Jan 26, 2010

Playing with dough: Sourdough English Muffins




As a child the best part about Sunday mornings was breakfast with my Papa. He would cook eggs, open all kinds of different Marmalades made by my grandmother and he would toast English  Muffins.

I loved them almost burned, lathered with fresh sweet butter and under a golden blanked of Honey.

I can still taste it, if I close my eyes. Feel the mix of melting butter and honey run down my chin.

So now that my boys finally are a little more open to the taste of sourdough I just had to give it a try.

I am still a little bit in shock about how easy it is and how delicious they taste.

From now on I will make them myself, they are easy, fast and freeze amazingly.

Give them a try and let me know how you like to eat them.

 



Sourdough English Muffins

 

½ cup sourdough starter

1 cup all purpose flour

2 cups bread flour

1 cup water

½ tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

semolina

 

Combine starter with 2 cups of bread flour and 1 cup of water. Stir thoroughly, cover with plastic wrap and let sit out overnight.

Add the salt, sugar and the remaining cup of flour.

Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 3-4 minutes. 

Roll out to ½ inch and cut with a biscuit cutter into rounds. 

Before you can reroll the scraps, you need to let the dough rest.

Place muffins on a piece of parchment dusted with semolina, sprinkle the tops of the muffins with semolina and let them rise, covered with a dishtowel, 

for about 40-50 minutes.


Heat a lightly greased skillet or griddle on medium heat.

Cook the muffins for about 5 minutes on each side, turning only once. The muffins will reach a light or medium brown (turn town the temperature slightly if they cook too quickly) on both the top and the bottom when they are cooked through. Before the first flip, the sides of the muffin will start to look dry, like the edges of a pancake, when it it ready to be turned. You can peek at the underside, too.


Cool completely before storing.

4 comments:

Anita said...

Wow - they look perfect! Just like the ones in the shops - but I bet they taste 100 x better! I haven't done any sourdough recipes, but I'd love to start.

Jennifer Juniper said...

They look just like English muffins! My mother in law used to make english muffin bread and I love the texture!

taste traveller said...

You make these look so easy - I had no idea! In Canada, I'd just buy them from a store, and the recipes I saw seemed so complicated. Thanks for showing how easy it can be.

Lisa said...

This makes me happy, but also sad because I stopped feeding my almost 2 year old sourdough starter a few months ago - it kept slipping my mind, and now I think he's gone (yes, it 'was' a 'he' lol) In any event, I've never had a sourdough English muffin, so this recipe is a keeper :)