Homemade English Muffins

 About a year and a half ago I got asked to teach a class on Stove-top recipes. Until that time I never realized that English muffins were cooked on a griddle or in a frying pan.
It took me three tries with the recipes I found, working out the kinks before I got it to work, but it was worth it! Now they are one of my favorite things to make. The nice thing is that the muffins take a while to cook so you can do other things while you're cooking them. Usually I double the batch and then make them at night while my kids are sleeping and then spend the interim cooking time shopping on Taobao or blogging or something else. Just make sure you set a timer if you do that though!
They are amazing! My husband says he has been spoiled and can't go back to store-bought after this. I love them with honey and butter or some fresh strawberry freezer jam.
Make sure you store them in the fridge or the freezer. As they don't have any preservatives, they will get moldy after a few days if you leave them out.

*One note- you will need metal rings to make these. I got mine at my favorite kitchen supply store at the Hongqiao Flower and Bird Market.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup non-fat powdered milk
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon shortening or butter
1 cup hot water
1 envelope dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
1/8 teaspoon sugar
1/3 cup warm water
2 cups all-purpose flour
Non-stick vegetable spray

Directions
In a bowl combine the powdered milk, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, shortening or butter, and hot water, stir until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Let cool.

In a separate bowl combine the yeast and 1/8 teaspoon of sugar in 1/3 cup of warm water and rest until yeast has dissolved. When the milk mixture has cooled and the yeast mixture turns foamy, add the yeast mixture.

Add the sifted flour and beat thoroughly with wooden spoon.  Don't over add flour. This is a very wet dough. The dough should be the consistency of thick pancake batter. Cover the bowl and let it rest in a warm spot for 30 minutes.

After the dough had risen for 1/2 hour, add remaining 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp baking soda ad mix well.

Put rings on your griddle or pan. (I use my stockpot because it heats up more evenly than my frying pan and gives better uniformity to my muffins)

Spray the bottom of the pan and the rings heavily with cooking spray and sprinkle cornmeal inside the rings.

Set your flame on the lowest it will go without going out (My last apartment you could turn the flame down lower than this -this apartment I had to turn the flame off and on to keep the pan from getting too hot)

Add 1/4 cup of dough to the bottom of each ring.

Sprinkle cornmeal over the top of each muffin.

Let cook for 4-5 minutes. You will know when they are ready to flip because the top of the muffins will no longer appear shiny.

Flip and cook on the other side 2-3 minutes.

Let cool.

Split with a fork and enjoy!