Sourdough English Muffins

ByDiane Williams Hours

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Homemade Sourdough English Muffins have a rich flavor. Use up your sourdough discard and deepen your English Muffin flavor with this excellent sourdough recipe.

The yogurt in these overnight Sourdough English muffins works with the sourdough starter to produce a wonderfully tender texture. And you get all the added health benefits of sourdough fermentation in this method too.

Extra Sourdough discard is produced when you feed your sourdough starter to get it active for your next bread masterpiece.

You have to discard some of that yeasty magic elixir. Sourdough discard recipes like this one use that discard in various stated of activity.

Sourdough English Muffins have a rich flavor. Use up your sourdough discard and deepen your English Muffin flavor. The texture will also be improved. So good!
Sourdough English Muffins have a rich flavor and beautiful crumb. Perfect for toasting.

This English Muffin recipe uses up your more active sourdough discard, fed in the last few days.

Recently fed starter is not active enough to properly rise a loaf of bread but will give these muffins good lift as they cook on your griddle.

Sourdough English muffin buttered
Toasted sourdough english muffins with butter are EXTREMELY tasty.

Visit Our Sourdough Recipes for MORE great sourdough bread and discard recipes!

Can you Freeze Sourdough English Muffins?

You absolutely can freeze these muffins.

Here’s the Method I Use:

  1. For Short Term Freezing:
  2. Allow the muffins to cool completely.
  3. Place the muffins into a plastic bag (I use recycled bread or even produce bags) and suck out the air.
  4. Close the top of the bag and freeze for up to a month.
  5. For LONGER term freezing:
  6. Place the sealed air tight bag of muffins into an air tight freezer container or larger ziplock bag with all the air sucked out.
  7. Freeze up to 6 months.

To Defrost the Muffins:

Remove the bag from freezer and allow to sit in the fridge or at room temperature until defrosted. Do NOT microwave the frozen muffins. They can be overcooked with poor results.

These muffins can go directly from the freezer into the toaster.

These Sourdough English Muffins freeze very well. It’s so nice to have a quick ‘pull it out of the freezer’ breakfast muffin or dinner side handy. Just toast them! So yum.

This easy sourdough English Muffins recipe is very straightforward. Just follow the simple instructions in the Printable Recipe card at the bottom of this post.

The tips below are offered as support. I suggest you read them over and the entire recipe before you begin.

For the Best Sourdough English Muffins:

Sourdough English Muffins
Sourdough English Muffins

Read this section to learn how to make great sourdough English muffins. The starter has a LOT to do with how these turn out.

You will need to start this sourdough starter recipe the night before but don’t let that scare you off. Sourdough is all about fermentation. Fermentation takes time. But the sourdough does the work. Mostly you just need patience.

A few tips on Recipes using Sourdough Starter:

  1. My sourdough starter is not your sourdough starter.
    1. Mine might be either wetter or drier than yours. I tend to go a bit drier with my starter than 100 percent hydration (which is a one to one proportion of water to flour). Mine is more a 100 percent starter to begin and then I add more flour than water to keep it fed.
    2. ALSO my starter might be more or less ACTIVE than yours. That’s why I included the picture of the starter just before I used it. So you can see the bubble action and the consistency. This starter was fed within 24 hours of using it for this sourdough English Muffin recipe.
Wild yeast Sourdough starter
A recently fed starter has some bubbles and activity but will not rise a loaf of bread.

SO how do you make a recipe with sourdough discard that gives consistent results? 

