If you like to start your morning with a little kick, may I suggest these English muffins? Made with both sourdough starter and yogurt, their tang can be toned down with a little raspberry jam, or turned up with a gloss of unsalted butter.
Either way, maybe they will rock your morning like they rocked mine — as I was finishing my muffin, I felt that rumbling and shaking that in this neck of the woods can only mean one thing: earthquake. It was a little one, as most of them are, but an earthquake nonetheless.
If you don’t mind a somewhat rustic shape to your muffins, instead of cutting out circles, pat the dough into a rough rectangle and use a dough cutter to cut it into square-ish pieces. That saves having to re-roll or waste scraps.
Tangy English Muffins
Yield: 6 muffins
Time:
- Ferment sponge: 8 hours
- Mix and shape: 15 minutes
- Proof: 1 hour
- Cook: 10 minutes
Sponge Ingredients:
- 120 g flour
- 75 g whole wheat flour
- 207 g plain yogurt
- 82 g mature 100%-hydration sourdough starter
Final Dough Ingredients:
- 30 g flour
- 30 g whole rye flour
- generous 1/2 t. salt
- 3/4 t. baking soda
- 1 T. honey
- 2 T. water
- All of the sponge
Method:
- In a medium bowl, mix the sponge ingredients with your hands until just combined. Cover and let rest for 8 hours or overnight.
- Add the final dough ingredients to the sponge and mix to roughly combine. Turn the dough out onto the counter and hand mix for about 7 or 8 minutes, or until the surface becomes quite smooth. The dough will be very soft and sticky. Resist the urge to add more flour; it will become somewhat less sticky with mixing.
- Flour the counter and your hands well, and pat the dough into a 6 x 9-inch rectangle about one-half inch thick. Cut the dough into six squares and place them on flour- or semolina-dusted parchment paper.
- Cover and let proof for about an hour.
- Heat a griddle over medium-low heat. Cook the muffins for a total of about 8 or 10 minutes on each side, until browned and the sides are firm. I find I get a better shape to the muffins if I flip them every couple of minutes for the first few minutes.
- Cool on a wire rack. For maximal nook-and-crannny-ness , split the muffins with a fork rather than a knife.
If those taste a nice as your pancakes a few weeks ago, I’ll make them my very first day off.
Another one of those breads I’ve been meaning to make but never have… Since I reaffirmed that my starter is alive, I might have to make the time to try these out – they look awesome!
Well, I HAVE to make this really soon. Wednesday morning sounds good
Plus, I love the fact that the batch makes only 6 – perfect for a nice breakfast with leftovers for later!
This version with Yoghurt sounds very good. I discovered that I like English muffins just two weeks ago 🙂
I think, I will try this recipe soon.
It wasn’t but a month or so ago that I opted to try my hand at a homemade English muffin recipe. OMGosh! There is truly nothing to compare it with, and once you’ve been smitten there is no turning back to the ‘has-been’ item.
Rye? Oh now you are talking!!!
I never made English muffin before, my husband would absolutely love this. Thank you for the recipe Susan.
p.s did you get any chance to received my last e-mail?
Cheers,
elra
I’ve tried so many eng muffin recipes and can never get those beautiful nooks and crannies that you have here.
Gorgeous!
I don’t have sourdough starter though.
“Neither earthquakes nor lousy shaping nor bad yeast nor forgotten salt in a dough of night stays these bakers from the methodical completion of the many loaves they bake”
Bake on Susan!
Oh those look good. I think I need to wake my starter up!
Perfect crooks and nannies. The yogurt with rye and sourdough must make for a really tangy muffin. This would be perfect for taste buds that are half awake.
This has been on mind for a while now! Not the sourdough version but the simpler one. I prefer the rustic shape:)
I just made some of your other muffins last weekend. How do these compare with those, I wonder?
I really want to try these, they have been on my to-make list for a while – yours look so rustic and delicious.
I love homemade english muffins. Good tip about cutting them into squares!
Oh. My. God. Thanks for sharing this!
I was looking for this! Thanks so much!
I love English muffins, but I’ve never made them before. I’m totally going to have to try this recipe now. Yours look fantastic!
I’ve lurked on your site for months, in awe of not only your fabulous and prolific baking, but also your photographic skills!
Inspired by your pictures, I made these for breakfast this morning. Mine looked similar on the outside, but seemed much more “wheaty” (i.e., brown) on the inside as compared to your picture. I also didn’t get as many nooks and crannies, but I’m sure that was due to a combination of my starter being a couple hours past its prime AND my rushing the rising this morning.
What kind of flour do you use? I’m wondering if I used too much or the wrong kind of whole wheat flour.
Any advice from someone whose baking I admire on a nearly daily basis?
Thanks!
MommaT
Are you using bread flour or AP?
Sourdough muffins with some rye flavor..I’d love to try these!
Hey this look delicious! 🙂
I’ve actually been wanting to make english muffins for a while and this seems like a fabulous jumping off point. And rye? Yummm.
