SOURDOUGH ENGLISH MUFFINS

 Happy New Year!!!  I'd like to wish my sourdough starter, Gertie a Happy Birthday!  She's now one year old.  We've been having fun during her first year.  I can't say I've had any "fails" to speak of, but we've learned a lot on our journey together, and we've tried many, many recipes.   My favorite so far, is the fluffy sandwich bread.  I like always having a loaf made.  

I think another favorite might just be English Muffins.  This is one of the recipes that I learned some valuable techniques along the way....but, I've got it down now and I'm happy to share.

INGREDIENTS: 

1 cup whole milk, warmed to 110 degrees

2 Tbsp., melted butter

2 Tbsp., brown sugar

½ cup sourdough discard, room temp

2½ cups bread flour

2 tsp. kosher salt

1 tsp. active dry yeast

DIRECTIONS:

Mix milk, butter, discard, sugar and yeast in a large mixing bowl and let sit for a few minutes.  Next add flour and salt and mix with a dough whisk or wooden spoon until a slightly sticky dough forms and all the ingredients are combined. 

*Cover & let rise until double in size.  Divide the dough into 8-10 pieces.  Form into a ball and press into a disk.   

Place on a pan lined with cornmeal.  Dust both sides well.  Cover & let rise for about one hour, until light and fluffy. 

Pre-heat a skillet over medium low heat and place muffins in the pan, allowing space between.  Cover and cook for 5 minutes.  Flip and cook another 5 minutes.  Reduce heat and flip a few more times until the internal temp is 195-200 degrees.   To slice, use the fork method.  Slowly use the tines of a fork to pierce into the edge all the way around the circumference of the muffin. 

My "go-to" is toasted with a little butter and my favorite fruit preserves while they're piping hot.   Over the holidays, I had a hankering for a breakfast sandwich, so I cooked up my own version.  It was absolutely delicious!  I made a sausage patty the size of the muffin, then melted cheese over it while I was frying up the egg.  

Enjoy!

recipe c/o: wildthistlekitchen.com

*After the rise, you could place the dough in the fridge overnight and continue the next morning.  Form the muffins with the cold dough-allowing approximately 2 hours to rise before frying.  

SPECIAL NOTES:  I tried one other recipe, but I like this one best.  Also, with the first recipe (and many others I've seen) they had you roll out the dough and use a biscuit cutter/drinking glass.   This did not work well at all!  The dough is very light and fluffy, it's tough to get a clean cut.  Instead, it flattened the edges.  A three inch biscuit cutter is way too small, so I tried glasses in my cupboard until I was closer to the size of an English muffin. My sizes were all over the place trying to find the right size circle and they didn't rise uniformly. 

I highly endorse rolling into a ball and then using your hands to create the disk.  I separate my dough into 8 balls.  The finished product will be the size of store bought versions, or maybe slightly bigger.