Love the smell of homemade bread? This whole wheat english muffin recipe is a fabulous breakfast or lunch option, one that’s surprisingly easy to prepare. Homemade english muffins have much more flavor than anything you’ll buy at the store, as well as a satisfying, crunchy exterior.
I don’t typically use a lot of bread products. I’m not exactly a low carb gal, but bread has always been a slippery slope for me.
Regardless of whether it’s a fresh artisan loaf from the local bakery or pre-sliced potato bread from the grocery store, if there’s bread around, I find myself eating more of it than I should.
There are two exceptions to this: sprouted ezekiel bread and english muffins. For whatever reason, I don’t feel compelled to binge on either of these.
When I have some extra time, I especially love making english muffins from scratch.
I enjoy making both regular and whole wheat english muffins. The whole wheat version has an added earthiness that I find irresistible with egg sandwiches, for some reason.
There’s just more flavor happening. I don’t use all whole wheat here, and I don’t recommend it. The results are too dense and dry.
Using a mix of all-purpose and whole wheat flour gives me exactly the results I’m seeking.
Cooking these english muffins in a skillet before baking them creates the traditional nook and cranny appearance we’re all used to, but their texture is slightly more dense than supermarket counterparts.
Feel free to play around with the ratio of whole wheat to all-purpose flour. At some point soon I plan to try creating a version of these that uses my sourdough starter instead of yeast. I think that will add even more flavor and lightness.
Baking With Yeast
This recipe uses active dry yeast. Yeast is an ingredient many novice bakers fear, and I’d like to change that! So what is yeast, and how does it work? Can you substitute one variety for another? Check out my article What is Yeast to learn more!
More Bread Recipes
If you’re looking for some other homemade bread ideas, you should check out my cheddar brioche buns and my buttery sourdough buns! I also love this Soft Whole Wheat Bread from Baking a Moment.
Whole Wheat English Muffins
Ingredients
- 10 1/4 ounces whole wheat flour (2 1/4 cups)
- 11 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour (2 1/4 cups)
- 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 1 3/4 cups whole milk
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 large egg, beaten
- semolina flour or cornmeal for dusting
Instructions
- Whisk together the flours, salt, sugar, baking soda and yeast.
- In a small saucepan, warm the milk and butter over medium heat until the butter has just melted. Let the milk cool for several minutes until it's lukewarm.
- In a stand mixer with the dough attachment, combine the milk and butter with the egg and dry ingredients and mix until the dough comes together. Allow it to mix on medium speed for an additional minute. This can also be accomplished without a stand mixer, by combining the ingredients in a bowl and then kneading the dough briefly.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll out to approximately 3/4-inch thickness (they will puff up while cooking). Use a round cutter (approximately 3 3/4 inches) to cut the english muffins, re-rolling the dough as needed. Place the cut dough on a baking sheet dusted with semolina flour or cornmeal. Cover the baking sheet with a towel and allow the dough to rest for a minimum of 20 minutes, up to 90 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Use a nonstick skillet on low heat to cook the muffins for 4-5 minutes per side, until crispy and brown. Finish cooking the muffins in the oven for 15 minutes.
- Before serving, fork split and toast the english muffins. These will keep for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container at room temperature, or for several months in the freezer.
Video
Notes
Please read my full post for additional recipe notes, tips, and serving suggestions!
Nutrition
Recipe Troubleshooting
For immediate help troubleshooting a recipe, please email me using the form on my contact page. I’ll try to respond to urgent questions as quickly as possible! For all general questions, please leave a comment here :)
Jamie says
This look so good and I have been wanting to try making these!
Jackie Blades says
I am so proud of myself. I had only 9 muffins and they were perfect. I think a good after school snack with some of the summer fruit jams is a winner.
Jennifer Farley says
I’m so happy you liked them!
Rachel @thedessertchronicles says
these look like perfection! I have to make these this week! Thanks for sharing!
AnnMarie says
Has anyone tried a cinnamon raisin variety?
Judith says
Wonderful! I just finished making a batch and they turned out great. Thank you.
itzia says
my husband will be so happy when i make these for him!
