Gluten Free English Muffins (Sourdough Discard)

A guest recipe by Idris Craft of The Naked Pear

Hello dear friends,

Today I have a treat for you! The wonderful

Idris Craft

of The Naked Pear is here with a fantastic recipe for gluten free English muffins made with sourdough discard!

Now that you have your starter going, you are bound to have some extra “discard” hanging around from time and this is a great way to use that up. Nostalgic breakfast included!!

The Naked Pear has a treasure trove of lovely gluten free sourdough and sourdough discard recipes that you should check out. I was so thrilled that Idris offered to share this one with us today!

English muffins are something I grew up with, and I love that craggy center. The proverbial “nooks and crannies.”

My husband however had never encountered them when we first met. They were offered for breakfast at the restaurant in Yellowstone Park where we worked and he was really confused for quite some time as to “What exactly were those little breadies?” Ha!

Also, I’m with Idris, hollandaise is the stuff of heaven. Have you ever made it? Perhaps I should share my simple method sometime?

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Here’s what Idris has to say about it:

The English muffin, for me, is an incredibly nostalgic food. It invokes memories from deep into my childhood. English muffins bring me to sunny California, in the kitchen with my grandmother. Sun streaming into the small kitchen, while the toaster cooks my English muffin, waiting for a good slathering of butter. My grandmother sitting at the table with her shredded wheat and banana. It is just a flash of a memory, but it’s picture is sharp. Every time I eat an English muffin, that memory plays through my mind. Then of course, there were English muffins loaded with butter and cinnamon sugar after school, for the ultimate snack. Before I got sick with celiac, the eggs Benedict was a superior breakfast-out item, because I have never been a sweets for breakfast person and hollandaise sauce rules. At the center of all of these memories is, the humble English muffin.

Traditional English muffins are made with an enriched dough and these gluten free sourdough English muffins are no different. That means this recipe has milk, butter, eggs, and a bit of sweetener. I have not tried to make it with alternative ingredients, but I’m sure an alternative dairy would work just fine. You can use an active starter or discard it with this recipe. I have had great success with both. The mixture ferments overnight. I mix it together about 9:30pm and then roll it out the next morning when we are up and ready for breakfast. It is such a simple, no fuss recipe and then you are rewarded with English muffins for the week!

Gluten Free English Muffin

RECIPE (by: Idris Craft of The Naked Pear)

The yield of this recipe depends on the size of your round cutter. I usually get between 10-14 English muffins.

Ingredients:

Wet:

• 200 grams gluten free starter, active or discard

• 235 grams whole milk or milk alternative

• 45 grams butter

• 2T sugar or honey

• 1 large egg

Dry:

• 70 grams organic sorghum flour (or organic brown rice flour)

• 35 grams organic light buckwheat flour

• 75 grams organic potato starch

• 12 grams psyllium husk powder

• 6 grams salt

• polenta (for dusting the pan you cook your muffins in, and optional)

• tapioca starch (for dusting surface when you roll out muffins)

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METHOD

The night before cooking:

• Gently heat your milk, butter and sugar (or honey) on the stove until butter is just melted. You don’t want it to get hot, no more than 90 degrees. Set aside.

• In a large bowl, thoroughly whisk together all of the dry ingredients, except for the polenta and tapioca starch.

• Add the discard (or starter) and egg to your milk mixture and gently whisk until combined.

• Add the milk mixture to your dry ingredients and stir until there are no lumps. The mixture will be very fluid in the beginning. This is how you want it! The flours and psyllium husk powder will start to absorb all that liquid and by morning you will have a workable dough.

• Cover and leave in a safe spot to ferment until the morning.

The next morning:

• Lightly dust your surface with tapioca starch.

• Gently, with a spatula or dough scraper, scrape your fermented dough out onto your dusted surface. You don’t want to deflate your dough!

• With a rolling pin, gently roll out your dough until about a half of an inch thick. You want to be gentle when handling your dough, you don’t want to smash all the beautiful air pockets out of your dough. Those air pockets will turn into your nooks and crannies!

• With a circle cookie or biscuit cutter (I like to use a 2 1/2 inch biscuit cutter), cut out as many rounds as possible. Place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

• Gently push remaining dough back together and roll out to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut out more rounds. Continue to do this until all dough has been used. If your dough gets sticky, just dust a little more tapioca starch over your dough and work surface.

• Cover with a kitchen towel and let rest 15 minutes.

• While the English muffins are resting, preheat a heavy bottomed pan on your stove, over medium heat. I use a cast iron pan and let it preheat about 10 minutes.

• Once the pan is nice and hot, sprinkle polenta evenly over bottom of pan. Place as many rounds as you can into the pan. Make sure there is at least 1 inch between each round.

• Cook for 4-5 minutes per side, turning just once. Move to a cooling rack.

• Repeat until all English muffins have been cooked.

• Let cool completely before cutting.

• Store in a air tight container for up to 7 days.

  These also freeze well, if you would like to freeze some.