Marcella Cooking Stuff • English Muffin Project

It's Muffin Time!

I'm going to start by setting a clear expectation for this English Muffin Project. I will not be telling you what the best grocery store English muffin is because I was unimpressed by almost all the brands I tried. I will however tell you which are worth trying, which to skip, and which one tasted...yellow.

Before this test, when I would buy English muffins I would always buy Bay's. I love English muffins but I hadn't really searched for the "best" before. I was happy with Bay's. At the very beginning of the Marcella Cooking Stuff Instagram, I made English muffins. Two batches actually because I had realized I under mixed the dough of the first batch shortly after I placed it in the refrigerator to rise. Coincidentally I finished the last of the 24 English muffins while doing the . They were frozen and I was eating them from time to time instead of buying any at the grocery store.

For this test, I want to Trader Joe's, Hy-Vee, Whole Foods, and Sprouts. I tested seven grocery store brands and two recipes at home.

Let's cover our muffin bases first:

What are English muffins?

Small, round, yeasted, flatbreads that were actually not invented in England. These muffins were invented in the 1880s by British ex-pat Samuel Bath Thomas, yes like Thomas brand muffins, right here in New York City. They come from a dough that is wet and sticky trapping in the gases from fermentation and creating their signature "nooks and crannies." First cooked on a griddle to create a crunchy exterior then baked leaving a soft textured inside. The dough also has a dusting of cornmeal on its exterior to prevent sticking while cooking. Traditionally split in half, English muffins are eaten with toppings spread on them or used to build a sandwich.

English Muffins vs. Crumpets

Let's think of them this way, English muffins and crumpets are like cousins. Similar idea, similar roots, similar ingredients, made in their own way, and with completely different results.

Crumpets are griddle cakes, like a pancake, that originated in Britain. Leavened with baking soda, the batter is poured into a ring on a griddle, and traditionally cooked on one side. The air bubbles rise to the top, pop, and leave tons of open holes that hold butter and jam.

Batter vs. dough
Baking soda vs. yeast
Cooked on a griddle alone vs. griddled then baked
Eaten whole vs. split in half
British vs. American

Today, most recipes online for crumpets and English muffins are a hybrid of the two and that's fine. They are both great. They both are tasty vessels for toppings. You can like them both!

Fork vs. Knife

57% of you guys said you split your English muffins open with forks instead of cutting them with a knife. You guys are doing it right! This technique was created to split the muffin in half while leaving all the nooks and crannies.

Here is a video with one way to split them with a fork. I like to take two forks, insert them on the side, and pull apart.

Gluten-Free English Muffins?

Here is the deal with gluten-free bread products, they all kinda suck. When researching gluten-free muffins I only found one brand that Marco could eat due to his allergies, Food for Life. We tested these and I decided not to buy any others because I didn't want to get stuck with the leftovers.

The Food for Life muffins are made with rice. They don't split evenly and one side always toasts more than the other. They are kind of bland and Marco describes them as a "chewy rice cake." Marco recommends you try other GF brands before these but they are not terrible.

Two brands that make fabulous gluten-free products and have gluten-free English muffins are Katz and Canyon Bakehouse. We haven't tried them, again due to his allergies, but if you see them at the store give them a try and let me know how they are!

Homemade English Muffins

I tested two recipes at home for you guys. The techniques were different, the ingredients were slightly different, and the results were very different!

I kept them on the counter in plastic bags to see how fast they grew mold. These are made with real ingredients the way muffins should be made.

Whole Wheat English Muffins
Recipe by Melissa Clark on NYTCooking
6 muffins

This recipe is simple. Mix everything in a bowl, rise for an hour, spoon into the griddle, bake, and done.

The batter took me 10 minutes and I had no problems mixing it. This recipe calls for butter on your griddle instead of traditional cornmeal. Fine. It also calls for scooping batter onto the griddle...the batter did not scoop. It was easier to take a big spoon (tablespoon) and spoon 2-3 spoonfuls of batter making a round mound. Then you flip and bake for a few minutes.

