Tita's Sourdough English Muffins

strong textI’d like to share our favorite English Muffin recipe with the group. This recipe uses Sourdough Starter and a mix of whole wheat and bread flour. I have also used this recipe with just bread flour and it always gets great results. At the moment we have a pork loin soaking in a brine to make Canadian Bacon. So this is tomorrow project for Eggs Benedict.

Sponge Ingredients:
3/4 cup sourdough starter
2 tablespoons honey
2 cups milk, skim
2 cups bread flour
2 cups whole wheat flour

Dough:
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup bread flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons sea salt
2 tablespoons cornmeal

The Night Before:
Prepare the sponge. Mix sour starter, honey and milk in mixing bowl until smooth. Mix the dry flours together. Add the 4 cups of flour, 2 cups at a time, and mix in until all the flour thoroughly wet. Cover with clean towel and leave at room temperature in a draft free place overnight. I let the sponge develop in the oven with the light turned on. Just be sure the oven is at room temperature when you put it in the oven. I put a dish towel in the door to prop it open because the light bulb alone can raise the temperature to close to 90° degrees and this will kill the natural bacteria sourdough needs to grow.

The Next Morning:
Make the dough. Stir down the sponge (it will have risen considerably). If it has risen too high and fallen, no problem, just stir down the rest of the way. Sprinkle a scant teaspoon of baking soda and 2 teaspoons of sea salt over the surface of the dough and work it in. Mix the 3/4 cup of white & 3/4 cup of wheat flours together. Flour your board with half of this flour mixture or more (up to 2 cups), until dough is medium stiff - enough to roll out. Once you have enough flour in (I go by feel-never too dry and always moist) and the dough longer sticks to your hands, give it a 5 minute kneading.

Get 2 baking sheets or jelly roll pans and line with waxed, or parchement paper, and sprinkle cornmeal over both.

Flour board again and lightly roll dough to about 1/2 inch thick. Take a 3 inch round cutter (I use the ring from a wide-mouth mason jar, but you can use a bit larger diameter, or different shapes, whatever works) and cut as many rounds as you can-rolling the leftover dough out and cutting more until all the dough is used. Try to keep them very uniform in thickness and diameter. As you cut each round, place on cornmeal wax/parchment paper-don’t allow raw muffins to touch–they will stick. When all rounds are cut, sprinkle cornmeal over tops of muffins.

Allow to rise in warm place, covered, for about an hour or until risen again (I have left them to rise for as much as 3 hours. The time really depends on your environment). Again, I let them rise in a cool oven, with the light turned on and a dish towel wedged in the door to prop it open and prevent anyone from closing it. Remember, just the light bulb can raise the temperature to close to 90° degrees, much too warm for the final rise.

Now the FUN part!
Preheat a griddle (I used a non stick electric griddle, or skillet, with the temperature set to just under 300° with a TINY bit of butter, until butter sizzles. Use a low flame or heat setting so the inside of the muffin bakes and outside does not burn. Pan bake one side for about 4-5 minutes and turn. Squish down a bit with spatula and pan bake other side for about 4-5 minutes. Turn only once so be sure the one side is cooked before turning. While you can skip the butter if you have a non-stick skillet, they won’t taste as good without it! If you want bigger holes and crevices in the muffins, let them rise a bit longer (2 or 3 hours).

Yield: 24 Muffins
1 Muffin Per Serving: 131 Calories; 1g Fat (4.3% calories from fat); 5g Protein; 27g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; trace Cholesterol; 221mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 1/2 Grain(Starch); 0 Non-Fat Milk; 0 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

the sponge recipe calls for 2 cups flour but your instructions say add 4, can you clarify please?

If you refer back to the ingredient list, it’s 2 cups of bread flour, plus 2 cups of whole wheat flour, for a total of 4 cups in the sponge. If you don’t want whole wheat, use 4 cups of bread flour. Then you will add 1½ cups more of flour when you prepare the dough the next morning. This means you can add all bread flour, or half and half.

What do you mean by “bread flour”?
This looks like a great recipe and I want to try it. I have an organic, unbleached white flour that I use for all my crusty loaves. Would that work? I also have whole wheat flour so I’m hoping that I’m set to do this.

Bread flour (also known as “hard winter wheat flour”) is a high protein white flour that is intended to be used in yeast breads and designed to give you a better result in those breads than you would get with another type of flour. The high protein content means that the flour has more gluten in it.

If you are using plain all-purpose white flour, you should consider adding some vital wheat gluten to for a better bread rise and crumb.

I’m not following you exactly. When you say “high protein white flour” are you talking about flour made from the “white” kernel wheat or a high protein flour that has had the bran and germ removed to make it “white”?

My unbleached white flour that I use for all my crusty breads is 11.5%. My white whole wheat (comes from a lighter colored and slightly softer grain [kernel] than the winter red wheat) is 12%. Will these two do in your recipe?

The whole grain, hard red wheat flour I have is 14% but I normally don’t use that for anything but yeast-leavened whole grain loaves because it has stronger texture. Would this red wheat flour work better for your English Muffins? Maybe it depends on what texture I’m looking for and doesn’t really matter…maybe. I do want good rise for sure.

Have you experimented with other flours for this recipe?

I have seen in my local health food store a white, refined flour labeled “bread flour” that they sell in bulk. I have used it for my crusty loaves and it works very well but not any better than my 11.5% unbleached white that I get from my co-op for much less money.

Sorry for going on so much. I really like baking bread…and eating it! These English muffins look SO good!!

Why don’t you just Google “bread flour” it will explain it all. You are just over thinking it and whatever you have will work fine.

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Thanks for the recipe. I’m looking forward to trying it.
One general comment-- My electric oven has a “bread proof” setting that heats to exactly 100 degrees F. I’ve measured carefully by leaving a container of water in the oven for hours and periodically checking the water with a Thermopen instant-read. I use it when the kitchen is especially cold or when I want to shave some time off a long ferment or rise. The difference between the 100-degree oven and a 70-degree kitchen is pretty much the same for all-sourdough recipes as it is for all-yeast recipes. Certainly the 100-degree oven does not kill or even inhibit my sourdough. (YMMV)

Thanks for the comment. I have always read to proof bread around 90°F, or less. In my case, I live in the tropics of Costa Rica, so my kitchen is always in the 80’s during the day and the 70’s at night. These temperatures are pretty consistent all year long, and my sourdough is always strong and vibrant. We don’t mind the longer fermentation time since we’re retired and time is something we have plenty of. We now have the time to make many food items from scratch that we used to buy as processed foods in the States. Pura Vida!

Sounds delightful! I prefer the taste of a longer cooler ferment, and only use the oven proofer when I’m rushed.

Can you convert the measurements to weight, i.e. Grams? Thanks

Sorry, but I’d have to go out and buy a gram scale to do that. Keep in mind that sourdough has been successfully used to make delicious bread products for centuries without a gram scale.