English muffin facts for kids

A yummy English muffin, split and ready to eat!

An English muffin is a tasty, round, and flat type of bread. It's made from a special dough that has yeast (which makes it rise!), and it's made even richer with butter and milk.

You'll often find English muffins served toasted for breakfast in places like the UK, USA, Canada, and Australia. In the UK, people usually just call them "muffins" or "breakfast muffins." They're famous for their unique nooks and crannies, which are perfect for holding butter, jam, or anything else you like!

How English Muffins Are Made

English muffins start as a soft dough...

...then they are cooked on a flat griddle inside rings to keep their shape...

...after cooking, they cool down.

You usually split them open with a fork...

...and then toast them until they're golden and warm!

Making an English muffin is a bit different from baking regular bread. Here’s how it usually works:

Mixing the Dough

First, all the ingredients like flour, yeast, milk, and butter are mixed together to create a soft, sticky dough. This dough needs time to rise, just like other yeast breads.

Cooking on a Griddle

Instead of baking in an oven, English muffins are cooked on a flat, hot surface called a griddle. They are often placed inside special metal rings. These rings help them keep their perfect round shape as they cook. The heat from the griddle gives them a slightly crispy outside and helps create those famous "nooks and crannies" inside.

Cooling and Serving

Once cooked, the muffins are taken off the griddle and allowed to cool. When you're ready to eat one, the best way to open it is by using a fork to split it in half. This helps keep all those wonderful nooks and crannies intact. After splitting, they are usually toasted until they are warm and slightly crispy. Then, you can add butter, jam, eggs, or anything else you like!

Images for kids

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  London Cries: A Muffin Man (around 1759). Back then, muffin men would sell muffins by ringing a bell!

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  A Victorian-era muffin man ringing a bell, from Punch magazine, 1892.

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  Wholemeal English muffins from a store in England.

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  The "Muffin House" in Manhattan, New York. This was the first bakery of Samuel Bath Thomas, who helped make English muffins popular in America.

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  An English muffin being toasted.

See also

In Spanish: Muffin inglés para niños