As soon as I flipped the first one I thought "these look like pancakes." The shape, the technique, the smell...pancakes.

They came out of the oven and you know what they tasted like? Bland pancakes. They sat in a plastic bag on the counter for a few days and every day when I would snack on them I thought the same thing, pancakes!

Result: Skip them. They were hardly reminiscent of an English muffin. They tasted fine but could use more honey.
Mold test: 4 days

BA's Best English Muffins
Recipe By Claire Saffitz on Bon Appetit
12 muffins

This is the recipe I had made at the beginning of quarantine. It takes a little bit of planning as the dough proofs overnight in the refrigerator but they turned out even better than the last time I made them.

You need a stand mixer and dough hook but besides that, the recipe is very straightforward. I had one issue with the dough. The brand of flour you use makes a difference! I used Pillsbury bread flour because that is all I could get my hands on. The recipe calls for 3.5 cups of flour but my dough was way too wet. I added extra flour 1 tablespoon at a time and I needed to add a lot...I'm talking 12+ tablespoons. I lost count. Last time I used King Arthur four and do not remember having this issue at all. My friend Halle made these muffins recently and had the same issue. She used Gold Medal Flour and ended up adding about a 1/2 cup extra. My guess is this has something to do with the protein content of the flours. If you are making this recipe and the dough looks watery, adding extra flour is okay.

This resulted in some extra kneading time which didn't have a negative effect on the overall product.

These English muffins were wonderful! I can't recommend them enough. They had a great shape, flavor, and a nice pillowy texture. The combination of buttermilk and a long cold ferment gave it a slight sourdough taste. I am a fan.

Result: This is what an English muffin should taste like. Totally worth it to carve out some time and make a batch of these.
Mold Test: 5 days

Let's try some muffins!

I did four rounds of testing...

Taste Test - Tried each muffin plain right out of the package.
Toast Test - Tried each muffin toasted with butter.
Leslie Test - My mother and I tried each muffin toasted with butter.
Mold Test - Science project style, I placed each muffin in a bag and waited to see how long it took for mold to grow.

Additionally, I ate some sort of English muffin sandwich pretty much every day for two weeks.

I broke the results up into three groups:

1. Muffins I will never purchase again

2. Typical grocery store muffins

3. Fancier muffins

Muffins I will never buy again...

Dave's Killer Bread - Killer Classic English Muffins
6 muffins - $5.99 - Sprouts
Price per Muffin - $0.99

Size: 3/4 inch thick, 3.75 inches diameter
Weight: 2oz
How did it separate: Pre-cut, easily pull apart with hands
Ingredients: Organic flours (organic wheat flour, organic whole wheat flour, organic barley flour, organic rye flour, organic spelt flour, organic millet flour, organic quinoa flour), water, yeast, contains 2% or less of each of the following: organic cane sugar, organic wheat gluten, organic whole grain cornmeal, sea salt, organic malted barley extract, organic vinegar, organic cultured wheat flour, organic expeller pressed canola oil, organic lemon juice concentrate, organic acerola cherry powder, organic yellow cornmeal, enzymes, organic coarse farina.

(That's a lot of ingredients, even though they are "healthy")

Taste Test: Fail
Toast Test: Fail
Mold test: No mold after 25 days
Leslie Test: 1st place "Wheaty, I like it"

Aside from the fact that my mother loved this muffin, I thought it tasted like cardboard. She is correct, it's wheaty, but it's also bland. It had lots of large holes and was incredibly dry.

Final Thoughts: Don't bother.

Farm to Market - English Muffins
4 muffins - $3.99 - Hy-Vee
Price per Muffin - $0.99

Size: 1.5 inches thick, 3.5 inches diameter
Weight: 2oz
How did it separate: Very hard to pull apart using two forks
Ingredients: Wheat Flour, Whole Milk, Butter, Whole Wheat Flour, Cane Sugar, Sea Salt, Yeast, Malt

Taste Test: Fail
Toast Test: Fail
Mold test: 5 days
Leslie Test: 7th place "It tastes yellow, I don't love it."

