I’ve officially switched gears from summer to fall––my favorite season. We’ve transitioned from flip flops to close-toed shoes and cozy socks, and my vast collection of plaid button-downs is back on duty (yay!). Today, I was driving through the Hudson Valley grinning like an idiot (I only say this because I was alone in my car, smiling to no one in particular. Well…other drivers probably saw me––and thought I was a weirdo.), because I was surrounded by trees in varying shades of red, yellow, and orange.
I don’t think this is the first time I’ve said this, but one of my favorite things about fall is all the baking I get to do with pumpkin. From pies to cakes to scones, pumpkin is one of the last few ingredients that we really only tend to use seasonally. Which means that one bite of pumpkin pie (or in this case, pumpkin English muffins) can immediately make me think of all the other great things I associate with fall––falling asleep on the couch in front of a warm fireplace, picking up apples and cider at the farm in my hometown, and stargazing on chilly nights with hot tea in hand. It’s all so delightfully and un-ironically cheeseball-y. I love it.
Since discovering the awesomeness of homemade English Muffins in Beijing (check out our original recipe here, as well as the multigrain version here), we’ve been wanting to develop a pumpkin version. They’re pretty perfect, I must say. Cut them in half, toast them, and serve with butter. You can also sprinkle on a little cinnamon sugar if you’re feeling crazy!
You’ll need:
- 3 2/3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
- 1 packet active dry yeast (2 ¼ teaspoons)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 2/3 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/3 to 2/3 cup lukewarm water
- 2/3 cup plain yogurt
- ¼ cup semolina or cornmeal
- oil
In the bowl of a mixer, whisk together the flour, yeast, salt, sugar, and spices.
Fit your mixer with the dough hook attachment, and add the pumpkin puree, water (start with half a cup, and add more a little at a time if the dough is too dry––up to 2/3 cup), and yogurt to the dry ingredients. Turn the mixer on low and knead for 5 minutes. You can also knead by hand for 10 minutes. After kneading, let the dough rest for 5 minutes.
On a clean, lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of about ½ an inch. Cut into 12-15 circles with a 3-inch round cutter (a drinking glass works well). Sprinkle a baking sheet with the semolina and place the muffins on it.
Slide the muffins around so that the bottoms are evenly coated with semolina. Cover with a damp towel and let rise in a warm place for an hour, until almost doubled in size.
Heat a flat griddle pan until hot and brush with oil. Reduce heat to medium and add the muffins in batches. Cook each batch for 14 minutes, 7 minutes per side, until firm and golden brown. Turn only once.
- 3⅔ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
- 1 packet active dry yeast (2 ¼ teaspoons)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ⅔ cup pumpkin puree
- ⅓ to ⅔ cup lukewarm water
- ⅔ cup plain yogurt
- ¼ cup semolina or cornmeal
- oil
- In the bowl of a mixer, whisk together the flour, yeast, salt, sugar, and spices. Fit your mixer with the dough hook attachment, and add the pumpkin puree, water (start with ⅓ cup, and add more a little at a time if the dough is too dry––up to ⅔ cup), and yogurt to the dry ingredients. Turn the mixer on low and knead for 5 minutes. You can also knead by hand for 10 minutes. After kneading, let the dough rest for 5 minutes.
- On a clean, lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of about ½ an inch. Cut into 12-15 circles with a 3-inch round cutter (a drinking glass works well). Sprinkle a baking sheet with the semolina and place the muffins on it. Slide the muffins around so that the bottoms are evenly coated with semolina. Cover with a damp towel and let rise in a warm place for an hour, until almost doubled in size.
- Heat a flat griddle pan until hot and brush with oil. Reduce heat to medium and add the muffins in batches. Cook each batch for 14 minutes, 7 minutes per side, until firm and golden brown. Turn only once.
:D says
What measurements of flours to use if I want to make whole-grain pumpkin english muffins?
Judy says
Hi D, we also have a Multigrain English Muffin recipe. it’s hard to give you a quick answer without first trying it out though :-(
:D says
I made it today using 50/50 white whole-wheat flour and all-purpose flour. I started with a 1/2 cup water. During mixing with the dough hook, it took awhile to come together because the flour on the sides of the bowl was not incorporating with the wet dough in the center of the bowl. I had to use a rubber spatula to keep scraping the flour on the sides of the bowl to the the center. From doing this, I thought the dough needed the rest of the water. After the mixing was done, I had a wet sticky dough. I floured the board and kneaded some whole wheat pastry flour to the dough. I don’t know how much whole wheat pastry flour I added, but it could be bettween 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup. I decided to stop and just roll the dough and cut out the muffins. During proofing, I had a chance to search the internet for what I thought may be a disaster.
