English Muffins

With help of a bread machine, your friends and family will marvel over your cooking skills for serving them these English muffin. Just avoid telling  them how simple it is to make these muffins, so you can get all the credit for being a good baker.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup warm water
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs oil
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp vinegar
2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 tsp yeast
Enough cornmeal for dusting

Directions:
Place all the ingredients, except the cornmeal, in the order listed above in the bread pan machine. Select dough setting, and press start.
Remove the dough from the bread pan after the machine beeps. Place the dough onto a floured countertop.

 With a rolling pin, roll dough out to a 3/8-inch thickness.

Using a 3-inch muffin cutter, cut out muffins.

Reroll the scraps one time and cut additional muffins. Sprinkle cornmeal and flour on a baking sheet and place the muffins on the baking sheet.

 Sprinkle more cornmeal and flour on top of muffins. Cover with a towel.

 Let rise on the countertop until almost doubled in size, about 40 to 60 minutes.
Heat ungreased griddle or cast iron pan on the stove top to medium-high (375°). Then reduce heat to low (275°). Very gently, place the muffins on the griddle and cook them for 10 minutes.

Gently turn them over and increase the heat to high to finish cooking, trying not to deflate them. Cook for 5 more minutes on the other side of the muffins.

Remove the muffins from the griddle and cool on a wire rack. Slit in half with a fork, toast, and serve with butter. The leftovers freeze well in a Ziploc® bag.