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This Sourdough English Muffin recipe is low effort and high satisfaction. It's made with ancient grain wheat and has plenty of nooks and crannies to hold butter and jam.

Sourdough English Muffins

bread flour or all purpose flour (2 cups)

whole grain Kamut flour (1 1/4 cups)

salt (1 tsp)

~1/2 cup cornmeal for dusting the top and bottom of the muffins, and the cookie sheet

warmed milk ~95F (1 1/4 cup)

sourdough starter ripe, floating (3/4 cup)

egg (~50g)

unsalted butter, melt separately or cut into small pieces and combine with the warm milk (3 Tbsp)

honey (2 Tbsp)

oven

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the egg, chipped or melted butter, honey, and warmed milk.

Add the starter, salt, and flour, and mix thoroughly.

Cover and let rise until puffy and about twice the original size. This was about 6 hours in the oven with the light on ~80-85F; and 8-10 hours at lower room temperatures.

Flour your counter, scrape the dough out of the bowl onto the counter, gently press it into a rectangle, and roll the rectangle into a tube.

Let the dough rest about 15 minutes while you:

Put about 1/4 cup of cornmeal on a small plate

Tare your scale with another small plate on it

Grease your English muffin rings with oil spray or butter

Make indents along your dough with a knife or bench scraper to mark ten pieces. If you want to weigh the pieces, they should be about 100g. Cut off a piece, and shape/roll it into a patty. Press the flat sides into the cornmeal. Place the muffin in a ring on the cookie sheet and flatten it with your fingertips until it touches the ring. Here is a video of this process.

Cover the cookie sheet and proof at room temperature for 1-2 hours, or proof in the refrigerator 8-10 or more hours.

When you are ready to bake, remove the cookie sheet from the refrigerator, uncover it, and preheat the oven to 425F (about 10 minutes).

Remove from oven, flip muffins over, remove the rings, and return the sheet to the oven.

Muffins should be over 205F internal temperature, with very slight browning beginning on the sides. (You will have medium brown areas on the top and bottom of the muffins.)

Remember to open the muffins with a fork, rather than slice with a knife, in order to maximize nooks and crannies. Poke all the way around and then gently pry apart the top and bottom.

Weigh the dough for each at 125g, and cook an additional 2-4 minutes.

Below the Oven Baked Photo Gallery is a Skillet Batter Version Gallery

Add 1/4 cup of water or milk to the dough when mixing to make it scoopable.

At the end of the bulk fermentation, press the dough from the sides of the bowl downward with a spatula.

Proof with the same guidelines as the oven version, but unshaped in the bowl.

At the end of the proofing stage, heat a skillet with butter or oil, grease your metal rings and place them on the skillet. Sprinkle cornmeal inside the rings.

Scoop about 1/2 cup of the batter into each ring, sprinkle cornmeal on the top of the batter and gently smooth down the batter with a spoon.

Cook on medium heat for about 16 minutes each side, removing the rings when you flip. Cook time is highly variable depending on your skillet temperature. Covering your skillet and lowering the heat can help if you get too much browning with a cold interior.