About The Country Wife Blog

Friday, August 23, 2013

Sourdough English Muffins are YUMMY!

Probably two months ago I purchased some sourdough starter from King Arthur Flour.  It was quite pricey, in my opinion, but since the purchase I have made multiple batches and shared it with others.

 Yesterday when I was clearing out some more mature containers of food from our refrigerator, I found the second container of sourdough starter that I thought I had, but had not seen in several weeks.  I did not really think it was viable but since it only takes one cup of flour and one-half cup of water to "feed" sourdough starter, I gave it a try yesterday morning.  By late afternoon there were lots of little bubbles and the starter had nearly filled the quart container!  I was so pleased.  I decided to use some of it immediately.

Looking online for The Old Geezer Cookbook, which I thought I remembered had sourdough recipes in it, I spent time searching.  It turns out not to be The Old Geezer Cookbook, but is instead The Geezer Cookbook.  After searching through it, where I found lots of recipes I want to try, I did not find a sourdough recipe I wanted use so I continued looking.

Despite the fact that we have three packages of Thomas' English Muffins in our freezer waiting to be used, I found a recipe for Sourdough English Muffins at Sourdough Home.  This link just given is the recipe I used.  I may have put in a little extra sourdough starter last night along with fresh milk, not reconstituted dry milk, but either way, this morning the batter looked really ready to use just before 6 AM.  I sprinkled on the baking soda and sea salt and stirred it in well then dumped it onto our counter onto which I had spread one cup of flour (King Arthur's all-purpose flour).  I kneaded in all that flour and a little bet more then rolled out the dough to about one-half to three-quarters of an inch thick then cut out with my round cookie cutter which is a bit larger than 3 inches.

Having already put parchment paper on a cookie sheet and liberally sprinkled on cornmeal, I placed the muffins on the cornmeal, being careful to keep them one inch apart or a little more because I did not want them to touch and cause problems. I then sprinkled on more cornmeal on top and covered with a clean dish towel. 

Letting them rise for somewhat over an hour while I was downloading a new app to my iPod, and reading a somewhat spurious article from Dialogue, I spent the time quietly as no one else was up.  When the app was done downloading and installed, and after playing around with it a little while, I noticed the time was ready to check the muffins.  They were ready to cook! 

Starting the griddle on our stove as well as a heavy cast iron skillet to heat on medium low, I got ready to do the cooking by removing the smoke alarm from the ceiling and placing it under a fat pillow on the couch.  The other "getting ready" process was to remove a stick of butter from the refrigerator and apricot jam, as well.  no reason not to be prepared for a successful English muffin harvest!

When the surfaces were ready, I buttered them just a bit to give the muffins a delicious first taste on the tongue, then carefully put three on the griddle and three in the skillet and set the timer for 4 minutes.  I turned them over then let them cook another three minutes or so.  After the first batch, I set the timer for 3 minutes then cooked the second side at two and a half minutes. 

The muffins came out BEAUTIFUL!  Split open and spread with butter and apricot jam, they are not to be beat.  Here is a picture of them:

Fresh Sourdough English Muffins!
 This recipe made 18 muffins in the size cutter I used.

 It is nice when recipes are successful...