  1. Learn how to feel the dough. Your dough will tell you when it’s right.  Knead this dough by hand until you feel the elasticity develop. This won’t take long.
    1. Add more flour if the dough is extremely wet. It should feel like a baking powder biscuit dough with a bit more resilience (and stickiness) by the time you’re done.
English Muffin dough
Sourdough English Muffin dough  on a baking sheet. This is just after cutting and placing. Not yet risen.
  • When you cut the English Muffin dough out it should be pretty easy to get onto the baking sheet for raising. But still a tender delicate dough. DON’T overwork the dough before rolling it out or your muffins will be tough.
  • You can use any size cutter you like to form your English muffins. I used BOTH a regular sized mason jar ring (you can see a row of these smaller muffins in the foreground.) AND a wide mouth size jar ring for the other two rows.
  • To get 12 muffins you will need to roll the dough out evenly about 1/2 inch thick if you are using the large jar rings. We preferred the larger sized muffins.
  • To get 12 large muffins you will need to use your scraps too. That’s easy enough.
    1. Just squeeze the scraps into a dough ball and knead it a few times to get it back together.
    2. NOW REST the dough a few minutes to let it really form.
    3. NOW roll it out, cut the dough into shapes and repeat until your muffins are all on the baking sheet. 
  • The baking sheet must be lined with parchment or a silicone mat OR well oiled (NOT preferred).
  • You can raise the muffins per the recipe timing instructions. OR you can set the baking pan in your fridge and retard the dough until your ready. (No more than 10 hours).
  • Just remove the baking sheet from your fridge an hour before cooking time to let them get to room temperature before cooking. I retarded mine 6 hours so we could have them with dinner.
    • Sourdough English Muffins Raised
    Sourdough English Muffins Raised and retarded in the fridge 6 hours.

    I love the way these turned out. The texture and flavor are perfect English muffin. I ALWAYS toast my english muffins. We love that extra bit of crisp and heat that melts the butter perfectly.

    Sourdough English Muffin
    Sourdough English Muffin

    Pictured are the larger sized sourdough English muffin in the background stacks. The muffin split open on the plate is the smaller size. 

    Tips on handling sticky dough:

    This dough can stick to your hands and utensils. Here is what I do to solve that.

    1. WET your hands and utensils as necessary. Wetting is like magic. Dough will not stick to water.
    2. Dust the dough with flour to make it easier to roll out if your really struggling. The dough is probably a bit too wet and needs more flour to stiffen the dough (Only a little though or the muffin will be tough).
    3. After you have the muffins cut out you can dust them with cornmeal as is traditionally done. I did NOT dust my muffin with cornmeal. I was out of it. But the muffins were perfectly workable with wet hands and a wet dough scraper to help place the muffins and keep the proper shape.
    4. Cook them as long as it takes to completely cook the middle of the muffin. Depending on how thick you make the muffin that can vary. The raising and cooking times called for in the recipe are a STARTING place. Use them as a guide but learn the dough and you will get a better result.
    5. Flatten the muffins top with your spatula as they cook. You can see if the dough middle tries to squeeze out the sides. Keep cooking the English muffins until the middle is firm and the bottoms are well browned.
    English Muffins with sourdough tang
    Sourdough English Muffins fully cooked. Notice the browned flat tops. This is the traditional English muffin. So good! The sourdough starter really adds a nice flavor too.

    Your Printable Recipe Card:

    Sourdough English Muffins have a rich flavor. Use up your sourdough discard and deepen your English Muffin flavor. The texture will also be improved. So good!
    Yield: 12 english muffins

    Sourdough English Muffins

    Prep Time: 1 hour
    Cook Time: 20 minutes
    Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

    Sourdough English Muffins have a rich flavor. Use up your sourdough discard and deepen your English Muffin flavor. The texture will also be improved. So good!

    4.4 Stars (109 Reviews)

    Ingredients

    • 2-3/4 Cups All purpose flour (divided)-350 grams
    • 1/2 cup recently fed starter-130 grams
    • 1 Cup Greek Yogurt-285 grams
    • 1/4 Cup water-59 grams
    • 1 Tablespoon honey-20 grams
    • 3/4 Tsp. salt-1.5 grams
    • 1 tsp. Baking soda-4 grams

    Instructions

    Night Before:

    1. Mix starter yogurt and and water together in a large bowl
    2. Add 2 Cups of the flour and let sit 8 hours or overnight covered at room temperature.

