Saturday, November 14, 2009

Baking with Joy - Sourdough English Muffins

I've been doing a lot more traveling in the last year - since I started a new job. I love my job, and since the headquarters for the company are in San Francisco, I was thrilled on a trip out there when a friend gave me some of the sourdough starter that she had been growing. I very carefully wrapped the bottle she gave - checked it in my bag - and believe me, was crossing my fingers all the way home that it wouldn't explode over my clothes.

That starter was given to me a few months ago, and I've been feeding it ever since. I keep it in my fridge and pull it out every few weeks. It's always interesting to pull out - the liquid has separated and it smells strong - but in a good way. When I know I am going to use it, I take it out of the fridge, stir the liquid back in, take out some of the starter, feed again - and the use the next day.

I've made a few different recipes with the starter so far, but the one I've come back to is Sourdough English Muffins , as found on Sourdough Home . Making english muffins is fun - for some reason although it is very easy to do, it feels like an accomplishment.

I baked up a batch today; it was a lazy Saturday, full of rain, and it was fun to do some kneading and rolling. The batch I made was unusual, because after I had mixed together the starter, honey, and reconstituted dry milk, I realized I didn't have enough AP flour. Wasn't going to stop me! I ended up using ~1 1/2 cup AP, 1 cup bread flour, and 1 1/2 cup white wheat for the first mix - and bought some AP today for the kneading. The result is interesting - kind of wheat-y.

Tonight's dinner was a sourdough english muffin with egg salad - and it was good.

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