Prep Time : 30 Minutes | Cook Time : 10 Minutes | Total Time : Overnight | Difficulty : Bread
Hello my lovelies! Let’s start our sourdough journey with some breakfasty brunchy goodness. I love an english muffin. Mostly because I like toasted things with melty butter on them. Not a bad way to be. In addition to being delicious these are a great way to use up starter. I know it’s only a bit of flour and water but it can feel bad throwing it away. This is a great recipe to make a big batch of (why not double it?) and stock the freezer up with chewy delicious toastable morsels. Spell check thinks toastable isn’t a word. Ridiculous.
These beauties are cooked on the stovetop so get out the biggest heaviest frying pan or griddle you have – preferably cast iron. We need it to hold the heat. There are some tips below on how to stop loose bits of semolina making a smoky nuisance in the kitchen while you work. It’s the little things. Like not climbing on a chair to take the battery out of your smoke alarm while you’re trying to cook.
The night before you are going to cook your muffins make the preferment. In a large bowl combine the flour, water and starter. Mix it together well to make a gloopy paste.
Cover the bowl and leave it out on the bench overnight. Night night.
In the morning it should be all bubbly and happy.
Add all the other ingredients to the same bowl. Just pop the bowl of preferment on the scale and set the scale to zero to start adding the rest of the ingredients.
Mix everything to an even dough. It will be a bit sticky.
Cover the bowl and leave to ferment for around 2 hours. I usually mix my dough first thing in the morning then go for my run and do other exciting routine stuff then everything is ready to go when I am.
Now we are going to fold. We need to do four sets of folds over approximately 2 hours. Don’t worry if you forget for a bit and then have to catch up. A set of folds goes thus:
Reach under the dough and stretch it up and fold it back on itself.
Rotate the bowl 90 degrees and repeat.
Do a full turn of the bowl – four folds altogether. Cover the bowl again and leave for 20 to 30 minutes before repeating.
Once the folds are done the dough will be much more pillowy and soft.
Put a piece of baking paper, a heavy tea towel or a bread couche onto a large tray and dust liberally with semolina.
Divide the dough into 12 even pieces. Dust your hands with a little flour and form each into a rough ball.
Roll each ball in semolina and flatten into a disc about an inch high. It’s a very soft dough that is sticky so be patient and be liberal with the semolina.
If a piece of dough resists you and springs back put it aside and work on another. By the time you come back to it the gluten in the wayward piece will have relaxed. Lay the discs out on the prepared tray with a bit of space between. Sprinkle a little more semolina over them.
Some recipes will tell you to roll out the dough and cut out rounds with a large cutter. You’re never going to use all the dough efficiently that way so I like to make slightly more haphazard rounds by hand.
Cover the tray with another teatowel and leave in a warm place for about an hour until the discs have risen a bit. They don’t need to double fully.
Put a cast iron griddle or large heavy frying pan on a medium heat. Let it warm up thoroughly. Gently transfer the discs of dough to the hot pan. Get as many on as you can – you may have to do two batches.
Let the muffins cook for a minute or two only before flipping for the first time. We want to get a nice flat surface on both sides and if we let the muffins cook through too far before flipping they will have one rounded side as the dough will already be set.
Cook for 3-4 minutes and then flip back for a further 2 minutes or so. The surfaces of the muffins should be mottled with brown spots.
Transfer the muffins to a wire rack to cool and cook any remaining muffins that didn’t fit in the first batch.
Loose semolina can catch and start to smoke. The best way to deal with this is to keep a stiff spatula and a natural fibre pastry brush handy to brush away anything that is starting to smoke. It does mean you need to wipe it up off the stovetop later but it’s better than a smoke alarm going off!
Split english muffins with a fork or if you are going to use a knife only cut just through the crust at the sides and then split them apart fully using your hands so that the interior is unevenly craggy and perfect for toasting.
Add butter. Always good advice…
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Sourdough English Muffins
Prep Time : 30 mins | Cook Time : 10 mins | Total Time : Overnight | Difficulty : Bread
Makes : A dozen english muffins
Chewy, craggy sourdough english muffins ready for all your brunch-related needs!
