Sourdough English Muffins

Hiram Done Good

After reading the paper on Sunday mornings, I do my chores. For years this has meant vacuuming, cleaning the bathrooms, dusting, washing clothes, and watering plants. For the past year every other Sunday has included an additional chore -- feeding my sourdough starter.

Although I've occasionally gone as long as three weeks between feedings, every two weeks has proven ideal for my starter. I have to keep a reminder set in Outlook both because it's a bi-weekly event (meaning beyond my ability to remember) and because if I use the starter before scheduled feeding the schedule changes to every other Sunday from that point, whatever the previous schedule may have been.

Feeding involves mixing a cup of starter with a cup of water and two cups of flour and then returning it to the refrigerator in its glass canister. However, this means the base starter never warms up to vigorous activity.

When I pulled out the starter on Sunday to make the calzone I decided to completely refresh it by bring the entire mixture up to room temperature, feeding it, and giving it a day to work. While I was at it, I figured I'd make the sourdough English muffins I've been meaning to make in addition to the calzone dough.

So I did just that. I warmed up the entire batch of starter, fed it well, and gave it a day to revitalize.

Sourdough English Muffins

1 pk yeast
1/2 c lukewarm water (90F to 105F)
1/2 c basic sourdough starter, room temperature
1/3 c instant nonfat dry milk
2 1/2 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 c lukewarm water (90F to 105F)
3 to 3 1/2 c all-purpose, flour
Cornmeal

Proof the yeast in 1/2 cup lukewarm water in the bowl of a stand mixer. Thoroughly mix in starter, dry milk, sugar, and salt. Stir in remaining water. Add 3 cups flour and mix at low speed with paddle until smooth.

Swap paddle for dough hook and knead at medium speed for four minutes, adding additional flour as necessary. Dough should be somewhat moist and slack. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead another two to three minutes.

Transfer dough to greased bowl, turning to coat all surfaces, cover with plastic and let stand in warm draft-free area until doubled, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Lightly dust work surface with flour, punch down dough, and turn out onto surface. Roll to 1/2 inch thickness and cut into 3" rounds. Line a pair of baking sheet with wax paper and dust with cornmeal. Place rounds on baking sheet, dust tops with corn meal, and cover with plastic wrap. (Note: rounds should be at least 3/4" apart.) Dough scraps can be kneaded back together, rolled out, and additional rounds cut.

Let muffins rise until almost doubled -- about an hour.

Heat a griddle over medium low heat. Lightly brush with butter. Depending on griddle size, transfer four to eight muffins to griddle using a spatula. Cook muffins on each side for about seven minutes until browned. Transfer to a wire rack and cool. Makes about 12 muffins.

The muffins are great. Very chewy with a nice sourdough tang and although they weren't as holey as commercial muffins, they were much more so than any English muffins I've made in the past. Hiram done good.

Hiram? That's the starter's name.

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