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Sourdough English Muffins

Posted by jenny on 06/03/2010
in
Sourdough English Muffins

English muffins have always been a mysterious bread aisle product to me. I don't know if it was the baked top and bottom (but not the sides), the crumb that doesn't have the texture of anything else (it always seemed raw-ish to me), or the tangy baking soda flavor, but I always wondered what they were. I didn't grow up with the ubiquitous breakfast sandwich from the drive-thru, and I guess Mom didn't like them because she never bought them for us. So when I was looking for a little baking test, I decided to give English muffins a try. I'd seen several other bloggers write about them recently, and I happened to have extra sourdough starter that I was about to toss. Out came the flour, and behold - English muffins.

I made a couple dozen of these and pre-split them before I threw them into the freezer. Sometimes breakfast before work is limited to what we can toss into the toaster while the water's boiling, and there's never a shortage of preserves or jams on hand, so bready things are perfect.

I learned a couple of important tricks when making these, and they're probably tricks you'd use with any English muffin preparation, but they were new to me:

  • When rising the dough overnight, I left mine at room temperature for nearly 14 hours. Our house stays at a steady 64 degrees or so, so heat's not really a problem, but the long fermentation did allow the dough to get a nice, tangy flavor.
  • When shaping the biscuits, I tried both cut and rolled rounds and found the cut
    rounds worked better. The sliced edges of the biscuit seem to allow a
    more even expansion during baking. The rolled ones tended to favor one
    side for expanding, resulting in little explosion-looking muffins. One
    half of the muffin was puffy, the other not so much.
  • Resist the urge to flip the muffins too early or the middle may not get cooked all the way through. And over-flipping didn't help. Once I flipped it, that side didn't bake anymore.


Sourdough English Muffins
1/2 c sourdough starter
1 c milk
2+3/4 c AP flour
1 T sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
semolina for dusting

  1. Combine starter, 2 cups of the flour, and milk in a large bowl. Leave out for 8 hours or overnight.
  2. Add the remaining flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda and mix well.
  3. Knead 4 - 5 minutes or until the dough comes together.
  4. Roll out to about 1" thick and cut into circles using a biscuit cutter.
  5. Place the cut rounds on a semolina-dusted baking sheet and rest for 45 minutes.
  6. Heat a griddle or a cast iron pan on medium low.
    Note: You want a steady but not overpowering heat. I turned the burner to about 3+1/2.
  7. Griddle bake each round for 6 - 8 minutes, flipping the first time after about 3 minutes.

Sourdough English Muffins on FoodistaSourdough English Muffins

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whoa, english muffins are on

Submitted by justcooknyc (not verified) on Fri, 06/04/2010 - 7:37am.

whoa, english muffins are on my list of things that i thought you couldn't make at home... lol. i'm impressed.

Easy, but they're strange from the freezer

Submitted by jenny on Fri, 06/04/2010 - 8:52am.

I made a bunch extra to stick in the freezer, but they just weren't as nice as fresh-from-the-oven. I also froze some dough before the final rise so I could have fresh muffins, but maybe my dough was wonky because they just didn't rise as much as the mixed fresh/made fresh muffins. It was a great thing to do, and I'll definitely do them again - but maybe I'll try some add-ins or a different recipe next time.