The dough was as described above, stretchy and smooth and shiny and looked exactly as in the photos above. . . and was the most difficult dough that I have ever worked with in more than 20 years of baking. It stuck to everything, my fingers, utensils, plastic wrap, silicone spatulas. . . and was very difficult to scrape off. What I learned: 1.) Use lots of flour in shaping the muffins. 2.) Forget about the parchment covering during the 20 minute rest. The parchment sticks to the dough. Instead, dust really well with flour and cover with plastic wrap. 3.) Don't use parchment/baking sheet on top during baking. The parchment sticks to the muffins (no matter how much flour is on top), and the weight of the baking sheet compresses them to flat disks. 4.) Instead, once the muffins start to rise, just use fingers to pat them down gently in the center. 5.) After those changes, they can end up looking like the ones in the photos above. 6.) Go back to the dough in muffin rings method. Wow, what a waste of an afternoon. We feel your frustration, gentle baker. Know that using more flour in the dough or shaping the english muffins will likely result in a more even texture/sandwich-like interior, while working with that sticky dough and shaping with wet hands will result in a more hole-y interior. The key is doing what you are comfortable with so the journey or process is fun, not frustrating. We hope you try making english muffins again now that you've taken this recipe out for a test drive. Irene@KAF

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