As some of you may know, I hate to knead, and I don’t have own a stand-mixer, so I prefer using this recipe. Downfall, it's a 2-day process so I have to wait til next day to enjoy them. But then again, you’ll be able to have it for breakfast the next morning.
INGREDIENTS
- 2 1/2 cups (1-cup all-purpose flour, 00 (Italian/Romanian) or T45 (French tout-usage) and 1-1/2 cups of whole wheat flour). You can replace 50 grams of flour with some oat flour, rye, or spelt etc. But you always have to have a flour that has gluten. All whole wheat works, because it has gluten
- 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast. If using levain, use 100 grams of freshly fed.
- Pinch of sugar, about a pinch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cups milk, if vegan use a nut milk or even water
- 1/2 cups warm water
- 1 tablespoon butter or oil
DAY BEFORE
Add the liquid and butter or oil. Make sure if using butter, melt it a little til warm, but not hot. Mix it, with a little liquid at a time. Flour can be different even in hours of the day because of humidity. And, if by chance it seems too shaggy, add more liquid (water) until you get a sticky, tacky dough, but NOT overly wet.
Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for a minimum of 18-hours, on counter
NEXT DAY
Dust your mat or counter assuming. If you have tile counters, I recommend you use a mat or a cutting board. Pour dough onto a mat. Pat down with your floured hands or use a rolling pin if you prefer (I prefer my hands) and flatten to about 1 inch thick. Then using a cookie cutter (I used an old can) and cut into disk, any size you like. Dust a pan covered with paper wrap dusted with cornmeal. Cover with plastic and let it rise a 2nd time for approximately 1-hour.
Note: left over dough re-pat and cut more rounds. Won’t be as pretty, but will taste the same.
In an un-oiled pan at a low to medium-low heat, add the English muffins.
Cover the pan to create steam for about 5-7 minutes (depends on the size of your disk) Check bottom for a light brown color.
Turn over once the bottom is light
Voila, finished product
NOTE: I DO NOT cook the English muffins to well-done, in fact, I cook it til it’s slightly cooked and somewhat a little raw, only because we like our English muffins toasted. If you don’t like toasted English muffins, then cook them longer. If they are a little raw, as I like them, store them, score them for an easy cut and store them in the freezer.
My experience: first of all, I made the dough using 1.5 cups Unbleached All-Purpose flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, 100g of my home-grown sourdough starter. Followed the rest of the instructions.
ReplyDeleteThe dough rose beautifully (I did about 18 hours).
In the morning, it was very sticky, poured it onto the floured counter, used 70mm & 65mm rounds to cut. Rested an hour on a parchment covered baking sheet.
Heated the non-stick pan to medium-low and put in four of them (two large, two small). Checked after three minutes: browning too much so lowered heat to just above the low setting and flipped them.
After a little over 6 minutes total, removed from pan to cooling rack, put the other five into the pan (still at just-above-low). Fried for 3-4 minutes, checked, looked good, flipped, cooked another 3-4 minutes.
Sliced the four that had cooled & popped them into the toaster.
Results: In retrospect I should have made the dough thinner before I cut them – some were a bit too thick after the one hour rise, and the 70mm too large. The smaller ones cooked & toasted up much better. Done as 65mm rounds this dough would make a dozen English muffins.
They have a lovely tangy flavor from the home-grown sourdough starter and when made the right size, come out crispy and lovely just as English muffins should!
I will definitely try this again – may do them with 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour and ½ cup of rye or whole wheat next time!
Thanks, Randy!