- Homemade English Muffins, Ingredients:
Water
Salt
Sourdough Starter
Honey
Organic Filtered Virgin Coconut Oil
Have you ever looked at an English muffin package label? Well, here is one that I found. It's actually a brand that has the least amount of weird stuff in it. Most of the listed ingredients are not really bad, but I can do without 3 different kinds of sugar, soy oil, industrial yeast, and various food additives, and preservatives.
I decided to make English muffins using the sourdough method I use for making my bread. I previously blogged about how to make and maintain a sourdough starter and how to make a no knead sourdough bread that's very much like a French country boule. Here is the link to my bread blog: the-art-of-dough.html
When I searched for English Muffin recipes on the internet, I couldn't find a recipe I liked. Most recipes include milk , baking soda, and some sort of fat (butter or oil) to make the dough. So, I decided to experiment. I made my usual sourdough bread mix which consists of flour, water, salt and sourdough starter and added about one tablespoon of honey.
When I make bread, I usually prepare the dough in the evening around 9 PM. By 6 or 7 AM the dough has risen to about double the original size and is ready for shaping and baking. In the morning, I gave the dough a couple of folds and then instead of shaping it into a boule for bread, I spread it out into a big square. By the way, this is also how you would make a nice sourdough pizza crust. I cut the dough into squares, shaped the squares into dough balls, and put them on a baking sheet dusted with flour, dusted the dough balls with a little flour, covered and let them rest for about 30 minutes.
Next, I heated up a large pan using a very small amount of coconut oil (the filtered kind that does not smell or taste like coconut). I placed the dough balls in the pan on low to medium heat and covered the pan with a lid. My pan has a glass lid, so I could see the English muffins cooking and puffing up in the pan. After a few minutes, I turned them and patted them down a little so that the entire surface of the other side of the muffin would make contact with the pan and bake. A few more minutes of baking in the pan and Voila! English muffins.
You can make English muffins in the oven but the usual method is to fry them in a pan. I like this method for days when the weather is hot and I don't want to turn on the oven. I also think that they taste so good because they have been fried in a little fat. I actually used very little oil and by covering the pan with a lid, the English muffins got baked in the steam they generated, so they are really more steamed than fried.
I love sourdough baking but don't actually eat a lot of bread. A day or so after the bread is baked, I slice and freeze it and anytime I want a nice piece of bread, I just take it out of the freezer and toast it. The English muffins freeze well also and no need to split them before freezing.
Hope you try making these. Let me know how it goes.
When I searched for English Muffin recipes on the internet, I couldn't find a recipe I liked. Most recipes include milk , baking soda, and some sort of fat (butter or oil) to make the dough. So, I decided to experiment. I made my usual sourdough bread mix which consists of flour, water, salt and sourdough starter and added about one tablespoon of honey.
When I make bread, I usually prepare the dough in the evening around 9 PM. By 6 or 7 AM the dough has risen to about double the original size and is ready for shaping and baking. In the morning, I gave the dough a couple of folds and then instead of shaping it into a boule for bread, I spread it out into a big square. By the way, this is also how you would make a nice sourdough pizza crust. I cut the dough into squares, shaped the squares into dough balls, and put them on a baking sheet dusted with flour, dusted the dough balls with a little flour, covered and let them rest for about 30 minutes.
Next, I heated up a large pan using a very small amount of coconut oil (the filtered kind that does not smell or taste like coconut). I placed the dough balls in the pan on low to medium heat and covered the pan with a lid. My pan has a glass lid, so I could see the English muffins cooking and puffing up in the pan. After a few minutes, I turned them and patted them down a little so that the entire surface of the other side of the muffin would make contact with the pan and bake. A few more minutes of baking in the pan and Voila! English muffins.
You can make English muffins in the oven but the usual method is to fry them in a pan. I like this method for days when the weather is hot and I don't want to turn on the oven. I also think that they taste so good because they have been fried in a little fat. I actually used very little oil and by covering the pan with a lid, the English muffins got baked in the steam they generated, so they are really more steamed than fried.
I love sourdough baking but don't actually eat a lot of bread. A day or so after the bread is baked, I slice and freeze it and anytime I want a nice piece of bread, I just take it out of the freezer and toast it. The English muffins freeze well also and no need to split them before freezing.
Hope you try making these. Let me know how it goes.
RSS Feed
