Recipe For Making English Muffins

English Muffins In Different Stages Of Preperation

Soften a yeast cake in half a cup of lukewarm water. Add this to a cup of scalded-and-cooled milk, into which two tablespoonfuls of butter has been melted. Add also half a teaspoonful of salt and one cup and a half of sifted bread flour. Beat the above mixture until it is very smooth. Then cover, and set to rise. When the sponge is light, beat into it about two cups, or two and one fourth cups, of flour, continuing the beating some few minutes (eight or ten), to make a tough batter. Cover, and let stand until again light. The mixture is now ready to use, or it may be cut down, covered, and set into the refrigerator until morning. When ready to bake, cut the dough into twenty-four pieces. Knead these with buttered fingers or on a lightly floured board (the dough is rather soft). Then pat them to the size of the rings. Have the board well floured, and the muffin rings well buttered. Put the rings on the board and the dough in the rings, and cover close with a pan or cloth. When the dough a little more than half fills the rings, remove the rings and dough with a spatula to a well-heated and buttered griddle. Keep the griddle of uniform heat, and, when the muffins are baked on one side, turn muffins and rings, and bake the other side. When the muffins are baked, cut through the crust, then tear apart with the fingers (as a cracker is split), and toast the halves over a bed of coals. Spread the rough side with butter as soon as toasted and serve at once. The muffin rings used for this recipe were two and three fourths inches in diameter. Rings of a larger size may be used. Toasted muffins are served with marmarlade and tea as a light lunch, or with a green vegetable salad and cheese as a salad course.