Whole Wheat English Muffins

I was looking online for a recipe for whole wheat English muffins that were mostly whole wheat flour without being too dense, and I'm pretty sure I found the perfect one. It uses 5 cups of whole wheat flour and only 1 of white all purpose flour. If you find that it's still too dense for you, you can always substitute all purpose for the whole wheat until you reach the perfect density. English muffins are surprisingly easy to make. Give'em a try!!

Ingredients

-1 cup of milk, heated to 110F. I microwave it for about a minute and check the temperature. If it's not enough, I do another 30 seconds and that's usually perfect.
-2 tablespoons of honey
-1 package of active dry yeast, or if you buy the big jars 2 1/2 teaspoons
-1 cup of water, heated to 110F
-1/4 cup of melted butter, or you can also use canola/coconut/olive oil
-5 cups of whole wheat flour (I like to use organic whole wheat flour. It's the same concept as when you buy produce. If you're eating the outside of a food, go for organic.) You could also use white whole wheat flour, it has the same benefits but yields a lighter muffin.
-1 cup of all-purpose flour
-1 teaspoon of salt

Directions
-Add the honey to the warmed milk, mix well to make sure the honey is dissolved.
-In a large bowl, add the yeast to the warm water. Leave it in the bowl for about 5-10 minutes, until foamy. If it doesn't activate then you have bad yeast.

-Add the milk and honey mixture, butter or oil and 3 cups of the whole wheat flour into this bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon, or if you have a stand mixer use the paddle attachment.

-Mix until completely smooth.

-Add the flour in half cup increments until a soft dough forms. Be patient, allow the dough to absorb the flour you add before adding more. Use up all of your whole wheat flour before adding all-purpose.

-The dough is ready when it pulls away from the bowl cleanly. Be careful not to add too much flour though, it's better to have a more wet dough than a dry one. It should be soft and smooth. Knead it a little until it comes together into a ball.

-Grease a large mixing bowl and place your dough in there. Cover and let rise until doubled, about an hour. I like to let my dough rise inside the oven, turned off, with the oven light on.
-While your dough is rising, get everything ready. Grab 2 sheet pans and line them with parchment paper. Sprinkle some cornmeal on the paper. Grab a griddle and place it on your stove top. You can also use a skillet if you don't have a griddle.
-When the dough has doubled, place it on a floured surface. Punch all the air out and then divide it into 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a neat ball and place 6 on each sheet. Flatten all of them with your fingers. Sprinkle a little bit more cornmeal on top.

-Cover them and let them rise for 30 minutes. They won't rise too much, this is what they'll look like.

-Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350F. When your English muffins have 2-3 minutes left, heat your griddle or skillet over medium heat. Grease it with butter, canola or coconut oil.
-When you're ready to cook your muffins, dust off any excess cornmeal and place them on the griddle.

-Cook each side for about 5-7 minutes. You'll see that they will rise as you cook them, it's pretty cool!

-When you finish cooking them, transfer them back to their sheet pans. Then bake them in the oven for about 5 minutes.

-Cool the sheets on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then transfer the muffins to the rack to cool completely. When they're ready, cut them open with a fork. Never ever use a knife! It just completely smooshes the muffins and those nook and crannies are destroyed. Have one warm with butter, trust me.

I like to freeze them. It's only my boyfriend and I living in the apartment so we could never eat these fast enough before they get stale or moldy. What I do is cut them all open with a fork, then place the bottom half in the middle of an aluminum foil sheet, fold the right side of the foil over that half and then place the top on and finish closing it up. If you don't do this, it'll be really difficult to pry them apart from each other once frozen.

I like to eat mine with homemade almond butter and banana slices. I even have a blog post on how great of a breakfast that is. If you want to add honey and cinnamon on top, I won't be mad atcha.

Serving Size: Makes 12. 1 English muffin each.
Nutritional Info: 264 calories, 6g total fat, 3g saturated fat, 1g polyunsaturated fat, 1g monounsaturated fat, 12mg cholesterol, 11mg sodium, 246mg potassium, 48g carbs, 6g fiber, 4g sugar, 9g protein