Better than store bought English muffins, and much easier to make from scratch than you think! These are pillowy, fully sourdough English muffins, sweetened with honey, swirled with cinnamon and stuffed with raisins. There is nothing like the taste of this nostalgic breakfast bread.
❤️ Why You’ll Love Cinnamon Raisin English Muffins
I say to everyone who is scared to try making homemade English muffins that they are as easy to make as pancakes, because they really are. And even better than that, they are fully sourdough, naturally fermented and gut healthy. They also have no dairy! These remind me of weekday mornings, all I needed was a cinnamon raisin English muffin smeared with butter and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, and I was ready to take on the day.
🍲 Ingredients
Sourdough Starter – This is what will make your English muffins rise. You need previously fed, bubbly and active sourdough starter.
Water – Filtered, room temperature water.
Honey – For just the perfect amount of sweetness.
All-purpose flour – We use and love Kirkland’s organic, unbleached all-purpose flour. And while organic isn’t always necessary, I highly recommend whatever flour you choose should be unbleached.
Cinnamon – Ground cinnamon
Raisins – I use Simply truth organic raisins.
👩🍳 How to Make Cinnamon Raisin English Muffins
- In the morning, feed your sourdough starter
- In the afternoon when your starter has peaked, assemble your dough.
- Whisk together your sourdough starter, water and honey until the starter has dissolved and turned into a milky liquid. Add in the flour, cinnamon, and salt and mix together until a shaggy dough forms.
- Cover and let rest for one hour.
- While your dough is resting, soak your raisins in cold water until they are all fully submerged.
- After one hour, rinse and dry the raisins and add them directly to the bowl. Pull one side of the dough up and towards the middle, rotating the bowl each time. Keep kneading until all the raisins are evenly distributed in the dough and a semi-smooth dough has formed.
- Cover and let rest for one hour. After one hour, perform one stretch and fold before covering your dough and letting it bulk ferment on the counter for 10-12 hours.
- In the morning, turn your dough over onto a clean, lightly floured work surface.
- Using your bench scraper, separate the dough in half, and split each half into 5 equally sized pieces making 10 total English muffins.
- Flour the top of the muffins, cover and let rest for 1 hour.
- When your English muffins have rested and are puffed up, melt 1 tablespoon of butter into a pan over medium heat. Sprinkle corn meal over the pan and place your muffins directly on top of the corn meal. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, after 5 minutes flip your muffins over and cover the pan with a lid, turn the heat to low and finish cooking for 5 – 7 more minutes. (if you don’t have a lid for your pan, cook the muffins as normal, but transfer them to a baking sheet and into the oven at 350 degrees for 5 minutes to finish cooking through).
- Let cool just slightly, and serve warm with butter and honey 🙂
🪄 Tips and Tricks
- If your English muffins are too sticky, don’t be afraid to use flour to help you shape the dough.
- While soaking your raisins isn’t totally necessary, it helps them remain plump in the dough without taking out any extra moisture.
- If your dough looks like it still needs help building structure after adding the raisins do 1 – 2 more stretch and folds at the end to add strength.
🗒 Variations
I love making English muffins because of how easy they are! You can use a starter that has passed its peak a little bit, it’s not a lot of stretch and folds like a normal artisan loaf, and they’re so delicious. Since I started making these a couple of years ago, I haven’t purchased store bought.
Check out my classic English muffin recipe!
🗒 Bakers Schedule
9 am: feed your sourdough starter (I like to feed my starter a 1:3:3 ratio – the larger amount you feed your starter, the longer it will take to reach it’s peak. Ex. 50g starter + 150g flour + 150g water)
7pm: Mix together your English Muffin dough.
8pm: Stretch and fold/ add the raisins.
9pm: Stretch and fold/ bulk ferment.
The next morning –
7am: split your dough into 10 pieces, let rest.
8am: cook your English muffins.
8:30am: enjoy for breakfast!
🗒 Best served with
- Hot cup of coffee
- Breakfast and a big smear of butter with a drizzle of honey.
👝 How to Store Leftovers
You can either place the English muffins that are leftover directly into a Ziplock bag and into the freezer for up to 3 months, or you can store them inside a paper bag and on the counter for 3-4 days.
🤔 Common Questions
Yes! the English muffin dough can stay in the fridge for up to 24 hours.
Cinnamon Raisin Sourdough English Muffins
Equipment
- bowl cover/ tea towel
- large pan
Ingredients
- 200 grams bubbly, active sourdough starter
- 230 grams filtered water
- 20 grams honey
- 375 grams all-purpose flour
- 5 grams cinnamon
- 8 grams salt
- ¾ cup raisins
Instructions
- In the morning, feed your sourdough starter
- In the afternoon when your starter has peaked, assemble your dough.
- Whisk together your sourdough starter, water and honey until the starter has dissolved and turned into a milky liquid. Add in the flour, cinnamon, and salt and mix together until a shaggy dough forms.
- Cover and let rest for one hour.
- While your dough is resting, soak your raisins in cold water until they are all fully submerged.
- After one hour, rinse and dry the raisins and add them directly to the bowl. Pull one side of the dough up and towards the middle, rotating the bowl each time. Keep kneading until all the raisins are evenly distributed in the dough and a semi-smooth dough has formed.
- Cover and let rest for one hour. After one hour, perform one stretch and fold before covering your dough and letting it bulk ferment on the counter for 10-12 hours.
- In the morning, turn your dough over onto a clean, lightly floured work surface.
- Using your bench scraper, separate the dough in half, and split each half into 5 equally sized pieces making 10 total English muffins.
- Flour the top of the muffins, cover and let rest for 1 hour.
- When your English muffins have rested and are puffed up, melt 1 tablespoon of butter into a pan over medium heat. Sprinkle corn meal over the pan and place your muffins directly on top of the corn meal. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, after 5 minutes flip your muffins over and cover the pan with a lid, turn the heat to low and finish cooking for 5 – 7 more minutes. (if you don't have a lid for your pan, cook the muffins as normal, but transfer them to a baking sheet and into the oven at 350 degrees for 5 minutes to finish cooking through).
- Let cool just slightly, and serve warm with butter and honey 🙂
Notes
Nutrition
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I don’t have cornmeal 🙁 any suggestions? They are rising now and smell delicious! All your recipes are my favorite! (And my families too!)
Aw, thank you so much! If you don’t have cornmeal just use butter or coconut oil so the muffins don’t stick 🙂
I never come back to leave a comment unless it’s a hit and will for sure be something I make often. Was feeling a bit deflated cause I’m new at sourdough bread making and only made the perfect loaf once. But these English muffins turn out right every time and in half the time. Dough proofing right now for breakfast. Thank you for sharing.
This was the best English muffins recipe I have attempted yet. I used cranberries and orange essential oil(8 drops) and didn’t have to do the stretch and folds but rather mixed all ingredients by hand just before going to bed (10 pm)and covered until morning (7 am ). By morning it had doubled and risen. I cooked over stovetop until brown and then in the oven for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Delicious!
Thank you for sharing this! I’m glad you love these, they’re also a favorite of ours 🙂