Ingredients:
The night before:
- 125 grams bread flour
- 125 grams water (cold in summer, warm in winter)
- 35 grams starter
For the dough:
- All of the mix from the night before
- 300 grams flour
- 10 grams fine salt
- 175 grams warm water
- semolina flour for shaping
– If using metric cups, reduce volume measures by 1 tablespoon for every cup of dry or liquid ingredients –
Equipment:
- Bowls and spoons
- Large heavy frying pan or flat griddle pan for the stovetop
Directions:
The night before you are going to cook your muffins make the preferment. In a large bowl combine the flour, water and starter. Mix it together well to make a gloopy paste.
Cover the bowl and leave it out on the bench overnight. Night night.
In the morning it should be all bubbly and happy.
Add all the other ingredients to the same bowl. Just pop the bowl of preferment on the scale and set the scale to zero to start adding the rest of the ingredients.
Mix everything to an even dough. It will be a bit sticky.
Cover the bowl and leave to ferment for around 2 hours. I usually mix my dough first thing in the morning then go for my run and do other exciting routine stuff then everything is ready to go when I am.
Now we are going to fold. We need to do four sets of folds over approximately 2 hours. Don’t worry if you forget for a bit and then have to catch up. A set of folds goes thus:
Reach under the dough and stretch it up and fold it back on itself.
Rotate the bowl 90 degrees and repeat.
Do a full turn of the bowl – four folds altogether. Cover the bowl again and leave for 20 to 30 minutes before repeating.
Once the folds are done the dough will be much more pillowy and soft.
Put a piece of baking paper, a heavy tea towel or a bread couche onto a large tray and dust liberally with semolina.
Divide the dough into 12 even pieces. Dust your hands with a little flour and form each into a rough ball.
Roll each ball in semolina and flatten into a disc about an inch high. It’s a very soft dough that is sticky so be patient and be liberal with the semolina.
If a piece of dough resists you and springs back put it aside and work on another. By the time you come back to it the gluten in the wayward piece will have relaxed. Lay the discs out on the prepared tray with a bit of space between. Sprinkle a little more semolina over them.
Some recipes will tell you to roll out the dough and cut out rounds with a large cutter. You’re never going to use all the dough efficiently that way so I like to make slightly more haphazard rounds by hand.
Cover the tray with another teatowel and leave in a warm place for about an hour until the discs have risen a bit. They don’t need to double fully.
Put a cast iron griddle or large heavy frying pan on a medium heat. Let it warm up thoroughly. Gently transfer the discs of dough to the hot pan. Get as many on as you can – you may have to do two batches.
Let the muffins cook for a minute or two only before flipping for the first time. We want to get a nice flat surface on both sides and if we let the muffins cook through too far before flipping they will have one rounded side as the dough will already be set.
Cook for 3-4 minutes and then flip back for a further 2 minutes or so. The surfaces of the muffins should be mottled with brown spots.
Transfer the muffins to a wire rack to cool and cook any remaining muffins that didn’t fit in the first batch.
Loose semolina can catch and start to smoke. The best way to deal with this is to keep a stiff spatula and a natural fibre pastry brush handy to brush away anything that is starting to smoke. It does mean you need to wipe it up off the stovetop later but it’s better than a smoke alarm going off!
Split english muffins with a fork or if you are going to use a knife only cut just through the crust at the sides and then split them apart fully using your hands so that the interior is unevenly craggy and perfect for toasting.
Add butter. Always good advice…
Cook’s Notes:
- It can take a bit of experimenting to roll them out the right thickness so that the final cooked muffin is tall enough to split easily but not have a stodgy middle. Just keep practicing and toasting.
- How warm your water needs to be can depend on the time of year – when preparing the pre-ferment the night before use cold water in summer and warm water in winter.
– If you aren’t eating these the day they are made or the day after pop them in the freezer and pull out what you need as you need them –
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Oh my! These are perfection! And there nothing much better than melting butter on a hot English muffin!
I personally think you should choose foods based solely on their ability to deliver melted butter…