Engish Muffins

Caitlin Vincent @the.sourdough.baker
caitlin@thesourdoughbaker.com

Serves: 12
Prep Hands-On Time: 25 minutes
Bake Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

300g water

50g milk (or additional water)

100g active sourdough starter

30g oil

500g bread flour (I use King Arthur Bread Flour)

9g salt

Cornmeal (for dusting)

Method:

Mix all the ingredients together until no dry bits of flour remain. Cover the dough with a lid, damp towel, or plastic cling wrap and let it rest for thirty minutes.

Ferment and strengthen the dough:
Thirty minutes after mixing, begin four sets of folds, spaced thirty minutes (or up to an hour) apart. Use any kind of folds you like, though I think stretch-and-folds work best for this recipe.

To stretch and fold the dough: Pull the dough up as far as it will go without tearing and then fold it completely over to the other side. Perform one fold in each cardinal direction before covering the dough and allowing it to rest once more.

Bulk rise:
After folds are complete, allow the dough to rest until it has increased in volume by 50–75% and is showing nice bubbles on top. Refrigerate the dough 12–24 hours to set the classic sour English muffin flavor. Alternatively, shape right away.

Prepare one or two 9x13 baking sheets with a heavy dusting of cornmeal. Coarse cornmeal is preferred, but any kind will work. I like to use two baking sheets to spread the English muffins out more (this prevents them from sticking to one another and makes it easier to transfer to the griddle for frying), but only one is necessary.

Shape:
Divide the dough into twelve equal sections, about 80g each. Shape each section into a round. To do this, pull the dough toward you, using your pinkies to tuck the dough under itself and tighten the surface. Repeat until a nice, tight round is formed.

Final proof:
Lather the top and bottom of each round in cornmeal from the baking sheet. Allow the muffins to rest, covered, 4–8 hours, until they are noticeably larger and more relaxed than they were when first shaped. I let them rest for a total of 7 hours at 70°F (21°C).

Preheat an oven to 350°F with a baking stone inside. If you do not have a baking stone, it is fine to use a baking sheet (but don’t preheat it!). In addition, go ahead and preheat a cast iron skillet or a griddle to medium-high heat.

Cook:
Once the griddle/skillet and oven are preheated, spray the griddle/skillet with a high-heat oil (like avocado oil). Cook the muffins 2–3 minutes per side (until nicely browned). If they are not nicely browned in 2–3 minutes when you flip, your griddle is not hot enough. If they are burnt in 2–3 minutes, your griddle is too hot. I cooked mine for 2 minutes per side on my gas griddle set to heat.

Transfer the muffins to the hot, 350°F oven for 15 minutes to continue cooking. I like to keep heat on the muffins at all times until they are completely finished, so I use multiple timers (my phone allows me to do this) and work in batches. The internal temperature should be 190°F when they are done baking.

Cool for 15–20 minutes before diving in!