Today was a jelly making day, and thoughts of sweet jelly made me think of English Muffins…one of our favorite breakfast breads. Cozy mornings with hot coffee, delicious Muffins, great butter, and homemade jam begin some of the absolute best days.

English Muffins also lend themselves well to on-the-go breakfast sandwiches with Canadian bacon, ham or turkey sausage, egg and cheese. Wrap them in parchment paper and take them on the road!

My preference is to make muffins using sourdough discard, but there are many recipes using yeast for those who have not cultivated a sourdough starter. Also, see my note below about converting this bread to a yeast bread recipe or purchasing sourdough.

This recipe makes approximately 7 English Muffins, although my dogs always hope I will have a little bit more to make one small one for them to share (and I usually do!)

There is a moderate 5-6 hour rising time on for this dough, so you can get it started, go about your day, and come back to the dough later. It’s also rather forgiving. I almost always wind up adding a little extra flour to mine to get it to the right consistency for rolling and cutting.

You will need:

240 grams of all purpose flour (I use unbleached)

1 Tablespoon Sugar

1 Tablespoon Butter, Softened

80 grams of sourdough starter (unfed)

135 grams warm (not hot) water

1 Large Egg, beaten lightly

1 Teaspoon Salt

Your choice oil or cooking spray – my preference is avocado oil

Your choice Semolina flour, cornmeal, or grits for proofing

You can finish these muffins in your choice of a skillet, round or rectangular griddle.

Other things needed: Glass bowl, sheet pan, parchment paper, plastic wrap, bench scraper or spatula, coffee filter (if desired), regular canning ring or biscuit cutter, fork.

Directions:

Mix flour, sugar, and butter together and use a fork or pastry cutter to cut butter into dry mix. Separately, mix starter and warm (not hot) water together and then stir in the egg. Stir wet mixture into dry mixture until combined. Let stand for 30 minutes.

Add salt and knead for 5 minutes with your mixer’s dough attachment or knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 10 minutes. Dough should form a shaggy ball. If it is too loose and slumpy, add one tablespoon of flour at a time until it pulls away from the side of the mixing bowl, or holds its shape if kneading.

Oil a glass bowl. Tip: use a coffee filter to spread oil evenly over the bowl. Put dough in bowl, cover with plastic wrap and put in oven on proof setting or put in a warm place to rise for 5-6 hours.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and sprinkle with semolina, grits or cornmeal on top of the parchment.

Turn out dough onto floured surface, sprinkle a little flour on top and press out until uniform and about 3/4” thick. You should be able to get at least five muffins out of the first cutting using a regular canning jar ring to cut these. Transfer cut muffins to a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Roll remaining dough and cut one additional time. If you have a little dough left, roll it into a ball and press into a small muffin.

Sprinkle the top of the muffins with semolina, grits or cornmeal. Cover with plastic wrap. Put back in warm place or proofing oven for the second rise, and allow to rise for one hour.

Near the end of the rise time, heat your griddle or skillet over medium heat. Once the griddle is hot, using your bench scraper or spatula, carefully move the English Muffins onto the hot surface. Let them cook until they rise a bit and brown. I love to see them rise a little more as they cook! Flip them, and let them continue to cook. You may flip these more than once to get additional color.

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If your pan size requires that you do an additional batch, reduce the heat so that they will not cook too fast.

Once they are cool, perforate around the edge with a fork to make opening easy and leave the wonderful inner surface rugged to hold your butter and jam. Slicing an English Muffin flattens the cut surface and takes away all the exciting, butter holding texture.

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These will last covered on the counter for a couple of days or frozen for a month, but they won’t last a month because they are so wonderful.

Note: You can replace yeast for sourdough in this recipe but will need to add additional water, and cut the rising time about in half. Sourdough starter is available at some local bake shops or online, or you can start your own living sourdough friend in your kitchen and you and your buddy can make an abundance of baked goods. Sourdough is easy, historical and much more digestible than regular wheat bread.

I hope you try this English Muffin recipe, and please let me know how you like it. Also, if you have any questions about the recipe or any of my recipes please be sure to message or comment.

Buon Appetito!

Kim Orsini

Iron Maiden – Black Skillet Cooking