English Muffins

Mmmm. . . English muffins. Wrapped around eggs and cheese or simply toasted with butter and jam, light and airy English muffins are a craveable snack. As with just about anything, homemade, made from scratch English muffins are tastier and more nutritious than store-bought. These gluten-free English muffins will satisfy all your cravings, from eggs benedict to breakfast sandwiches. They do require a little specialized equipment in the form of English muffin rings. You can either buy rings at a specialty kitchen store or on Amazon.com (they run about $5 for 4 rings and you need a dozen for this recipe), or you can improvise with sheets of aluminum foil folded into 1" strips and stapled into a circle, which is what I did.


Yield: 12 - 3" English muffins


Ingredients

• 1/2 cup rice flour (try substituting my Multigrain Mix here)
• 1 cup tapioca starch
• 1/4 cup sorghum flour
• 1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 1/2 tsp potato flour (not potato starch)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp almond meal
• 2 Tbsp honey or sugar, divided
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 1/4 tsp (one packet) active dry yeast
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup olive oil (or whatever oil you like, I have used flax oil too)
• about 1/4 cup cornmeal
• olive oil spray
• 12 English muffin rings, or equivalent
• 12 - 3 1/2" squares of waxed paper or tin foil

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and place a cookie sheet inside the heating oven. Space waxed paper squares (they need to be individual squares so you can pick them up individually to pan-fry them) on a 12x18 half-sheet baking pan. Arrange English muffin rings on squares, sprinkle about 1 tsp cornmeal inside each ring and spray insides with oil spray.

Combine warm water, 1 tsp honey or sugar and yeast in a glass measuring cup and set aside to bloom.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine rice flour, tapioca starch, sorghum flour, xanthan gum, potato flour, salt and almond meal. With mixer on low speed, add egg, vinegar, remaining honey or sugar and oil and mix on low for 1 minute until well combined. Add yeast mixture and continue mixing on low for 30 seconds. Increase mixer speed to high and mix for 3 minutes, until dough (more like a batter) is smooth and free of any lumps.

Scoop about 1/4 cup of batter into each ring. I use a 1/4 cup ice cream scoop to portion but you can eyeball it too. Spray the tops of the muffins with oil spray and use a sheet of plastic wrap or a spatula to smooth out the tops. Note: You will notice that in many of my recipes, especially bread recipes, that I use plastic wrap to cover the dough for rising or to smooth out the tops for a uniform look. I don't like to waste anything so I simply fold up the plastic wrap after I am done with it and put it in the freezer to use again and again. I have been using the same pieces of plastic wrap for several months. Set the muffins in warm place to rise for about 20 to 30 minutes. You don't want them to rise too high because they will continue to rise when you fry them.

When the muffins are just about done rising, preheat a frying pan over medium heat. If you aren't using seasoned cast iron or a non-stick pan, spray the pan with olive oil. Working quickly and carefully, pick up a waxed paper square with the risen muffin dough and flip over onto the heated pan. Carefully remove the paper and repeat with as many as will comfortably fit in your pan. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes, until bottom is golden brown, and flip over and cook 1 minute longer and remove rings. Transfer to cookie sheet in oven and repeat with remaining muffins. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Enjoy!

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