Homemade English Muffins.

A while ago I was checking out Michael Ruhlman's Blog (can you tell I check his blog out a lot?) and noticed he had a recipe for homemade english muffins.  Homemade english muffins?  These have to be good.  The store bought ones are great comfort food, all toasted up with some melted butter and honey.  Can you imagine english muffin's, fresh and warm, made that day with melted butter and honey? 

Well, yesterday I was home with a sick child and had some time on my hands - which is a rare and precious thing, so what did I do with that time?  Besides cleaning and making regular bread dough for another day, I put together the dough for english muffins.  If you click here you can get Ruhlman's recipe.  It's really quite easy.  The hardest part is planning ahead.  I put the recipe together just like he has on his blog (which only took about 15 minutes at the most)  and, instead of letting it sit for one and a half hours I put it in the fridge.  First thing I did the next morning was preheat my broiler and pull the pre-made dough out and let it rise for one hour - while I did yoga and various other chores.  I then mixed 2 tsp of baking powder into 1 tbsp of water and mixed that into the dough, sprinkled some cornmeal on a griddle and proceeded to put 1/4 cup amounts of dough onto the griddle and let them sit for 7 minutes before turning over and cooking another 7 minutes.  I didn't use any muffing rings.  I went free form, and with the results I got, I see no reason to do otherwise.  I ended up with 16 deliciously imperfect little english muffins, which my kids loved. 

We just pried them apart with a fork, stuck them under the broiler for a few minutes and slathered them in butter.  I have to say, I've never had an english muffin this good.  I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to store bought ones now - especially with these being so easy to make.