Sourdough English Muffins Are Easy and Fabulous.

Sourdough English Muffins are so easy to make and are really tasty.

What is better than just toast for breakfast? For me, it’s definitely English Muffins. Every time I go out for breakfast if there is a choice between toast and an English muffin, I always choose the muffin. I love all those “nooks and crannies”. I also love the way the butter goes into all the crevices and it’s all crunchy on the outside and yet soft in the middle. English Muffins are awesome with jam or orange marmalade. Or just slathered with some good salty butter. My choice has always been sourdough, the tangy sour and just slightly more chewiness of those are awesome. Here on the East coast, sourdough English muffins are few and far between. The most popular brand in the store doesn’t make sourdough ones for anyone east of the Mississippi. It’s like we are being punished for not living in the golden west.

So I decided to make my own. I have a great sourdough starter that lives in his home, and happily bubbles away when I feed him. So I did my research and came up with an easy recipe that you can start the night before. If you get up a little early you can have fresh hot English Muffins for a late breakfast or brunch. These muffins keep great too. They will last for a week stored in an airtight container or plastic bag if you can manage not to eat them all.

“English” muffins first appeared in North America around the 1850s where they appeared in cookbooks and newspapers. Samuel Bath Thomas from Plymouth England emigrated to New York City in 1874. He soon started selling what he called “toaster crumpets” from his own bakery near the corner of 20th Street and 9th avenue in Manhattan. He sold English muffins to many of the restaurants and grocery stores in New York. From there the English muffin and especially Thomas’ English Muffins became a mainstay of American households. Now even in the UK, they can be found in most grocery stores along with Engish muffins older cousin the crumpet. Crumpets are different from English muffins. They are made just using baking soda and are cooked only on one side so there are holes on the top. They are usually cooked in ring mold on a griddle. You can cook English muffins in ring molds too, for a perfectly round muffin. But I like the more homemade look of just cooking them on their own.

If you don’t have a sourdough starter, you can start your own or ask around. I bet you know someone who has a jar lurking around in his or her fridge. There are many excellent instructions on how to start your own starter online and in books. My favorite is from Nancy Silverton’s Breads from La Brea Bakery. You can find it on Amazon here. It uses organic grapes, which are covered in natural yeasts to start the culture and I have had great results. Sourdough doesn’t react well to metal bowls for long periods of time so try to use a non-metallic bowl for the overnight rise. Scalding milk breaks up the whey protein that can weaken gluten formation in many doughs. Powdered milk has already been cooked so it works great here.

Let me know in the comments below if you have made these or any variations you come up with such as dill or other herbs and I bet they would be awesome with a bit of Parmesan cheese.

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Sourdough English Muffins

Course: Baking

Cuisine: American

Servings: 20 muffins

Ingredients

The Night Before

• 1 cup very active sourdough fed 8-12 hours before
• 2 tablespoons honey, or barley malt syrup
• 2 cups from reconstituted dry milk, or fresh scalded and cooled
• 4 cups all-purpose flour

The Next Morning

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• corn meal for sprinkling
• Butter for grilling

Instructions

The night before you plan to make the muffins

1. The night before you want to make English muffins. If you are using fresh milk heat the milk to just barely boiling and let cool to room temperature. If you are using the powdered milk stir enough powder into water to make 2 cups.

2. In a large non-metallic bowl, mix together the starter, honey or malt syrup, milk, and the 4 cups of flour. Mix just until thoroughly combined and all the flour has been incorporated. 
   

3. Cover with a clean towel or plastic wrap and let sit overnight at room temperature, 12 to 16 hours. It doesn’t have to be exact. The mixture will rise to more than double and probably fall.  
   

4. The next morning.: Add the mixture to the bowl of your mixer or you can do all this by hand. 
   

5. Add the 1 ½ cups of flour, the baking soda, and the salt. 
   

6. Knead for 5 minutes, until the dough comes together and begins to form a smooth ball. The dough will still be sticky and very wet, you don’t want it as stiff as bread dough. It should be very soft.
   

7. Heavily sprinkle some cornmeal on a big piece of wax paper to place the finished muffins on.
   

8. Flour a work surface and pat or roll the dough out ½ inch thick. 
   

   

9. Cut the dough with a floured 3 to 4 inch cutter. If you want huge ones, go for the 4” But, the standard is 3”.
   

10. A little trick is to push down with the cutter and then wiggle the cutter in a circular motion just a bit to round the cut dough before removing. The dough will be sticky around the edges. Re-flour the cutter between each cut.

    

11. Place each cut muffin onto the cornmeal, placing them 3 inches apart or more, as they will expand.
    

    

12. Sprinkle some extra cornmeal over the tops of each muffin.  
    

    

13. Let rise for 1 hour, or until almost doubled and puffy. 
    

14. When the Muffins have risen, heat a griddle or flat-bottomed skillet to medium heat. You can heat more than one pan if you have them and have the burner space.
    

15. Melt a little butter on the griddle, about 1 tablespoon or so depending on the size. 
    

16. Being careful not to over crowd carefully place several muffins on the hot griddle. This can be done in batches.. It might be easier to lift each one using a spatula.
    

17. Fry the muffins for 4-5 minutes until the bottoms are nicely browned. 
    

18. Flip the muffins and fry on the other side for 4 to 5 more minutes until the muffins are nicely browned on the other side. You may have to adjust the heat so as not to cook them too quickly. If you are unsure if they are cooked through you can use an instant-read thermometer inserted in the side to check the temperature, it should read around 200°. 
    

    

19. Let cool on a rack while you cook the remaining muffins. 
    

20. To split them properly, just insert a fork around the edge every inch or so until you have gone around the whole muffin it should come apart in two. You can just use a serrated knife but it won’t have all the nooks and crannies.