    In the morning:

    1. Add remaining ingredients including the extra 3/4 Cup flour.
    2. Mix by hand and then turn out onto your work surface.
    3. Knead lightly until the dough becomes elastic.
    4. Roll out on a floured board to 1/2 inch thick.
    5. Cut out muffin rounds with a mason jar lid or circle cutter.
    6. Arrange the muffins on a baking sheet lined with silicone mat or parchment paper.Sourdough English Muffin dough

    Let rise 45 minutes or longer. You can put them in the fridge and let them sit all day if you like. Then pull them out an hour before cooking time. They should look like this when ready to cook.

    Sourdough English Muffins Raised

    1. Heat your griddle to to medium and cook muffin 8 to 10 minutes until golden brown on the bottom.Sourdough English Muffins cooking
    2. Turn the English muffins and cook for another 8 to 10 minutes or until the bottom is browned to your liking and cooked thoroughly. Flatten the top with your spatula as necessary to create the flat top. Sourdough English Muffins properly cooked

    Notes

    This dough is a trifle sticky. To make it easier to work with keep your hands wet and use a wet dough scraper.

    If you find it necessary use cornmeal or a bit of flour to dust your english muffins to make them easier to handle.

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    Nutrition Information

    Yield

    12

    Serving Size

    1 english muffin
    Amount Per Serving Calories 121Total Fat 0gSaturated Fat 0gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 0gCholesterol 1mgSodium 258mgCarbohydrates 24gFiber 1gSugar 2gProtein 5g

    Did you make this recipe?

    Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Instagram

    © Diane
    Cuisine: American / Category: Sourdough Recipes & Artisan Baking Guides
    Text placeholder 17

    More Sourdough Discard Recipes:

    Sourdough discard makes so many delicious recipes your family will love. Here are a few of our favorites! All of these recipes are made with sourdough discard in some stage of activity. you will be surprised how much the action of the starter impacts your recipes. Sometimes low action (unfed) starters make the best recipes.

    stack of sourdough pancakes with butter and syrup
    Sourdough Pancakes
    sourdough molasses cookies
    Sourdough Molasses Cookies Recipe.
    soft sourdough pretzels 1
    Sourdough Pretzels
    Sourdough Bagels
    Sourdough bagels

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    homemade sourdough english muffins-pin image
    Homemade Sourdough English Muffins have a rich flavor. Use up your sourdough discard and deepen your English Muffin flavor with this excellent sourdough recipe.

    Diane Williams is co-founder of Homemade Food Junkie and the primary editor and publisher of the site. She develops from-scratch recipes, sourdough baking tutorials, and garden-to-kitchen content designed to help home cooks succeed.

    139 Comments

    1. Can I use yeast instead of sourdough starter?

      Reply

      1. Hi Mukta, If you are not going to use sourdough starter I would suggest you find a recipe that calls for yeast. The process will be very different.

        Reply

    2. I don’t eat dairy, so I used plain forager cashew yogurt with these and my 100% hydration discard, from a starter that I haven’t really gotten to be very active yet. I had to let everything rise for way longer, but the dough also was super wet. I added at least a half a cup of flour, if not more, in the process, but I think they probably needed more. I definitely wished I had put cornmeal down before putting them down on the parchment paper for the second rise! They were a disaster to get off the parchment, to be honest! I ended up cutting the parchment around each muffin and gently easing them into my pan. Quite the adventure! But by the last few, I was able to get some that looked like actual English muffins, albeit a little wider and flatter than they should’ve been.

      Despite all that, they tasted pretty fantastic, and it was a good way for me to dip my toe in the water with my new starter 🙂

      Reply
    3. Janet Saccucci says:

      Hello, just to clarify , when you say add the flour to the starter and yogurt water mixture, I am assuming that you mix it all together right? And then let it sit overnight?

      Reply

      1. Hi Janet, Yes. It’s just easier to mix if you mix the starter, yogurt and water together and then add in the flour.

        Reply
    4. Cynthia Kean says:

      I put the 2 and 3/4 cup of flour in the first mix. The instructions were not clear as to add the 3/4 cup the next morning. Should this matter? My original starter was very active. I fed it after a week and used the discard when making this recipe, It didn’t look as active as it had originally been. Should it be allright?
      .