Stefani Hutchison says
Lol, I’m not giving up! With everyone else praising them I can only think I must have done something on my end. I am thinking that next time I will roll them out a little thinner. Maybe that will help. Love your site!
Sarah says
Just made these and they were fantastic! I tried english muffins from another recipe for the first time earlier this week and it was a major fail, so I was intimidated because I know whole wheat is trickier. I accidentally left them for an hour and a half instead of 20 minutes because my toddler put up a fight at naptime, but they were still wonderful. Mine made 18. Maybe they were supposed to be much thicker to make fewer? I used freshly ground hard red wheat flour- closer to 3 cups worth- and then used a mix of AP flour and a little bit of bread flour that I had left over for the rest. They are so good I keep taking them out of the toaster before they’re done because I just can’t wait any longer to shove another one into my mouth! Can’t wait to make eggs benedict with them!
Corlina says
I am soooo excited to try this recipe! I have a very strict $125 weekly grocery budget for my family of 6 so I try to make most things from scratch. I’m also trying to steer clear of most processed foods. However, I’ve still been buying bread and english muffins. So I was completely disappointed when I realized just a couple of days ago that my 4 year old’s beloved 100% whole wheat Thomas English Muffins contain sucralose! I cannot wait to try these. Thank you so much!
Hlengiwe says
I would like to make these muffins but I have a concern with all purpose flour. Is it the right flour for weight watching person? Can I substitute it with other flour like brown rice flour, quinoa flour, etc.?
Jennifer Farley says
I would try searching online for some recipes that were developed specifically using gluten free flours like the ones you reference. Typically you can’t do an even swap with flours so it would change the recipe and I can’t guarantee the results will be good. Let me know if you find a good recipe!
Mandy says
Hi did anyone else kill their yeast when adding the hot milk to the flour mixture? I’ve made a few breads before and always added the yeast to the liquid, made sure it bubbled to see it activated then added that to the flour as salt can retard the yeast too. Oh and also sugar is in the liquid or honey to give the yeast something to eat. I waited a little to try and ensure the liquid wasn’t too hot. I could dip my finger in it, but when I poured it into the flour and started to knead it was still pretty hot to the touch.
Jennifer Farley says
The problem might be that you added hot milk. For the butter to be just melted the milk shouldn’t have to be hot, just warm. Next time try letting it cool if it seems hot. You only need to proof yeast when the label says “active dry yeast.” Instant yeast can be added immediately but you still don’t want the liquid to be too hot.
Mandy says
Thanks. They did rise a little but the texture once cooked was dense, obviously not going to be the same as store bought. And maybe I over kneaded a little because I did it by hand and not the machine so kneaded a little longer to get it to all come together. Are they a bit like scones that if you over mix it becomes denser and chewy?
Mandy says
Also I asked around as I’ve made Irish soda bread before and these really reminded me of the taste and a baker suggested it could be because the normal ration of yeast to baking soda is 4:1
Rezept Schachtel says
It looks very good. Thank you for this recipe.
Kateryna Kel says
Hi Jennifer, I found your muffins recipe on your great website and I would love to try and make them. However here in Australia we have different measurements. I was wondering what is the cup size in recipe, is it 250ml or 235ml?
Thank you
Kathy Cohen says
Perhaps using bread flours in place of regular flours would give a less dense texture to these. The recipe for english muffins that came in the box with my rings uses bread flour.
Kelsey Tyler says
Great english muffins! My boyfriend doesn’t usually like whole wheat but loved these. For anyone interested, here is the nutritional information. I’m into nutrition so I like to nerd it out with these things.
Serving size: 10
Nutrition per serving (1 muffin):
Calories 287
Protein 9 grams
Fat 6 grams
Carbs 50 grams
Sodium 453 mg
Sugar 4 grams
I figured this out by adding the nutritional content of all ingredients and then dividing by the serving size (10). If you make less or more muffins than 10, here’s the total values. You would just divide by how many muffins you made to figure out the nutrition of one muffin.
Calories 2866 Protein 94 Fat 64 Carbs 495 Sodium 4,529 Sugar 36