Healthy English Muffins

Step 1

Warm the milk (I did this in the glass measuring cup), and pour in the yeast. Set aside and allow to foam a bit before using.

Step 2

In a large mixing bowl, blend the 4 cups of flour and salt. Add the oil, but don't bother stirring until you are ready add the milk.

Step 3

When you have a nice bit of foam on top of the milk, pour the milk and foam into the flour. Stir with a wooden spoon until it gets too thick to stir.

Step 4

Knead.

Step 5

The goal with this dough is to get a, "just-barely" sticky dough that is smooth and soft in texture. Your dough will still be pretty sticky at this point. Add that extra 1 cup of flour, ¼ cup at a time, kneading after every addition. DO NOT dump in the entire cup because you may not need it all (though you most likely will). Plus, doing a 1/4 cup at a time allows for the necessary amount of kneading.

Step 6

When you have a nice, soft ball of dough, cover it with a nice, thin coat of olive oil to keep it from drying out while it rises.

Step 7

Put it back in the mixing bowl, cover with a towel and let sit in a warm area for 1 hour. (I put mine in my stove - heat OFF)

Step 8

Punch the dough down and give it another brief kneading. Just a few flops of the dough are fine.

Step 9

Sprinkle the rice flour or cornmeal lightly over your work surface. Put your dough on the work surface and roll with a rolling pin until it's about ½ inch thick.

Step 10

Cut out the muffins. I used one of Mini Chef's plastic cups, but you can also buy cutters that do this.

Step 11

Place the cut out muffins on a cookie sheet, spray them with a very light coat of olive oil, sprinkle tops with a light dusting of rice flour or cornmeal, cover with a towel and allow to rise for another 30 minutes in a warm area.

Step 12

Using an UNgreased pan, place as many muffins as you can comfortably fit, in the pan.

Step 13

IMPORTANT: These cook on your STOVE TOP on LOW heat for a long time. Do NOT raise the heat to try and cook them faster. All you will get are burnt outsides and raw insides. Time is key. I cooked mine for about 15-20 minutes on each side. Test yours to adjust cooking time as needed.