These delicious sourdough english muffins are simple and easy to mix up the night before and cook in time for breakfast the next morning. They are delicious with eggs and sausage, or some homemade jam for breakfast, and they even make great sandwiches for lunch.

English muffins are a flat, round, bread like muffin that is cooked on the stovetop instead of the oven and is typically split in half and toasted before eating. They originated in Wales, but became popular in the United States.

Since this recipe is mixed up the night before, it includes all the long fermented sourdough benefits. Whenever sourdough is allowed to long ferment it breaks down the phytic acid (which inhibits nutrient absorption) in the flour added to the recipe. It also breaks down most of the gluten in the recipe, making it much easier for your body to digest. Oftentimes, those that are gluten intolerant, or even diabetic, can eat foods made with long fermented sourdough without any problem.

Be sure to watch our full tutorial on how to make your own sourdough starter here.

Why You’ll Love This English Muffin Recipe

Easy – sometimes right before bed, I wonder what to make for breakfast the next morning. This recipe is so simple and easy that I can decide to quickly mix up these english muffins, allow them to ferment overnight, and enjoy them for breakfast in the morning.

Replaces Bread – if you’re running low on bread, you can whip up a batch of these sourdough english muffins and use them for sandwiches the next day for lunch. These are faster to make than sourdough bread.

Healthy – made with long fermented sourdough because the dough is allowed to rise overnight, so it’ll be easy for your body to digest.

Delicious – the sourdough gives these english muffins a delightful tang that gives them the best flavor. They’re good with anything sweet or savory.

Ways We Enjoy This Recipe

With homemade butter, breakfast sausage patties, eggs, a drizzle of maple syrup and a couple drops of hot sauce. These are the most delicious egg mcmuffin’s you’ll ever eat.
Slathered with homemade butter and honey, peanut butter or jam, these english muffins make the perfect snack and never last more than a day at my house.
Toasted with homemade butter and eaten plain – this is my favorite way to enjoy them because the flavor of the butter really brings out the tang of the sourdough.
As the base for an easy breakfast casserole.
For making eggs benedict.

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Tips

To make sourdough discard english muffins, just add 1 teaspoon of baking soda to the dough to help them rise.
For best results, allow the dough to rise after shaping for another couple of hours before cooking. If you need to cook these english muffins sooner, you can add 1 teaspoon of baking soda to the dough and then cook them right away.
You can mix up this dough in your mixer or by hand. Usually if my mixer bowl is handy, I just mix it up in there, but I’ve also done it by hand many times.
I usually just flour my hands, and shape these english muffins by hand, tucking the dough under into sort of a bun shape. You can roll them out and cut them out with a biscuit cutter if you’d like, but I don’t find that extra step necessary.
I like to shape these english muffins about 6 a.m. and then bake them around 8 a.m. in time for breakfast.
Place cornmeal on the baking sheet before allowing these muffins to do their final rise. This will keep them from sticking to the pan.
Make sure your cast iron skillet is pre-heated before cooking these muffins so they don’t stick.
Use a fork to split these muffins apart, that will allow you to see the nice big holes in the middle of the muffins that can sometimes get smashed when you cut them open with a knife.
These homemade english muffins freeze well, so feel free to make a big batch.

For more of our favorite sourdough discard recipes, check out the sourdough portion of our website: Sourdough.

Simple Ingredients

Flour

All purpose flour works well for making english muffins. You could also make them with whole wheat flour, but they might not be as fluffy.

Sourdough starter

Active sourdough starter is the best. If all you have is discard, just add 1 teaspoon of baking soda to the dough to help them rise all the way.

Butter

I like to use my homemade butter, but you can use any kind of butter or fat that you have. Coconut oil or beef tallow work fine too.

Sweetener

You can use regular sugar, cane sugar or honey.

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Salt

Redmond real salt from Azure Standard is my favorite, but any kind of salt will do.

Liquid

I like to use milk or buttermilk, but you can use water as well.

Baking soda, optional

I only use baking soda if I’m using sourdough discard, or if I want to bake these right away in the morning without giving them a couple of hours to rise first.

Cornmeal

For sprinkling on the baking sheet before shaping to keep the english muffins from sticking to the pan.

Tools You May Need

How To Make Homemade Sourdough English Muffins

Mix The Dough

In a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment, combine all the dry ingredients except for the cornmeal.

Mix until combined, cover with plastic wrap, beeswax wrap or an airtight cover and allow it to sit out at room temperature 8-12 hours or overnight for bulk fermentation.

Shape The Dough

In the morning, add a sprinkling of cornmeal to your baking sheet. Add just a dusting of flour to the top of the dough and your hands. Divide the dough into equal pieces and shape into flat discs using your hands. This is very similar to shaping buns (see video).

Let the dough rise for 2 more hours or until puffed up. This also helps to further develop the delicious sour flavor. (If you need to skip this rise time, just add 1 teaspoon of baking soda to your dough before shaping.)

flattening out english muffins during shaping — Screenshot

Cook The Muffins

Pre-heat your cast iron skillet over a medium heat. You can add a little butter to the skillet if you’d like.

Using a spatula, gently scoop up the english muffins and drop them onto the cast iron skillet. Allow them to cook slowly over several minutes on the first, checking the bottom to make sure they don’t get too brown. I oftentimes will turn the stove down to a medium-low heat and let them cook even slower after they first puff up.

Flip the muffins over part way through cooking and allow them to cook on the second side until golden brown. It usually takes 8 to 10 minutes for the muffins to be completely done on the inside.

When muffins are done cooking, use a fork to split them open and enjoy.

Store leftover english muffins in an airtight container for up to one week, or freeze for up to three months.

If you try this recipe and love it, please come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @wagonwheelhomestead21