Thursday, February 5, 2009

SOURDOUGH ENGLISH MUFFINS

Well, I'm back at it...sourdough everywhere! lol I whipped up a second batch of starter and haven't put it in the fridge...and it's working marvelously! Thank you Garden Girl for that tidbit! I've been baking sourdough every other day, getting the hang of it. I was feeling a little adventurous so I thought I'd try Garden Girl's sourdough english muffin recipe. They are wonderful!
Okay, so here's what you'll need:

1 cup of starter
1 1/2 cups of milk (warm)
5 - 6 cups of flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Mix 1 cup of sourdough starter with 1 1/2 cups of milk and 3 cups of flour. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit for 2 - 24 hours.

When your sponge has developed, mix the sugar, salt and soda into 2 cups of flour. You're supposed to just stir this into the sponge, but really it's much more fun to use your hands to mix it. If you can get a bit more flour into this mixture - go ahead - I couldn't. Cover and let it work up to an hour.

Flour counter and hands. Turn your dough out and knead for 2 - 3 minutes until smooth. With a floured rolling pin, roll out the dough to 1/4 - 1/2 inches thick. Cut out circles 3 - 4 inches in diameter. Place these muffins onto a cornmeal sprinkled cookie sheet and let rest for 15 minutes.

Place 4 - 5 circles on a lightly greased skillet on low, low heat with the cornmeal side down first. Cook for 10 minutes. Gently flip the muffins over and cook another 10 minutes. Cool on a rack.

Split the muffins, toast them, smother in butter and have at 'er!
Okay, so I have to fess up to making a couple of mistakes....nothing we couldn't eat though!
My cutter wasn't big enough afterall...next time I'll use a washed out can like Garden Girl.



I also didn't roll the dough out thin enough. They looked fine here on the cookie sheet but....

as soon as they hit the heat....they got too puffy and didn't quite get thoroughly cooked in the middle. Didn't really matter, the toaster fixed that problem.

You can see how tall they got in this photo. Oh and when Garden Girl says cook them on low, low heat for 10 minutes....it doesn't mean on medium heat for 6 minutes! hahahaha I was just saving time. Lesson learned.


Okay, so here's the final product:
I'm going to need some practice with this recipe....next time: larger cutter, thinner dough, lower heat. Go visit Garden Girl and see her final product - they're gorgeous! Thanks Garden Girl for another sourdough adventure!!
I'm trying bagels next....stay tuned!

8 comments:

  1. I'm gonna make David try this. Okay David? (I know he reads this too!) The final picture looks like yummy toasted marshmallows. LOL!! They sure did puff up! Mmmm..I can almost taste my morning breakfast sandwich now!

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  2. HAHAHAHA! Toasted marshmallows...that's exactly what they look like! They were good though, Penny! Big Daddy had egg, bacon and cheese on his.

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  3. They look wonderful...I used to eat a powerful lot of English muffins with eggs. I still love them! I also just got a sour dough starter. Thanks for suggesting this idea to use some of it!

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  4. I am gonna have to try this recipe out. They look great!

    Debbie

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  5. Hey Warren! I thought about doing the entire post with Willie Nelson songs but just couldn't make it fly. lol Thanks for stopping by...oh and how's your foot??

    Hiya Debbie: Thanks for dropping in...you're gonna love those muffins!

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  6. Hey Boss - love this post! But what i really found helpful is what you would have done differently!
    Thanks again...i swear i am trying this next week!

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  7. Bust one of them things open and put a fresh egg and some good ol' Canadian Bacon.....then call me. Looks yummy !!!!

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  8. Hey Kymber: Yeah, I don't mind posting about screwing something up! lol Practice, practice, practice. If you don't want to do a sourdough one, you can just use a regular recipe. I'll find yah one.

    Hey Chris: Eggs are getting cold...where the heck are yah? lol

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