Awesome English Breakfast Muffins

welcome to my first instructable, English breakfast muffins..

There really is no finer accompaniment to a cooked breakfast than these muffins, we have them every Sunday and as they freeze and toast brilliantly from frozen they are very convenient.

first things first, the ingredients, this should make 8 to 9 muffins.

1 beaten egg

20 grams of sugar

5 grams of salt

20 grams of softened unsalted butter (cut into cubes)

300 grams of strong white bread flour

7 grams of easy bake yeast

Approximately 200ml of full fat milk

Corn meal (for dusting)

Add the ingredients to the mixing bowl in the order their listed, adding the milk slowly while the mixer is running on a fairly slow speed.

You may not need all the milk or you may need more, it all depends on the flour your using. Your looking to form a smooth soft dough that's stretchy and elastic when pulled..

Of course you don't need a mixer to do this, it can be done just as well by hand.

Now it's time to prove the dough, this is the process of allowing the dough to rise and develop its aeration and structure.

Place the dough in a plastic bowl and cover with cling film, leave it to at least double in size. This can take two to three hours depending on the room temperature. Now this isn't very convenient if you don't want your breakfast muffins to become lunch time muffins so I mix mine the night before and leave it in the fridge until the morning. This slows down the yeast but doesn't stop it.

Now the morning has come, you've made yourself a coffee and taken the dough from the fridge, it should of risen appreciably.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll Flat to about 7mm thick then cut out the rounds using a 10cm circular dough/biscuit cutter. You can gather up all the off cuts and reform them, I don't waist any.

Lay them on Brown paper, dust lightly with corn meal and cover with cling film. Leave them for a half hour to an hour, they should rise by about half there height.

Have another coffee while you wait.

Its time to cook your muffins, this part is critical, or at least the temperature of your pan is. Too hot and the muffins will be doughy and under cooked in the middle, too low and they won't rise.

You need a medium to large non stick frying pan, we're going to fry them dry on a low to medium heat, cook one to start with to gage the heat of the pan it should take around four minutes a side and you should be able to see it rise, gently lift up one side and peep underneath, if it's lightly browned turn it over and cook the other side.

Place them on a wire rack to cool.

Hoorah it time to eat muffins, how is up to you, I like mine warm with butter and Claire my wife likes hers toasted.

We both like lots of bacon, sausage, egg and mushrooms with them.

If you slice your muffins then freeze them they can be popped in the toaster an cooked from frozen, not quite as Good as fresh but still very tasty.

I hope you try these muffins and enjoy eating them as much as we do.