Yes, you can freeze English muffins to retain their quality for a couple of months. However, they need to be fresh before you can put them in the freezer for best quality later when you defrost. For me, nothing beats the taste and the freshness of a home-baked English muffin.
If you prefer home-baked like me, you can go ahead and bake them in bulk, be a little creative with some and make sandwiches then store them in the freezer for future use.
To freeze English muffins, pre-slice and wrap them individually with a foil or a plastic wrapper to lock in the moisture then store in the coldest part of the freezer preferably at the back to retain their best quality for 3 months.
How to freeze English muffins
Freezing English muffin is quite easy, but you need to do it right since they tend to dry out really fast in the freezer. You can freeze them as they are or as an assembled sandwich if you are sure that’s what you want to use them for in the future just to save time.
However, assembled sandwich do not last long enough in the freezer for 2 reasons:
- The shelf life of the fillings in the freezer.
- The moisture that the fillings tend to introduce to the bread.
Whichever way works for you, always remember to wrap your muffins or assembled sandwich individually before putting them in the freezer to lock in the moisture.
If you bake your own English muffins, always allow them to cool completely before you freeze them.
Here’s how to go about it:
- Slice the muffins into half. Slicing muffins before freezing makes it easy for you to separate them when they are frozen.
- Assemble your sandwich. If you wish to freeze your muffins as a sandwich, you can assemble the fillings at this stage. However, you can only work with a few that freeze well like cooked meat, bacon, salmon, and full-fat sliced cheese. Adding vegetables to your sandwich before freezing makes the bread soggy due to excess moisture in them, and the fact that they don’t freeze quite well and therefore shortening their shelf life.
- Wrap them separately with a foil or a plastic wrap to lock in moisture and protect them from freezer burns.
- Put them in a zip-lock bag. Squeeze out as much air as possible before sealing to prevent freezer burns.
- Label the bags to prevent over freezing. Remember to label the fillings too for assembled sandwiches to ease access.
- Put them in the freezer preferably at the back where it is coldest. Be careful to store them away from strongly flavored foods as they tend to absorb flavors easily hence altering their taste.
Stored this way, English muffins will retain their best quality in the freezer for up to 3 months but will still be safe to eat until 6 months, while assembled sandwich can only last for up to 2-3 weeks.
See also: How to Store Croissants
How to use frozen English muffins
Its easy to thaw English muffins since there are variety of ways to do so. You can choose to leave them in the refrigerator to thaw overnight or simply leave them at room temperature then toast when you are ready to consume.
There are quicker and easier ways though. Simply pop your frozen English muffin in a toaster until crispy or in the oven straight from the freezer.
To thaw English muffins in the oven, preheat the oven at 300°F and bake for 15 minutes while assembled sandwich will take 25-30 minutes to be ready.
To use a microwave, unwrap the frozen English muffin and wrap it with a paper towel then microwave for 1 minute or until completely thawed depending on the power of your microwave. The paper towel allows it to retain enough moisture throughout the process.
This method is however not suitable for assembled sandwich especially if it has an egg or sausage as it turns it into a soggy sandwich.
See also: Can you Freeze Bagels?