Thank you for your reply. I did the English muffin formula posted last May
and it turned out pretty good, except it didn't have very big holes in it.
I think I need to have a little wetter dough--almost a batter. I'll have to
experiment to get the results I want. My reason for not wanting to punch
down is because the English muffins traditionally look like swiss cheese
inside with those huge bubbles.

> wrote in message
ups.com...
>
> Rich Hollenbeck wrote:
>> I'm new to this newsgroup so I don't know if this has recently been
>> covered.
>> I just replied to an OLD post from the month of May and I don't know if
>> it
>> will be read so I'm posting a new message. I'm following a recipe I
>> found
>> here on making English muffins. The formula calls for only a single rise
>> then portioning it into eight and flattening them over corn meal and
>> baking
>> on the stove top in a heavy skillet. For this I portioned them BEFORE
>> letting them rise.
>>
>> My question to the group is, is that so very wrong? Should I have waited
>> for it to rise then punch the whole mass down before dividing? Why?
>> What
>> are some factors that go into the decision NOT to portion early?
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Rich
>
> The following is just my opinion.
>
> The first rise may produce a dough with relatively large bubbles in it.
>
> Punching it down removes these voids and the second rise is often
> slower with smaller bubbles forming.
>
> Dividing after the first rapid rise is simply easier to do with one
> mass of dough.
> You also get a higher internal temperature with a larger mass of dough.
> That heat may be required to provide the required rise.
>
> In your example it probably does not matter.
>
> If they came out OK I would not worry about it. Perhaps try it the
> other way and see if you get a different result.
>