How to Make English Muffins

Egg McMuffin. Pizza McMuffin. Eggs Benedict…McMuffin…?
I love English Muffins, though I prefer English Muffins slightly toasted, with bacon or sausage with good ol' American cheese and a little grape jelly. Mmm Mmm.  How do you like your English Muffins.
Once you make homemade, you'll never buy store bought again. I had every ingredient on hand, which was good as I decided to make this pretty last minute. I wanted to keep my promise that I will share a recipe post once a week.
Even though I have loads of homework to do. That's OK though! I love you guys. You guys have stuck by me for 4 YEARS. Well a lot of you have. That's crazy. So let's celebrate with MUFFINS!
Please check out the tips at the end of the recipe instructions!
This recipe is from the Laura Vitale of www.laurainthekitchen.com. She has a video and instructions on her website if you love videos!
Laura Vitale's recipe for English Muffins
Makes 18 muffins
Ingredients:
2 cups of Whole Milk, scalded (i used 2% as it was all I had)
5 cups of Bread Flour
1 Egg
2 Tbsp of Unsalted Butter, melted
2 Tbsp of Vegetable Shortening, melted
2 ½ Tbsp of sugar
1 ½ tsp of Salt
1 tsp of Baking Soda
1 Envelope of Active Dry Yeast, (2 ¼ tsp) plus 1 tsp of sugar
Cornmeal
1) In a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer, sprinkle the yeast and 1 tsp of sugar over the milk and allow it to sit and foam for a few minutes. Add the shortening, butter and egg to the yeast mixture and whisk together to combine. I used 4 tablespoons of butter. However you don't need to use butter or shortening, I forgot both the first time I made this and they turned out very well and less fat!
2) In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook, add the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and milk mixture. If you do not own a stand mixer just add the flour mixture to the milk mixture.
3) Mix the dough on low until the flour is incorporated, turn the speed up to medium and knead for 3 to 4 minutes or until the dough is smooth but still sticky.
4) Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, place it in a warm place and allow it to rise for about 2 hours.
5) Dump the dough on a floured surface, knead it together and cut it into 18 equal pieces (if you like smaller English muffins, cut them into 22 equal pieces). Roll each piece into a ball, press them down with your hand to form a patty and place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet that has been sprinkled with cornmeal. Sprinkle the top of your patties with a little more cornmeal, cover them with a kitchen towel or  spray the boules with cooking spray (to prevent sticking) and put plastic wrap over boules, and let them rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
6) Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
7) Preheat a griddle pan or a skillet to medium heat, gently lift each round with a spatula, place it on the hot griddle and let them cook for about 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown on both sides (do them in batches). Place them back on the baking sheet, then place them in the oven for 10 minutes.
Allow them to cool a bit before serving. Then using a fork, Laura suggests to prick muffins opened with a fork to get extra nook and crannies. 
Some tips!
In my opinion, the key to a kick ass muffin is the size (besides taste of course). If you have a kitchen scale, make sure each boule (ball) of dough is about 2.5-3.0 ounces. If you do not own a kitchen scale, please make sure the ball fits in the palm of your hand at least. If this helps I made 18. So make 18 equal boules. Also, I was hoping this would be vegan for my non meat-dairy friends, but freaking forgot this recipe calls for milk. I think this recipe will work if you substitute a cup of warm water and a cup of soy milk a room temperature for milk. And the first time I made this recipe I used neither butter or vegetable shortening (rarely have that on hand anyway) and it still worked! And lastly these muffins keeps well in the freezer!!!! So the night before just thaw as many as you want to use for the next day and you have muffins for your family. I like to cook a lot of sausage patties to make it a bit more rounded.
ENJOY!