      Reply

      1. Hi Cynthia, I have reviewed the recipe. I think they will be fine as you started. I will revise the instructions to be more clear. Thanks for bringing this up. Let us know how it goes for you. 🙂

        Reply

    5. Can I leave the first part of the dough (“the night before” dough) for longer than just overnight? I am hoping to increase the “sour” flavour and I realized I have more time to cook them tomorrow than today.

      Reply

      1. Hi MAlyssa, Yes you can. But I’m not sure it will make the dough more tangy. It might. The sourness of your sourdough is more a function of your starter. Read this article I found on how to increase the sourness of your sourdough breads. hope this helps!

        Reply
    6. Anna Kristen says:

      What would your recommendation be for making them into cinnamon raisin English muffins? Add 1.5T cinnamon and 1/2C raisins (soaked in warm water for 30 min) to the starter mix the night before?

      Reply

      1. Hi Anna, Do NOT add the sweeteners the night before. Your starter will be overfed and this will cause it to exhaust itself ( expand too quickly and be a flat dough in the morning.)
        Add your extra sweeteners and raisins in at step 2 in the morning. I suggest you plump your raisins before adding them.

        We also have a recipe for cinnamon raisin bread that may give you some more ideas for sweet breads. Hope this helps!

        Reply

    7. Is there a preferred way to freeze them?

      Reply

      1. Hi Caitlin, You can freeze them for up to two months it you use a ziplock freezer bag and suck all the air out of the bag prior to freezing. If you just want to put them in your fridge freezer for a week double wrap them tightly in a plastic grocery bag with air sucked out. Twist the top and then put them in a second plastic grocery bag also tightly wrapped. This make for easy access so you can quickly grab a few for toast in the morning.

        Reply

    8. Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe. This recipe is easy for even the inexperienced baker and sourdough user. I just started my sourdough quest a couple of weeks ago. I cut this recipe in half and made 5 delicious full size english muffins. They were so good, I mixed up a full batch this morning and will cook this afternoon. Thanks again!

      Reply

      1. Hi Lisa, I’m so happy you found the recipe easy and delicious. Thank you so much for letting us know. Happy Baking!

        Reply

    9. After letting rest for 8 hours is the dough supposed to rise?? Mine did not

      Reply

      1. Hi Aida, Not to worry. Just go ahead with the recipe. Sourdough rarely doubles. This is not a completely active starter. You just want the dough to turn out like baking powder biscuit texture when you get to the cutting out the dough stage..

        Reply

    10. Hi there! Just wanting to clarify…do I add the 3/4 of flour to the mixture the next morning? Or is that the amount of flour we should use to knead the dough? I hope this makes sense. Thank you so much!!

      Reply

      1. Hi Melissa, Yes add the remaining flour in the morning with the remaining ingredients. You may need a small amount of additional flour for your work surface as well. Happy baking!

        Reply

        1. They turned out amazing, thank you for this delicious recipe! 🙂

          Reply

          1. Yay! So happy to hear they came out well for you. We love them too. Now I’m hungry for them too. 🙂

            Reply

    11. Hi, isnt this a sourdough discard recipe? Why it asks for freshly fed starter??? I usually take mine out of the fridge, discard some and the feed. So what do i do here? If i take from freshly fed then this does not help me not discard any starter. Please explain. Thank you

      Reply

      1. Hi Aida, I understand your confusion. Let me clarify this for you. Your starter has a life of its own. If it is fed the night before in a ratio of one to one to one (flour starter and water) and let sit until it is fully active and floats in water that is an active starter ready to make bread.

        For our purposes in this recipe that extra step the night before is not required. However, if you take an unfed starter out of the fridge that is old and grey with very little bubble action (Lets says it’s been over a week since it’s last feeding) your english muffins will be pretty flat and dense.

        So we are going for the middle ground here. No, you don’t need to freshly feed your starter and let it double to make successful english muffins. But your starter should be fed in the last few days and have enough strength to give them a bit of loft.

