What is the difference between British and American style muffins?

A small, cakelike bread that can be made with a variety of flours and often contains fruits and nuts. Most American-style muffins fall into the quick bread category and are leavened with either baking powder or baking soda. The yeast-raised type, such as the english muffin is generally finer in texture. These small breads are made in a muffin pan.

The traditional English muffin is very different from the American variety. The English muffin is yeast leavened and predates the baking powder leavened muffins. This produces a type of muffin with a thick, fluffy pastry and is usually baked as a disk typically about 8 cm in diameter. It is usually split into two, toasted and buttered, and bears a vague resemblance to a crumpet or pikelet.

As a Brit, can i just say that the famous English muffins Americans talk about are not really that common in England. I've never seen one. If you ask an Englishman for a muffin, he will probably give you a small cake (a US muffin). Think this is a bit like how French fries aren't really French. The US has just got it wrong.

I'll back billy up there. Muffins in the American sense are to be found here and have been available for a few years or more. The so-called English muffin a thing not seen here probably since Edwardian times, but we do eat crumpets (preferably with golden syrup! but otherwise with jam). Wikipedia is somewhat up the creek about English muffins being "often served at breakfast in the UK, USA and Canada.". I can't speak for the USA and Canada, but I've NEVER heard of muffins for breakfast in the UK, and you'd probably get odd looks if you served them to anyone. I assume that article was written by an American. And we don't split crumpets. I've never seen anything like that thing in the picture at wiki over here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_muffin

"English Muffin" is a typical marketing phrase.

"The word "muffin" appeared as a word in Britain around the 11th century A.D., derived from the Old French moufflet, which meant "soft" in reference to bread.

Instructions for cooking a similar flat bread have existed since at least 1747, although credit for the phrase "English muffin" is often given to Samuel Bath Thomas, an English baker who emigrated to New York City and began producing his "muffins" around 1880. The Merriam-Webster dictionary, however, names the origin as 1902.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_muffin

Ah, Baloo55th, crumpets. With syrup? A bit sweet for my tastes. A little salted butter, a cup of tea = perfection.

And yeah, you wouldn't split them. Would actually be a right faff to attempt to do so. And the wikipedia article is perhaps written by an American. Muffins are not really eaten for breakfast. And sorry to ruin the idea that we have a Full English Breakfast every morning of bacon, eggs, beans, sausage etc, but the vast majority would have toast or cereals. I mean, who has the time?

We convicts eat muffins for breakfast. English ones that is. Usually toasted with jam. Very different to a crumpet, which resembles a neatly corrupted mass produced sea-sponge and tastes a bit salty until you slather copious amounts of honey on it. But then again, we also do ridiculous things with Vegemite over here too...