Saturday, January 10, 2009

Sourdough English Muffins

I made English Muffins yesterday evening, and they turned out pretty good! Two mistakes I made were adding too much flour which resulted in a denser muffin without as many characteristic holes. Then I rolled them a little too thick so some of them were slightly doughy in the center. But toasting the muffins took care of that problem. We ate them for breakfast this morning with homemade apricot preserves. Yum!





Sourdough English Muffins
1 cup starter
1 1/2 cups milk
5 1/2 to 6 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

In a ceramic bowl, mix starter, milk, and 3 cups flour. Cover and leave 2 to 24 hours.

When the sponge has developed, mix the sugar, salt, soda, and 2 1/2 cups flour. Stir these into sponge. Cover and let work up to an hour.

Flour counter and hands. Turn out dough, knead 2 to 3 minutes until dough is smooth and no longer lumpy. With a floured rolling pin, roll out 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.


Notice my can in the background? It makes a lovely english muffin cutter.


Cut out circles 3 to 4 inches in diameter. Place muffins on a cornmeal sprinkled cookie sheet, and let rest 15 minutes.





Place 4 or 5 circles on a lightly greased skillet on low, low heat with cornmeal side down first. Cook slowly 10 minutes, gently flip muffins over, and continue cooking 10 minutes.

Cool on rack.



Split the muffins with a fork, toast, and enjoy!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

They were some of the bestest english muffins I ever had! Thanks Emily! =)

Lydia said...

Lovely! Have I ever told you of my sourdough disaster? The recipe was very general and was all natural yeasted. I think the bacteria took over. Anyway, it made a VERY sour brick of a loaf, I kinda doubt there was any yeast in it. I have also tried potato sourdough starter and it got going but then I wasn't sure how much to use it in recipes so I never did anything with it. You inspire me to try again!

sarahdodson said...

These look great, and according to your sweet sis, TASTED great, too! :)

A Joyful Heart said...

Those look so good! Thanks for sharing the recipe.

Anonymous said...

Those look very good! I have made English muffins once before, but I've never tried sourdough. I might try making these sometime.
Thanks for sharing!

Rebecca said...

I found your blog through Money Saving Mom and have really enjoyed reading your tutorial on Sourdough. I think I might give it a try, but I was wondering if you used plain white flour in your starter and recipes? Do you think whole wheat white flour would work (we grind our own)? Maybe 1/2 and 1/2 would work?

Unknown said...

I use unbleached white flour in my starter. You can use regular whole wheat flour, white wheat, whatever you like. I'm sure a mixture would be fine as well.

TEAM HALL said...

Hiya Garden Girl:
I got brave and did a batch of your sourdough english muffins. I made a couple of mistakes...but nothing we couldn't eat! lol Thanks for posting the recipe. Oh and btw: I've kept this second batch of starter out of the fridge and it's doing much better! Lesson learned.
Thanks,
Cath

Unknown said...

I'm so glad they turned out for you! I went to see friend for the weekend and left my starter in the fridge. I just got back, so we'll see how it did!