Okay, I haven’t found an answer to this here or anywhere else. Here it is- once you’ve set your basic toaster up to turn a nice slice of bread into a golden piece of toast, why do you have to cycle through this twice to toast an english muffin?
Muffins are thicker and quite possibly moister than ordinary sliced bread.
Of course, you should really be toasting it under the grill, or ideally on a toasting fork over an open fire.
English muffins are sold only half-baked. This is why they take longer to toast than regular bread, you have to toast it long enough to complete the baking, then a bit longer to actually toast it. This is also why english muffins are inedible without toasting.
Also, english muffins are coarser with deeper holes than standard bread, and getting more than the fringe of the holes to toast takes longer or a larger source of radiant heat.
Well I like untoasted English muffin. And toasted. The half-baked thing means more moisture in the bread, and maybe other factors as well. Also the area of a muffin is much greater than sliced bread with all sorts of weird angles, so the peaks begin to burn before the valleys start to brown. I do some testing, but I haven’t had a toaster in years. If you’re in a hurry use your kitchen torch.
I use a toaster oven for everything. Somewhere around the 4.5 minute mark (on the timer dial), there’s a setting called “Pop Tart®”. I have learned that, if I set the timer for anything longer than PopTart®, the result is a charred, crispy, blackened thing that only slightly resembles whatever it was that I put in. Doesn’t matter what it is – Eggo waffle, toast, english muffin, bagel, left over pizza… everything cooks perfectly on PopTart® (including PopTarts). I don’t even know why my toaster oven goes higher than PopTart®. There’s no point really.
It’s for scientific research.
Really the only true way to toast a english muffin would be by placing it between two radiant hot rocks that was heated by a fire started by rubbing 2 sticks together - just like the cavemen did it :
thank you, dogzilla.
i can’t see for the tears streaming down my face!
I’m going to corroborate this study by duplicating the experiments to see if I can get the same results. Stay tuned! Will return and report!
Holes? English muffins don’t have holes. Are you sure you’re not thinking of crumpets? (Mmmm… crumpets)
Thomas’ has holes.
Well. Technically, nooks and crannies.
Those almost look like a hybrid between what we in England know as muffins, and crumpets. More muffiny, though. Crumpets have a more spongy texture, with “bubbly” holes almost akin to a thick drop-scone or pancake, as they are made from a thick batter. Muffins are bready and lighter as they are made from dough. Are “English muffins” in the US like our muffins? Your link says they were created as “a version of the English crumpet that was both flatter and what is now called fork-split”.
Honestly, I have no idea. I’ve never had an English “muffin”. Or a crumpet – although you can get them here. When I’ve spotted the crumpets sold in the grocery store, it looks exactly like what I know as an English muffin. I happen to really like that Thomas’ brand, so I’ve never bothered to try a true crumpet… because it looks like the same damn thing to me. I figured it was an “elevator” vs. “lift” thing. (Same thing, different word used to describe.)
Crumpets and US English muffins seem similar. The *crooks and nannies *are formed when the holey bread is split. The crumpets I’ve seen have smaller holes, and seem drier, but those are just US Crumpets, I didn’t encounter any in England. But I’m still getting over the Englishwoman who looked at me quizzically and asked “What is London Broil?”.
Now that we’ve answered the OP successfully, can we turn our collective minds onto the reason why that same “golden brown slice of toast” setting, when applied to a slice of raisin bread, will produce a charred blackened slice of dryness with sad raisins drooping out of it? As far as I can see, raisin bread seems to be made of the same stuff as real bread, cut to the same thickness.
You don’t see an obvious difference in the ingredients there? 
I would imagine the sugar burns quicker.
Well, yeah, but I mean the bready bits obviously! The raisins themselves seem to do moderately okay (high water content?)
Does the actual dough have that much sugar in it? I always thought it was just the fruit made it sweet
Do any of you older San Franciscans remember Foster’s English Muffins? The best sourdough muffins ever made! They were in business from about the mid-fifties to the mid seventies.