When It's Too Hot to Bake Bread: English Muffins

Almost Whole Grain English Muffins

So I ran out of my morning toast bread, but it's definitely too hot to bake around here. For this reason, I decided to make some English muffins. However, I didn't want to wait a full three days for my awesome oat recipe, so I decided to try something new.

I've been experimenting with oat flour. I know you can't add much to a bread recipe before it compromises the gluten structure, but I wanted to also make the bread as oaty as possible. I'm still working on figuring out the best way to do this. These muffins were not stunningly oaty (I think because most of the flour was whole wheat and it overshadowed a lot of the oat flavor), but they did have a little bit of an oaty taste and they held together pretty well at about 15% oat flour.

English Muffin Crumb

These are not as open and beautiful as my last set, but that may be because I didn't get the gluten structure developed enough last night. However, I might recommend using a little bit more water.

I also had to cheat on the recipe a bit because I forgot to start it until late last night. I'll give my actual version and advice. Adapted from Susan at Wild Yeast's amazing Norwich More Sourdough.

Oaty Mostly Whole Grain Sourdough English Muffins

Ingredients

• 480g Whole Wheat Sourdough Starter (100% hydration)
• 400g First Clear Flour
• 375g Whole Wheat Flour
• 180g Whole Oat flour
• 625g Water adding a little bit more than this, say 650ish might make the crumb more open.
• 23g salt 

Method

Day 1:

• Mix the sourdough starter into 600g of the water and then add the flour.
• Mix until the dough forms a homogenous ball. You can do this either with a stand mixer or by hand.
• Cover the dough with plastic ad let it autolyse for half an hour
• Then add in the salt and the last 25g+ of water
• Knead until medium development (passes the windowpane test). Should take about 10 minutes by hand or about 3-4 minutes by machine.
• If you don't have time (like I didn't) to wait another few hours, put it in the refridgerator immediately (covered in plastic wrap). Or, follow alternative below

Day 1 alternative ending:

• Let is sit for 2.5 hours at room temperature (about 72-75 degrees), folding at 45 min, 1.5 hours, and 2h 15 min.
• Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and spread it a little bit. Cover it and let it sit for 10 minutes.
• Then roll the dough out to about 1" thick.
• Transfer the dough onto a floured cookie sheet, lightly flour the surface of the dough, and cover it with plastic
• Let it sit for an hour and a half at room temperature before transferring it into the refrigerator

Day 2:

Alternative method:

• If you used the alternative method: take the dough out of the refrigerator right before you plan to bake (although no more than 16 hours after you put it in).
• Heat up a griddle or a cast iron frying pan, lightly oiled with spray oil to about medium-low heat
• Cut muffins of the desired size. Squares, rectangles, or circles all work. If you don't mind ugly muffins, you can take the excess and push it lightly together. If you let it sit for about 5 minutes, this will make a delicious and perfectly adequate (although not aesthetically pleasing) muffin.
• When the griddle is hot, place the muffins on it and cover with a metal lid.
• In about 3 minutes, the muffins should be ready to flip over. They will puff up nicely.
• Let them brown on the other side before cooling and eating.

My method:

• Take the dough out of the refrigerator and turn onto a lightly floured surface.
• Spread it out a little, then cover it and let it sit for 10 minutes.
• Then roll the dough out to about 1" thick.
• Transfer the dough onto a floured cookie sheet, lightly flour the surface of the dough, and cover it with plastic
• Let it sit for about 2.5 hours at room temperature.
• Heat up a griddle or a cast iron frying pan, lightly oiled with spray oil to about medium-low heat
• Cut muffins of the desired size. Squares, rectangles, or circles all work. If you don't mind ugly muffins, you can take the excess and push it lightly together. If you let it sit for about 5 minutes, this will make a delicious and perfectly adequate (although not aesthetically pleasing) muffin.
• When the griddle is hot, place the muffins on it and cover with a metal lid.
• In about 3 minutes, the muffins should be ready to flip over. They will puff up nicely.
• Let them brown on the other side before cooling and eating.

These are delicious and won't heat up your kitchen. Keep in mind, this makes a LOT of English muffins. I mean a LOT. So, once they are fully cooled, place them in ziplock baggies and freeze them (except for the ones you will eat over the next 2-3 days).

For reference, if you pick any rustic dough that is not too loose, you can make English muffins just by following the day 2 instructions under "my method."