So Erin came to visit a few weeks ago bearing a jar of active sourdough starter and instructions. Her original source was GEM Cultures, Inc. out of Lakewood, WA, and this recipe is originally from their instructional pamphlet, but with significant modifications. Improvements in my mind, but you might disagree.
Elizabeth Street Sourdough Muffins
In the morning before you want to make muffins, refresh the starter by combining ½ cup fresh starter, 1 ¼ cups of warm non-chlorinated water (I use from the Brita pitcher and microwave for about 1 minute), and 1 ½ cups of flour in a relatively large bowl. Cover with a plate and set this in a warmish spot for the day or several hours until it is bubbly.
In the evening before you want to make the muffins: Combine ½ cup fresh starter (removed from your refreshing above), 1 ¼ cups of warm non-chlorinated water (I use from the Brita pitcher and microwave for about 1 minute), 1 ½ cups of flour and 1 cup of regular rolled oats in a relatively large bowl. Cover and set in a warmish place for overnight. Grease your muffin tins. Seriously, the paper liners do not work. When I made this it made for 2 dozen smallish muffins, but in a regular muffin tin, not a mini-one.
Combine these dry ingredients in a separate small bowl: ¼ cup flour, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 T baking powder. The next step could be done in the morning or evening. Combine these wet ingredients in another separate small bowl: 3 T maple syrup, and 2T fat (not solid). If you plan to mix in nuts or raisins (up to 1 cup in total), get them out now so that you don’t forget. Go to bed.
In the morning, get up and turn on the oven to 400oF. (Now’s a good time to get the coffee going, too.) Beat an egg into the wet ingredients bowl. If you plan to add blueberries (1 cup) to the muffins, get them out of the freezer and toss them with some of the dry ingredients bowl. Dump the wet ingredients (if your fat in the wet ingredients turned into a solid overnight, then you need to re-liquify it and re-think the measuring the next before idea) into the sourdough batter (which should be a little bubbly) and mix a little. Sprinkle the dry ingredients into the batter and mix only enough to eliminate dry spots. Gently fold in the frozen blueberries. You don’t want to overmix because it makes the muffins tough.
Scoop the batter into the muffin tins. Bake for about 20-25 minutes while you shower.
Enjoy hot muffins for breakfast and bask in the adulation of your family.
These are pretty smallish muffins, and I find that eating 3 (with butter and maple syrup) kept me full until lunch. It is a rare breakfast that can claim that.
When I did them with raisins and pecans I didn’t need the maple syrup, but I had also used the dust from 2 boxes of Raisin Bran instead of the 1 cup of oats, so there was more sugar in the batter.
Chocolate chips would also be a good addition, instead of blueberries, but maybe with dried cherries and/or almonds.
In case you are wondering, I did this with 100% whole wheat flour.
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3 comments:
Yum - sounds good. I suspect you could also do it with the refreshed morning starter (after the half cup is removed) rather than doing the double-refresh -- I did that this morning with waffles, just used the ~2c of starter left after pulling off the half cup for the fridge jar as the basis for immediate waffle batter.
I can see that you have perfected the art of weekday morning muffin breakfasts, what with the instructions to start the coffee, take a shower, etc. at the appropriate times in your recipe. I too have a similar routine, which is why Tuesday mornings (have to be out early to pick up the dairy order) are usually muffin morning at my house. Mark has 2 muffins, I have 1 with my omelet, the kids each get one for breakfast, and the remaining 6 go with me to be offered to children at tea time.
You can do it with the regular refresh except possibly for the oatmeal that goes in the night before. I think that it gives nice heft and texture and the oatmeal has plenty of time to soften appropriately.
Ah yes, forgot about the oatmeal. I often just put raw rolled oats into my muffins as we like the chewy texture, and it didn't register that you were adding that to the batter overnight.
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