Thursday, June 18, 2015

Sourdough English Muffins


Immer wieder Sonntag is the host for Zorra's Bread Baking Day 75. She likes us to bake our favourite weekend bread for the 75th Bread Baking Day.

Every Tuesday we visit our friend Gerard who lives in a small Karen village 25 km from our house. First we visit the local market and then we all have breakfast. Many local hill tribes come to this Tuesday market; like Longneck Karen, different kind of Lahu, Lisu, Thai and us foreigners. They come to sell their home grown vegetables and fruits. 

At our breakfast we eat a lot of local food (fruit, noodles, sweets, soy products) and most of the time I bring some freshly baked bread. This morning I brought English Muffins. I'd seen them at Susan's blog Wild Yeast a long time ago and this was the perfect moment to make them. 

I fermented the dough in the refrigerator during the night and the next morning I shaped the muffins and let them proof in the car. It was the first time I proofed bread in our car! I baked the muffins at our friend's house and we ate them warm. 

Our friend had made a delicious jam with mango, apples, banana and wild honey.



This was our favourite weekend bread. It's delicious: soft crumb with a nice crust, the taste and smell are really nice. It's fun to make!

Yield: 8 – 10 muffins

This is what I used:

Sponge Ingredients:
160 g flour
100 g spelt flour
276 g milk 
110 g ripe 100% hydration sourdough starter


I mixed all the sponge ingredients until just combined, covered it and let it rest for 8 hours or overnight. I placed the bowl in the refrigerator for the night.


75 g flour
3/4 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
1.5 t. honey
all of the sponge

I added the final dough ingredients and mixed to roughly combine. I turned the dough out onto the counter and hand mixed for about 7 or 8 minutes. If the surface becomes quite smooth it's ready. The dough will be very soft and sticky at first. Resist the urge to add more flour; it will become less sticky with mixing. 

I placed the covered bowl with dough in the refrigerator for the night to ferment. 


The next morning: 
I floured the counter and my hands well. I divided the dough into 8 portions. I shaped each portion into a disk of about 8 cm wide and 1 cm thick and placed them on semolina-dusted parchment paper. I covered it and proofed it for 45 – 60 minutes. It depends on the temperature in your kitchen.

I baked them at a friend's house and used butter instead of oil. This gives them more colour than using only oil.  I used a pan instead of a griddle. I cooked them over medium-low heat for about 5 minutes on each side. The "pan spring" worked perfectly, the muffins rose from pancake like disks to thick fluffy muffins. 
When the muffins were browned and the sides were firm I took them out. I flipped the muffins them every couple of minutes for the first few minutes.

I let them cool on a wire rack. I opened them with a fork for best nooks and crannies.

I send these to Immer wieder Sonntag for BBD75 and to Susan’s YeastSpotting

3 comments:

  1. Hi!
    This is so great! We're really happy about your very special recipe for our Bread Baking Day #75 - and for the history about it.
    Thank you so much!
    We'll inform you when the round up is published.
    Have a wonderful time!
    Greetings from us - Petra and Michael

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  2. Thank you for letting us now a bit about your life in Thailand. Sounds lovely and the Muffins look divine!

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