Sourdough Discard English Muffin Recipe

4.89 from 45 votes

Sourdough Discard English Muffin Recipe

Easy Sourdough Discard English Muffins are soft, fork-tender, and made without a mixer. They come together quickly and are perfect for breakfast sandwiches, toasting, or enjoying with butter and jam.

Prep Time30

Cook Time13

Rise Time2

Total Time2 43

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Servings: english muffins

Author: Amy Coyne

Equipment

Ingredients

150 grams sourdough discard heaping 1/2 cup
340 grams warm milk about 1 1/3 cup plus 1 Tablespoon
30 grams granulated sugar about 2 Tablespoons
10 grams instant yeast about 1 Tablespoon
45 grams unsalted butter melted (about 3 Tablespoons)
10 grams salt about 1 1/2 teaspoons
475 grams all-purpose flour about 3 2/3 cup
cornmeal or semolina for shaping about 1/2 cup

Instructions

In a medium-sized bowl, mix together sourdough discard, warm milk, granulated sugar and instant yeast. Let the instant yeast activate for a minute. You will notice a yeasty smell and the yeast beginning to dissolve. Add melted butter, salt and flour. Stir together to combine until the dough is completely combined. The dough will feel fairly wet - this is normal. Cover with a bowl cover or plastic wrap and set in a warm place.
Let the dough rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour. This may take a little bit longer if your sourdough discard is cold - making the dough colder. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. Sprinkle the parchment paper with cornmeal, leaving a generous pile toward the bottom of the baking sheet.
Use a large cookie scoop or 1/4 cup measuring cup to scoop about 85-90 grams of dough onto the pile of cornmeal/semolina. Flip the ball of dough over so it is covered on both sides. Cup your hands around the dough and apply pressure while rotating your hands to gently shape the ball into a smooth round. Place the shaped dough on the far end of the baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough until all 12 english muffins have been formed and are in a 3 by 4 grid on the baking sheet. Cover the dough and let rise until puffed up, about an hour.
Note: At this point you can stick the dough in the refrigerator to rise for a few hours or overnight if you don't want to bake them right away.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a skillet over medium-low heat. Gently place the English muffins into the pan, cooking for about 3 minutes per side before flipping and baking on the other side. The outside of the English muffins will bake, leaving the inside slightly doughy and raw. Put the English muffins on the parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat this process until all the English muffins have been skillet-cooked. Place the pan of English muffins in the oven and bake for about 5-7 minutes until English muffins are baked all the way through - about 200ºF. Let cool and enjoy!

Video

Notes

Sourdough Discard: Use 100% hydration sourdough discard. For less tang, use fresh discard or active sourdough starter. For more tang, use discard that’s been sitting in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Sticky Dough: This dough is fairly sticky to work with. The cornmeal or semolina makes the dough easier to shape and work with.

Instant Yeast: This is a sourdough discard recipe so it uses instant yeast instead of sourdough to rise. You can substitute active dry yeast if you activate it first in some of the milk and sugar in this recipe. If you want to make this 100% sourdough, use active starter in place of the discard and give it much longer to rise. You can also use my Sourdough English Muffin recipe instead.

Flour: I developed this recipe using all-purpose flour. You could substitute half whole wheat flour for the all-purpose flour, but I would decrease the total amount of flour to 450 grams instead of 475 grams.

Nutrition