Only one problem, though – I don’t have a sourdough starter. Is there any way it can be converted into a biga with additional yeast or something instead?
Thanks!
Those look like perfect English muffind…and no muffin rings used, either. I like the idea of the yogurt in addition to the sourdough…nice and tangy.
I made these last night/this morning. SOOOOO easy! We nearly burned our fingers trying to eat them right out of the pan.
I made a double batch using homemade yogurt. I think next time I make them I may divide the dough and get the first 6 proofing before rolling out the remaining half. The last few were a bit over-proofed by time they got into the pan and came out flatter than the rest.
I didn’t get quite as much tang as I was expecting given both the sourdough and the yogurt – but still far superior to anything I’ve bought at the store. Hopefully they’ll be just as delicious tomorrow or, like many sourdoughs, even better!
These look amazing! Do you think soy yogurt would work? Its just the culture in the yogurt that you need, right? I want to try and veganize these so bad!
I love your site! Gorgeous breads!
Momma T, I doubt you used the wrong whole wheat flour, it’s probably that the lighting in my photo makes the muffins look lighter than they really are. Here’s a description of the kind of white flour I like for bread: http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2008/06/23/flour-101/
Jazzinx, try a poolish in place of the starter: equal parts flour and water by weight, plus a tiny pinch of yeast, left to ferment overnight.
Elizabeth, the yogurt culture is not needed, the yogurt is for texture and flavor. I don’t know if soy yogurt would work but why not give it a try?
These look great! I love to bake and I’m so glad I found your blog. I bet these would be so delicious with some warm preserves.
Hi Susan: I just want to thank you to share such a wonderful recipe with us here, I made those English muffins last weekend,they are very very tasty. I love it .
ps for the link you can find my article which I wrote in Chinese (sorry for the inconvenience), I shared my experiences with my readers that how I failed at first, then with a success at the second time)
Hi Susan: I made these yummy English muffins last weekend. They are really tasty. All my family just love them so much. Thank you for sharing such a good recipe with us .
(You can see my article for the link. I am sorry that I wrote it in Chinese so that my mom can read it,too. I just share my baking experience with my friends and tell them how and why I failed at first(well, I did not really follow your way to make those muffins). Once I really followed your steps, then I thought I did a good job at the second trail.
Hi Susan
Til now I have been using your pancake recipe to use leftover starter (they are wonderful) and was glad I’d got over my caution with sticky doughs before trying this recipe. There’s a lid for my hot plate so put it on for steam, it was great watching the oven spring! Delicious results.
Have been really enjoying your reports on your SFBI experiences, thank you.
Hi, can anyone please help me convert grams to cups for the recipe? Would totally appreciate it! The recipe looks amazing!
I’m making these right now (double batch)! My mom is an English Muffin fanatic, so she’ll eat most of them. The rest are reserved as samples/bribery for a job interview to be a pastry chef at a new restaurant in town.
Susan, don’t let me down! lol
This recipe looks great… question about the yogart… am using 2% Greek… will that work??
Thanks.
Linda
Linda, 2% Greek should be fine.
I made these today with Greek yogurt and they came out absolutely delicious! However, when I cooked the first three, I had trouble getting them fully cooked, so for the last three, I used the method from the Bread Baker’s Apprentice and I was much happier with the results. They came out fluffier and baked all the way through. Anyway, I will have to pass this recipe along to my Dad, who is a bread-baking novice but loves English muffins and is in possession of some of my starter. Thanks for such an amazingly easy and delicious recipe!
Made these with all whole wheat (fresh home ground fine whole wheat from hard spring red berries). They look much darker, but the texture is definitely there. Thanks!
Holy CRAP these are amazing. Susan, I’ve been reading/using your blog for about two years, and everything is AMAZING and it’s been so, so helpful as I’ve gone from not being able to get a starter going to consistently producing beautiful loaves, and I’m even starting to experiment/get creative on my own, and I’ve been meaning to write and say hi and say thanks, but you know, busy/best intentions, etc. . . .
But these English muffins . . . These English muffins are out of this world and I couldn’t let another minute go by without telling you, and finally, after all this time and use of this incredible resource, saying thanks.
Thank you, Ian!
Tried these this morning. Not good. Not sure what the difference was but my dough was too wet to work with. Sort of the consistency of peanut butter, the real kind. The dough wouldn’t pull together even after 15 minutes of mixing on counter. Finally had to add more flour to get any kind of usable consistency and sadly I must have used to much. Tough and dense. Will try again, but one thing that would help the amateur baker would be to post more pictures of the process. It would be interesting to know what your sponge looks like, what the dough looks like before and after mixing. Just showing finished baked goods isn’t that helpful, except for making the adventurous baker/cook grimace at their own creation when it doesn’t match up to the perfect picture. Which, by the way, does look perfect. Cheers.
These turned out really well, thanks for the great recipe!
The muffins looks so great! Thank you for sharing the recipe!