Homemade Sourdough English Muffins

Sourdough English Muffins are a tangy addition to your morning routine! Enjoy these with jam, butter, or in an egg sandwich! You won't go back to buying store bought English muffins after you make your own!

I eat English muffins almost every morning. I love enjoying them in an egg sandwich, but making them was always something that seemed a little overwhelming, and then I tried. Let me tell you, I will not go back to buying English muffins after I made my own.

These sourdough English muffins are soft, slightly tangy, and easy to make! You just need a little patience and you can make a big batch of English muffins to enjoy throughout the week with all the benefits that sourdough recipes have to offer!

I first tried sourdough English muffins from Emilie Raffa's sourdough book that I purchased when I received my sourdough starter. This recipe is based off of a recipe in that book, with just a few simple tweaks that I made to get the perfect English muffin.

Why You'll Love This Recipe

• It's a great use for your sourdough starter! My sourdough starter is like gold to me! I use it to make everything from same day sourdough bread to sourdough discard onion rings!
• They are made with only a few simple ingredients! You probably already have all of these ingredients in your home. If you bake sourdough bread a lot and have an active starter, you can make these any day of the week!
• They are great for meal prep! This recipe makes 12-14 pretty large English muffins. You can make this recipe on the weekends and you'll have English muffins to enjoy throughout the week.

What is Sourdough?

Sourdough bread is a bread made from natural yeast, flour, water, and salt. There is no commercial yeast, only naturally occurring yeast from the environment. Sourdough bread requires a "starter" to rise the bread. A starter is filled with good bacteria and natural yeast that gives the bread that traditional sour taste.

Since sourdough bread does not have commercial yeast it in, it often takes longer to rise. Have some patience when making sourdough. The long rise promotes the fermentation of the yeast and makes the bread products easier to digest.

Ingredients to Gather

• Sourdough starter. You'll want a very active, bubbly starter. When starting your sourdough journey, you can make your own sourdough starter, buy one, or get one from a friend, like I originally did. Once you have a sourdough starter, be sure you check out how to feed and maintain a sourdough starter so you can make sourdough recipes all the time.
• Liquid. For this recipe, we will use both milk and water. The milk helps keep the English muffins light and fluffy, but the water makes sure that the milk doesn't weigh down the muffins.
• Butter. This adds a little more fat to the muffins to help with the soft texture of the English muffins.
• Sugar. Sugar will feed the yeast as the dough rises.
• Flour. We are using all purpose flour for this recipe, but you can use bread flour instead of all purpose flour if that is what you have on hand.

Be sure to check out the printable recipe card for full recipe information on ingredients and quantities.

Crumpets Vs. English Muffins

You may look at an English muffin and think it's a crumpet, and vice versa. They are actually really similar, with just a few differences.

• Cooking process. A crumpet is cooked on a skillet as well, but it is cooked in a metal ring to help the crumpet keep it's shape. English muffins have a stiffer dough, so they don't need a metal ring to hold it's shape.
• Texture. Crumpets are softer, more along the lines of a biscuit. English muffins are more of a bread texture, making them really good for sandwiches and breakfast sandwiches.
• The dough. Crumpets have a much softer dough, almost like a batter. Since English muffins are more along the lines of bread, the dough is kneaded and stiffer than that of a crumpet.
• How they are served. Crumpets are served with butter and jam while English muffins are can be served with butter in jam, but they are also great for sandwiches.

Substitutions and Variations

• Change the flour. Bread flour vs all purpose flour can be confusing, but in this recipe, both will work. You can also use a mixture of whole wheat flour and all purpose flour for some extra fiber.
• Add some mix ins. In the grocery store, you can find all sorts of different flavors of English muffins. At home, feel free to add cinnamon, pumpkin spice, wild blueberries, or raisins for some extra flavor.
• Change the shape. English muffins are classically round, but mix it up! You can make them square or use different cookie cutters for even more fun!
• Change the sugar. If you don't want to use granulated sugar, you can use maple syrup, honey, or agave syrup instead of sugar.
• Change the milk. You can use whole milk, unsweetened almond milk, or your favorite non dairy milk in this recipe. To make them dairy free, use coconut oil instead of butter.

How To Make Sourdough English Muffins

In a small saucepan, add the water, milk, and butter. Turn the heat on low and melt the butter. Once the butter has melted, remove it from the heat and let the mixture cool slightly. The mixture should cool so you can touch it and it doesn't burn you.

While the milk mixture cools, in a large mixing bowl, add the sourdough starter and sugar.

Once the milk mixture has cooled slightly, pour it into the large bowl while mixing the sourdough starter and sugar into the milk mixture.

Add the flour and salt to the large mixing bowl. Mix it until a shaggy dough forms. Cover the bowl with a damp kitchen towel and let it rest for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, shape the dough into a smooth ball. To do this, pull one side of the dough and place it into the center of the dough ball. Rotate the bowl and keep doing that until a ball forms. Cover with the kitchen towel and let it rise for 8-10 hours. After 10 hours, place the bowl in the refrigerator overnight.

In the morning, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes. Flatted the dough into an oval or rectangle. With a cookie cutter or a large cup, cut out 12-14 English muffins. Place them on a parchment lined baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal. Let the English muffins rest for 1 hour.

How To Cook the English Muffins

After 1 hour, place a nonstick pan on the stove over low heat. Add 4-6 muffins to the pan depending on the size of your pan. Cover for 8-10 minutes. Flip the English muffins over and cook for another 8-10 minutes on the other side. Remove the muffins from the pan and place them on a wire cooling rack. Continue with the rest of the muffins.

Baker's Schedule

Here's a sample baker's schedule so you can see the times and how long it will take to make these English muffins.

Tips and Tricks

• Your sourdough starter should be active and bubbly. It should be fed at least once, if not twice before you bake with it.
• Make sure to use a pan that has a lid. The lid keeps the heat in the pan and disperses it evenly.
• Do not use any oil or grease the pan. You don't want to sauté or fry the muffins, we are simply baking them but on the stove.
• Keep the heat medium low to low. Do not turn the heat too high or the outside of the English muffins will burn but the inside will be raw.
• Allow the English muffins to cool completely before serving. The carry overcooking will continue to cook the inside of the muffins while they are cooling.

How To Serve Sourdough English Muffins

Serve sourdough English muffins slathered in butter and topped with Instant Pot Mixed Berry Jam or Instant Pot blueberry Jam.

These make great breakfast sandwiches too! Fry up and egg and add some Instant Pot crispy bacon and add some hot sauce. A perfect breakfast sandwich!

Storage Info

Keep the English muffins in an airtight container or a gallon sized Ziploc bag on the counter for up to 4 days. Do not place cooked English muffins in the refrigerator as that will make them go stale really quickly.

Place the English muffins in a freezer safe container or a gallon sized Ziploc bag. Freeze them for up to 3 months. When you are ready to enjoy them, defrost the English muffins on the counter and then toast it up in the toaster or toaster oven.

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