Farm to Market is a local Kansas City company. I buy their sliced and french bread religiously and was rooting for these muffins!! Everything about them was off. They were very light and airy but super hard to pull apart with two forks. They had a baguette like aroma and tasted like plain dry white sandwich bread. Incredibly crumbly, slightly buttery but overall very bland. One might say this is the taste of yellow?!

Their website says they are cooked in a muffin ring and I could tell from the super straight sides.

The one thing I loved about them is the ingredients. Pretty straight forward and no unnecessary additives. These muffins grew mold quickly. A few spots after five days and totally covered around ten days.

Final Thoughts: These were not English muffins. They reminded me of normal bread cooked in a muffin ring. Very disappointing!

Typical Grocery Store Muffins...

Thomas - Original English Muffins
6 muffins - $2.99 - Hy-Vee
Price per Muffin - $0.49

Size: 1.25 inches thick, 3.75 inches diameter
Weight: 2.25 oz
How did it separate: Perforated along the sides, easily pulls open with forks
Ingredients: Enriched wheat flour [flour, malted barley flour, reduced iron, niacin, thiamin mononitrate (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), folic acid], water, farina, yeast, salt, sugar, calcium propionate and sorbic acid (to preserve freshness), soybean oil, wheat gluten, grain vinegar, soy lecithin, soy, wheat.

Taste Test: Fail
Toast Test: Pass
Mold test: No mold after 25 days
Leslie Test: 5th place "Mmm crispy, I like."

Thomas is the OG English muffin. I bet everyone reading this has had a Thomas English muffin before. 77% of you wrote Thomas in as your favorite brand and a good handful of you said it was the only brand you really knew of. Thomas has saturated the market and can be found virtually everywhere.

These muffins were very chewy and soft. They had a variety of hole sizes and they tasted nostalgic. This is what my brain, and I'm sure yours too, registers as typical English muffin taste.

After trying four of them and doing a handful of side by side, it's clear that they actually taste quite bland and flavorless. I'm not a huge fan of all the added ingredients. Calcium propionate and sorbic acid kept them mold-free for almost a month 😬. Also have to point out, lots of soy on that ingredient list.

Final Thoughts: Thomas English muffins are fine. They don't bring much to the table and I probably won't buy them. They were my least favorite of the three almost identical and typical grocery store muffins.

Trader Joe's - Classic English Muffins
6 muffins - $1.49 - Trader Joe's
Price per Muffin - $0.24

Size: 1.25 inches thick, 3.5 inches diameter
Weight: 2oz
How did it separate: Easy to pull apart with two forks
Ingredients: Unbleached enriched flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine, mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, yeast, sugar, vital wheat gluten, contains 2% or less of expeller pressed corn oil, cultured wheat flour (to preserve), distilled vinegar, sea salt, cornmeal, enzymes

Taste Test: Pass
Toast Test: Pass
Mold test: No mold after 25 days
Leslie Test: 4th place "Crispy, sourdoughy, and good."

These muffins are fine. They felt slightly more "real" than the Thomas muffins. There wasn't much flavor and they were a bit bland but the texture was nice. There were a good amount of large visible holes. These are the cheapest on the list but didn't taste cheap.

Final Thoughts: It's an English muffin 🤷🏼‍♀️. Came in second of the three.

Bay's - Original English Muffins
6 muffins - $3.00 - Hy-Vee
Price per Muffin - $0.50

Size: 1 inch thick, 3.5 inches diameter
Weight: 1.75oz
How did it separate: Precut, easy to open with hands
Ingredients: Enriched bleached wheat flour [wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate (vitamin b1), riboflavin vitamin (b2), folic acid], water, cornmeal, yeast. Contains 2% or less of each of the following: sugar, preservatives (sodium propionate, calcium propionate), salt, wheat gluten, butter, soybean oil, potato flour, dry whole milk, monocalcium phosphate, fumaric acid, citric acid, soy lecithin.