        I hope this helps. Have a great day.

        Reply

        1. Okkk got it, will ! Its all bubbly so i can use it straight up the amount needed for those muffins?
          Thanks!

          Reply

          1. Sounds like the starter is ready. Let us know how the recipe comes out for you. Enjoy!

            Reply

    12. Does the dough increase in size overnight? I want to make
      Sure my bowl isn’t going to be overflowed with dough in the morning. Thank you!!

      Reply

      1. Hi Christy, You want some room in the bowl but if your not using a really active starter the dough will develop but not rise a lot. Don’t expect it to double. Enjoy!

        Reply

    13. These sound delicious, I’m going to try with coconut yogurt as I don’t eat dairy. I’m brand new to sourdough as I only went on a Sourdough bread making course last week. I’ve just baked the bread from the dough we made on the course and my starter is sitting in the fridge. We have a sprouted ancient wheat grain and the bread is so delicious, I can tolerate it even though I’m gluten intolerant as the starter ferments for 4 days then the dough ferments for four more days. I’m so happy to be able to eat this wonderful bread. I haven’t any discard yet but I will soon and I’ll be following your recipes.
      Thank you

      Reply

      1. Hi Angela, Coconut yogurt should work just fine. If you are looking for a good whole wheat sourdough recipe to use up your sprouted ancient wheat grain give this one a try. It’s a tutorial so will have great support for beginning sourdough bakers. Best of luck and Happy Baking.

        Reply

      2. Any update on how this turned out? I have a carb-addicted, dairy-allergic kid.

        Reply

    14. Can you substitute goat yogurt?

      Reply

      1. Hi Echo, Interesting question. I’ve never used goat yogurt in this recipe. However, I see no reason why not. Please let us know how it goes!

        Reply

        1. Well I’m giving it a try! I wasn’t really starting this at the right time so I ended up rolling this out at 11 pm so they are in the fridge over night!

          Reply

          1. Best of luck Janet. Please let us know how they turn out.

            Reply

    15. These look delish. Just wondering how to keep extras if you don’t eat all of them at once? Do they go quickly hard and stale like sourdough bread? Is it possible to keep for a couple days and re-toast them? Thanks for the recipe – fun to find different ways to use sourdough starter!

      Reply

      1. Hi Skye, These muffins will freeze very well. Just double wrap them in and suck all the air out of the bag. I use grocery bags to repurpose them. They are great for short term freezing. I do this with all my sourdough breads. They freeze really well for several weeks with this method.

        Reply
    16. Wanda Cossairt says:

      I put the finished muffin in the oven for 15 minutes then toasted them. They were wonderful

      Reply

      1. Hi Wanda, It’s wonderful to hear this recipe worked well for you. Thanks for the suggestion about toasting them. Have a wonderful day.

        Reply

    17. Do you grease the griddle?

      Reply

      1. Hi Deb, I used a non stick griddle. If you let the griddle preheat properly the muffins will not stick. If you are using a different skillet without a good heal on it you may want to give it a light coat of oil. Please let us know how they turn out for you! Have a great weekend. 🙂

        Reply

    18. When you say cook the muffins do you mean bake?

      Reply

      1. Hi Nancy, The term cook in this recipe means cook on the griddle. I know it may be a bit confusing to see them on a baking sheet when you plan to griddle them. This is for rising the muffins only. They are cooked on the griddle as directed. Thanks for the question. Have a great weekend!

        Reply
        1. Nancy Mace says:

          Hmm I don’t have a griddle, can I use a large pan?

          Reply

          1. Yep. Any large skillet would work well to make these.

            Reply
            1. Nancy Mace says:

              ???

          2. That’s what I’ve seen them use ?

            Reply

    19. Please check your use of “you’re” vs “your”. Otherwise, I can’t wait to try your recipe.

      Reply

    20. made these tonight and they are fabulous!

      Reply

      1. Thank you so much for letting us know you enjoyed our sourdough english muffins. That’s wonderful to hear. Have a great weekend!

        Reply

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