After cooking the muffins on stovetop for 14 minutes, I split a muffin open and realize the center was not cook well. I decided to put the muffins in a 350-degree oven for 10 minutes as I read from another site. That worked out really well.
From what I thought was a disaster, the muffins turned out quite good. The muffins were a bit chewy because of the whole-wheat flour, but I liked the chewiness. It was crispy on the outside after toasting the split muffins in a toaster. Overall, this is a good recipe, just that I added too much water which caused me to add more flour, creating a more dense and chewy English muffin. The flavor is very good. Nice pumpkin spice flavor. I’ll have to give these pumpkin English muffins another try some day.
Sarah says
Thank you for sharing your experience!!
Ashley says
OMG your photos in this post are GORGEOUS. they really capture the coziness of fall and I can just imagine these english muffins flaking and melting in your mouth. I might give em a try this weekend but use whole wheat flour (i know it doesn’t give the same texture but I’ll sacrifice that for the health benenfits). I’ll let you know if i do!
Sarah says
Thank you so much Ashley! Hard to believe we posted this recipe a year ago. I’ll have to make these again at some point soon. :)
Sheila says
I was eating these delicious English muffins in 2 1/2 hours from start to finish! Thank you so much for sharing this excellent recipe. They remind me of a cinnamon raisin bagel in taste. Easy to make but impressive to serve!
Sarah says
Thank you Sheila!
Jeanne says
I have some pureed pumpkin left after trying your pumpkin cake with Mexican chocolate frosting! It is so good just as you said (sometimes I am skeptical of cooking bloggers, but you are right on) that I cannot wait until tomorrow to try these! Thank you, thank you!
Sarah says
You’re welcome Jeanne! So glad you enjoyed the cake (it’s one of my favorites!), and hoping you enjoy the english muffins just as much!
Ankit says
I made these yesterday and they do taste great. But I found the dough to be overly sticky and not very dough like….even after I added a ton more flour. What do you think? Less water next time? (I put in about 2/3 cup)
Sarah says
Hey Ankit, yes, i would say reduce the water. i actually forgot to add that step in the recipe––to determine how much water you need based on how dry/humid it is in your kitchen. It also has to do with what kind of yogurt you use––a more watery yogurt vs. a thicker greek yogurt, for example. I’ll add that to the recipe. Thanks for sharing your experience with us!
Little Cooking Tips says
The US-style orange pumpkins are a bit rare here, and have only been available for a few years. But having seen how popular they are in the States, we feel we must explore their potential:) Does the Chinese cuisines have lots of pumpkin uses?
These pumpkin English muffins look fantastic and must be super tasty as well!:) We really want to try them, so we’ll be in the lookout for some orange pumpkins:)
Have a beautiful week ahead guys!
Hugs,
Panos and Mirella
Sarah says
Chinese cuisine does actually use orange pumpkins. There’s a somewhat famous dish of fried pumpkin with duck egg yolks that we tried in Beijing––a VERY rich dish, as you can probably imagine. You can also find pumpkin versions of sticky rice cakes and other desserts, as well as––more healthily––in soups.
MK says
Here in Western China, they use pumpkin for what they call 南瓜汤。I bought four small pumpkins yesterday and made homemade pumpkin puree. Today, I will try to make these >.<
Sarah says
awesome, let us know how they turn out!
Bianca says
Oh no, I bought enough pumpkin for pumpkin pie today, but not enough for muffins. Conundrum!
Sarah says
Hey Bianca, if you don’t have pumpkin, we also have a regular english muffin recipe, and a multigrain english muffin recipe! (Side note: we really like english muffins.) Here are the links:
https://thewoksoflife.com/2013/09/beijing-survival-guide-english-muffins/
https://thewoksoflife.com/2014/11/homemade-multigrain-english-muffins/
Heather (Delicious Not Gorgeous) says
i never realized that homemade english muffins would actually taste different from the grocery store ones (what? i know) until i had the ones from model bakery in napa. so tasty! these have been on my list for a while, and they sound even better because there’s pumpkin (i still haven’t baked with pumpkin this season yet, and it’s becoming an issue).
Sarah says
Hope you had a chance to make these Heather!