture to cornmeal but is white.
Leslie
So glad your back to posting recipes, I plan on making these this weekend. Recipe sounds great and as all your recipes not to complicated for ok but new cooks like me.
DrDan
Thanks Leslie, I think it will be a slow restart.
Dan
Deloris
Would you please tell me what you mean by "dimpling?"
Thank you.
DrDan
Dimpling is when you depress the center. In this case there is 3 inch diameter about 1/2 inch thick. Depress the center inch or so about 1/8 inch. This will help the center not to puff out during cooking. I do the same thing with burgers on the grill to keep them flatter.
Joan Garneau
These I will try and soon. I have tried quite a few English Muffin recipes, but they never had the nooks and crannies. This recipe makes sense for getting them and letting the dough sit that long should give the dough a slight sourdough flavor. I have a new egg cooker that makes perfect poached eggs that will go so well with English muffins.
DrDan
I was trying to avoid the small bun type of muffin and this worked out well. They do have a little sourdough type taste.
Dan
Pat
I love English muffins , I won't be making these till it cools a bit here, but next cool rainy day forecast I will for sure be making up a batch the evening before! Can taste Them now with homemade strawberry jam.
Thank You
DrDan
I usually don't do overnight things but for this it is required. It is cold and raining here.
Dan