These cinnamon-raisin English muffins are a quick recipe for a delightful breakfast treat.
It's Wednesday - the middle of the week, and the start of my workweek at my part-time "real job" {my other part- time job, and hopefully one day my full-time job, is this blog, if you didn't already know!}. I'm literally dragging myself to work today, because Ryan is on "spring break" and we've spent the past 4 days doing spring break-type things. Like going on mini road trips to Kansas City and Omaha, binge watching Netflix, and sleeping in. It's been heavenly; and I should probably make a trip to the grocery store because we've eaten out one too many times for my comfort level.....but I have no regrets! We were in dire need of some "foodie adventures," as we've become quite bored with the culinary offerings in Lincoln. In fact, we've gotten to the point where our once-per-week eat out has become more of a "go-all-out-and-make-something-nice-at-home" occasion.
When we lived in Dallas, we could eat at a different place every week for an entire year and still have restaurants left on our "to try" list. It's a culinary mecca of everything, literally. You can pretty much have any type of food you want, and most of what we ate there couldn't be replicated at home. But life in Lincoln is a different story. I'm finding more often than not that we can have more culinary diversity by choosing to make things "from scratch" at home. And I've learned I can make a lot more at home than I realized, like English muffins, for example!
I'm slightly embarrassed to say that up until this year, I didn't realize you could make these at home. I don't know why....I guess because I thought they'd involve a complicated process - like how you have to boil bagels before you bake them. The thought of boiling bread dough is super intimidating to me *shudder.* I attempted from-scratch bagels during my cooking lab in college once before, and they were nothing like what you could purchase from a bagel shop. Super dense and chewy; it was a lot of work just to get one bite off the bagel.
English muffins got lumped into my thoughts about homemade bagels - I couldn't picture how you would achieve the round, flat, hockey-puck like shape and all the little craggles you find on the inside without some complicated, time-consuming technique. But, to my sheer delight, English muffins aren't complicated at all. It's actually quite a quick and lazy process. No kneading, rolling, or shaping required. And they are better homemade - the taste is so much richer and fresher than what you buy in the store. The muffins I'm sharing with you today are nutty and wholesome - they're made from 100% white whole wheat flour {my favorite choice for whole grain baking} and are kissed with the sweet scent of cinnamon and filled with plump golden raisins.
What's something that you've made from scratch at home lately and realized it's better homemade? I'd love to hear about it in the comments section below!
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Recipe
Cinnamon Raisin English Muffins
Ingredients
- 2¼ teaspoons active dry yeast or 1 packet
- ⅓ cup warm water
- ¾ cup low-fat buttermilk at room temperature
- ½ cup low-fat plain Greek yogurt at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and cooled
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 2 cups white whole wheat flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ cup golden raisins
- Yellow cornmeal or semolina flour for sprinkling on baking sheet
- Additional butter for your skillet
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine your yogurt and buttermilk. Let sit at room temperature for 45 minutes to an hour.
- Add the yeast, warm water, melted butter, and honey to the milk mixture. Stir well until evenly combined.
- In a small bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until well incorporated and a wet dough has formed.
- Cover the bowl and let rise until double, about 1-2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with a silpat or parchment paper and sprinkle lightly with cornmeal or semolina flour.
- Heat a non-stick skillet (preferably cast iron) over medium heat. Grease evenly with butter.
- Using a large ice cream scoop (about 3 tablespoons), drop a scoop of dough into the heated skillet. Repeat to fill the pan, spacing the scoops at least 3 inches apart.
- Cover the pan with a lid and let cook for about 4 minutes. Flip the muffins over, cover the pan, and cook an additional 3-4 minutes until the muffins have puffed up and both sides are golden brown. Place the brown muffins on your prepared baking sheet and continue this process until you have used all your muffin batter.
- After all your muffins have been browned in the skillet, bake the pan of muffins until they have cooked through, about 8-10 minutes.
- Serve the muffins warm or transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before storing in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Muffins will stay fresh for longer if stored in the refrigerator, and can also be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw as needed and toast for serving with your favorite jam or nut butter.