Taste Test: Pass
Toast Test: Pass
Mold test: No mold after 25 days
Leslie Test: 2nd place "Thin and crispy, I kinda like it."

Bay's have a slight tang that the others don't. They taste a little sourdough like and of the three they have the most flavor. Of all seven muffins, Bay's have the most consistent amount of large holes. I will say they were a little flatter than they used to be. I'm assuming they have had some ownership changes in recent years. The new "resealable" packaging sucks and doesn't reseal.

Final Thoughts: Of the three typical grocery store brands, Bay's have the most flavor and are my favorite. These are the only ones I would buy again.

"Fancier" muffins...

Wolferman's - Original English Muffins
4 muffins - $2.99 - Hy-Vee
Price per Muffin - $0.74

Size: 1.75 inches thick, 3.75 inches diameter
Weight: 4.25oz !!
How did it separate: Easy to pull apart with two forks
Ingredients: Enriched Flour (Bleached Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Water, Yeast, Contains 2% or Less of the Following: Wheat Gluten, Corn Syrup, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Salt, Lactic Acid, Corn Starch, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Monocalcium Phosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Sugar, Corn Meal, Corn Flour, Ascorbic Acid, Azodicarbonamide (Dough Conditioner), Vinegar, Calcium Propionate and Potassium Sorbate (as Preservatives).

Taste Test: Fail
Toast Test: Pass
Mold test: Mold after 20 days
Leslie Test: 6th place "Mushy and dense, I don't love it."

Wolfermans is another Kansas City company that are known for their "super thick" English muffins. These bad boys are dense. These muffins did nothing for me in the taste test. They don't have the nooks and crannies that I want with an English muffin. They are very "bready" but enjoyable when toasted. I used this muffin to make a sandwich and it was way too much bread.

Final Thoughts: These muffins did nothing for me. Not what I crave when I crave English muffins but tasty. I wouldn't buy them again.

Stone & Skillet - Wheat English Muffins
4 muffins - $6.99 - Whole Foods
Price per Muffin - $1.75

Size: 1.25 inches thick, 3 inches diameter
Weight: 2.5oz
How did it separate: Sticky and hard to pull apart with two forks
Ingredients: Unbleached Wheat Flour (Unbleached Hard Spring Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Whole Wheat Flour, Honey, Butter, Salt, Apple Cider Vinegar, Yeast, Natural Enzymes, Cornmeal, Canola Oil.

Taste Test: Pass
Toast Test: Pass
Mold test: No mold after 25 days
Leslie Test: 3rd place "Doughy, tasty, and muffiny."

I considered leaving these out since I accidentally grabbed the wheat instead of the original but I liked them! They are nowhere near a "traditional" English muffin but of all seven they had the most flavor. They are sweet, sticky, and very chewy. And we have to touch on the price...they are expensive. That's all.

Final Thoughts: Not a traditional muffin and too expensive to buy weekly but I would buy them on special occasions and I want to try their original muffin. I like them.

So what English muffins should we buy moving forward?

This might not be what you want to hear but...I think you guys should give homemade English muffins a try. Overall I was a bit disappointed by all the grocery store brands. None of them came close to the homemade BA's Best English Muffins. You can make a batch, enjoy a few fresh, and then pop the rest in the freezer. They freeze great and defrost wonderfully in the microwave or in a toaster oven at a low temp.

If you don't want to try making your own, the next best would be buying some fresh from a local bakery.

If I had to grab some while at the store the only two I would buy again are Bay's and Stone & Skillet. Once toasted all seven tasted fine though!

I came across this funny English muffin TikTok, Enjoy!

If you guys try any English muffins, I want updates on your thoughts!

I had a few requests for an Olive Oil research project. I thinking of doing that next and then November should be a Thanksgiving research project. If you want a deep dive into anything Thanksgiving related, send me your requests!

See you next week,

Marcella