The Country Wife: 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: