Soft, airy, and cooked on the stove top, these delicious sourdough English muffins begin with simple ingredients, an active starter, and a bit of fermentation time. With a crisp, structured exterior and a bubbly crumb full of sourdough flavor, use these muffins to build the perfect cheesy breakfast sandwiches or slather them with butter and jam for a filling snack.
Homemade sourdough English muffins change the game with their simplicity and versatility. Long-fermented and perfectly tangy, this easy recipe requires only pantry staples and an active starter with an overnight rise. The fermentation time not only adds better flavor, but also better digestion and a delicate, chewy crumb full of bubbly pockets that trap butter and homemade strawberry jam.
The flavor and structure of these muffins lend themselves perfectly to many different uses, such as savory sourdough breakfast sandwiches or even English muffin pizzas with homemade marinara and fresh mozzarella.
For more sourdough favorites, try these soft sourdough pancakes or waffles, sweet sourdough cinnamon rolls or coffee cake, or make a batch of sourdough biscuits or beignets. Making your own sourdough starter requires minimal ingredients and some patience, but the recipe opportunities are endless.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Sourdough flavor – Homemade English muffins have a savory, yeasty flavor, and sourdough fermentation adds a delicious tang that complements sweet or savory toppings.
Airy texture – Fermentation creates carbon dioxide, which builds up in the dough as bubbles. These bubbles cook in place, creating a crumb delicately arranged with the characteristic nooks and crannies that hold anything from jams and butters to melty cheeses and mashed avocado.
Versatile use – Use these for cheesy egg sandwiches, like eggs Benedict, or spread with soft butter and peach jelly, drizzle with honey and peanut butter, or pile them high with homemade chicken salad.
Ingredients
Flour – I use unbleached all-purpose flour for this recipe. Fresh-milled wheat also works, but the liquids need to be adjusted to account for the high absorbency of fresh-milled flour.
Sourdough starter – Use a recently fed, active, and bubbly starter.
Water – You can use milk in place of the water, if desired.
A full ingredient list with exact amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
How to Make Sourdough English Muffins (with baking soda)
Step 1: The day before you plan to cook the muffins, start with fermenting the grains. Add flour, water, and sourdough starter to a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer and mix well. Use an active sourdough starter that has been recently fed.
Step 2: Cover the bowl with a towel and let it sit at room temperature for 12-24 hours. The fermentation process speeds up with warmer temperatures and slows with cooler temperatures. Where you place the bowl affects the timing.
Step 3: After the bulk fermentation, add honey, salt, and baking soda, stirring well.
Step 4: Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and roll out to a 1/2 inch thick rectangle. Cut out circles using a biscuit cutter or a wide-mouth mason jar. Sprinkle the biscuits with cornmeal to prevent them from sticking while cooking (optional).
Step 5: Preheat your cast iron pan on medium heat until hot. Add some oil, then place the English muffins into the pan. Immediately reduce the heat to low so the dough has a chance to rise without the exterior burning.
Step 6: Cook until doubled in size, flipping only when the first side is golden. After flipping, increase the temperature a little so that the second side of the muffin cooks until golden brown. Let them cool for a few minutes, then slice and enjoy!
How to Make Sourdough English Muffins (without baking soda)
Step 1: Add all ingredients to a bowl (minus baking soda) and mix well. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes; this is called autolyse. This is the process of allowing the dough to rest so the flour has a chance to hydrate. Also, during this time, the gluten starts to develop, and the dough becomes stretchier.
Step 2: With the dough in the bowl, do one round of stretch and folds by grabbing one side of the ball of dough, stretching it upward, and then pressing it back into the center. Repeat with each side of the dough, for one complete round. Repeat the stretch and folds after 30 minutes, then set the bowl in a warm place and let it rise for 5-8 hours. The dough should double in size.
Step 3: After the fermentation, shape the muffins by rolling the dough into a 1/2 inch thick rectangle. Cut out circles using a biscuit cutter or a wide-mouth mason jar.
Step 4: Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper with a little cornmeal sprinkled on the bottom (optional). Cover and rise again for about an hour in a warm place until doubled in size.
Step 5: Preheat your cast iron pan on medium heat. When the skillet is hot, oil the pan and add the English muffins. Immediately reduce the heat to low so the dough has a chance to rise without the exterior burning. Cover with a lid and allow to cook for about 5 minutes.
Step 6: Flip once they are golden brown on the first side, then cook through until completely done – this usually takes another 5 minutes or so. Place on a cooling rack for a few minutes before slicing.
Tips
- Make sure the sourdough starter you are using is nice and active. This will give the dough those beautiful bubbles. Sourdough discard can be used if it was recently fed, but the rise time may need to be lengthened.
- The type of flour you use, as well as the humidity and quality of the starter, will cause each batch to need slightly different amounts of flour. If the dough seems too runny, add a bit more flour.
- Fermentation time will depend on the temperature of your home. The cooler your home, the longer it will take for the dough to double. Placing the dough in a warm place will speed up the process significantly.
- You can skip the second rise as long as you use baking soda. Without baking soda, allow the shaped muffins to rise for about an hour, or until doubled, before baking.
- The skillet needs to be hot before adding the English muffin dough so it doesn’t stick, but then it needs to be quickly reduced so the dough has a chance to rise and cook through without burning. Monitor the color of the muffins closely so they don’t burn.
- Cook four at a time so they have space to expand, or they will stick together.
- Don’t try to flip the muffins until they come up easily from the pan. The goal is to only flip them one time.
- If they are browned on the outside, but still not done on the inside, put them in a 250 to 300 degree oven for 10 minutes or so.
Recipe FAQs
Keep extra muffins in an airtight container or bag at room temperature for 4-5 days. Freeze them for longer storage.
Yes! Fermentation breaks down phytic acid, an anti-nutrient that hinders absorption, making sourdough English muffins easier to digest, as well as a great source of fiber and B vitamins. Also, homemade English muffins have zero artificial ingredients or preservatives.
You can expect the characteristic yeasty, salty flavor and bubbly, chewy texture of traditional English muffins, with the main difference being a long-fermented sourdough tang.
During fermentation, the natural yeasts in sourdough produce carbon dioxide, which is trapped in the wet dough as bubbles. When handled carefully and cooked on the stovetop, these bubbles cook in place, producing that characteristic “nooks and crannies” crumb.
While sourdough discard can have great results, use a discard that has been fed in the last week or so, and be prepared to adjust the liquid and fermentation times. See my recipe created specifically for sourdough discard English muffins for further instructions.
More Sourdough Recipes from the Farmhouse
- Sourdough Pizza Crust
- Sourdough Tortillas
- Sourdough Irish Soda Bread
- Easy Sourdough Flatbread
- Sourdough Cheddar Biscuits
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love it if you could come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @farmhouseonboone.
Sourdough English Muffins
Video
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups flour, 350 grams
- 1 cup water, 236 grams
- 1/2 cup active sourdough starter, 100 grams
- 1 tablespoon honey, 21 grams
- 1 teaspoon salt, 5 grams
- 1 teaspoon baking soda, 5 grams, (optional, see notes)
- Cornmeal, optional
- Oil for cooking
Instructions
How to Make Sourdough English Muffins (with baking soda)
- The day before you plan to cook the muffins, start with fermenting the grains. Add flour, water, and sourdough starter to a large bowl and mix well. Use an active sourdough starter that has been recently fed.
- Cover the bowl with a towel and let it sit at room temperature for 12-24 hours. The fermentation process speeds up with warmer temperatures and slows with cooler temperatures. Where you place the bowl affects the timing.
- After the bulk fermentation, add honey, salt, and baking soda, stirring well.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and roll out to a 1/2 inch thick rectangle. Cut out circles using a biscuit cutter or a wide-mouth mason jar. Sprinkle the muffins with cornmeal to prevent them from sticking while cooking (optional).
- Preheat your cast-iron skillet on medium heat until hot. Add some oil, then place the English muffins into the pan. Immediately reduce the heat to low so the dough has a chance to rise without the exterior burning.
- Cook until doubled in size, flipping only when the first side is golden. After flipping, increase the temperature a little so that the second side of the muffin cooks until golden brown. Let them cool for a few minutes, then slice and enjoy!
How to Make Sourdough English Muffins (without baking soda)
- Add all ingredients to a bowl (minus baking soda) and mix well. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes; this is called autolyse. This is the process of allowing the dough to rest so the flour has a chance to hydrate. Also, during this time, the gluten starts to develop, and the dough becomes stretchier.
- With the dough in the bowl, do one round of stretch and folds by grabbing one side of the ball of dough, stretching it upward, and then pressing it back into the center. Repeat with each side of the dough, for one complete round. Repeat the stretch and folds after 30 minutes, then set the bowl in a warm place and let it rise for 5-8 hours. The dough should double in size.
- After the fermentation, shape the muffins by rolling the dough into a 1/2 inch thick rectangle. Cut out circles using a biscuit cutter or a wide-mouth mason jar.
- Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper with a little cornmeal sprinkled on the bottom (optional). Cover and rise again for about an hour in a warm place until doubled in size.
- Preheat your cast-iron skillet on medium heat. When the skillet is hot, oil the pan and add the English muffins. Immediately reduce the heat to low so the dough has a chance to rise without the exterior burning. Cover with a lid and allow to cook for about 5 minutes.
- Flip once they are golden brown on the first side, then cook through until completely done – this usually takes another 5 minutes or so. Place on a cooling rack for a few minutes before slicing.
Notes
- Make sure the sourdough starter you are using is nice and active. This will give the dough those beautiful bubbles. Sourdough discard can be used if it was recently fed, but the rise time may need to be lengthened.
- The type of flour you use, as well as the humidity and quality of the starter, will cause each batch to need slightly different amounts of flour. If the dough seems too runny, add a bit more flour.
- Fermentation time will depend on the temperature of your home. The cooler your home, the longer it will take for the dough to double. Placing the dough in a warm place will speed up the process significantly.
- If using baking soda, you can skip the second rise. Without baking soda, allow the shaped muffins to rise for about an hour, or until doubled, before baking.
- The skillet needs to be hot before adding the English muffin dough so it doesn’t stick, but then it needs to be quickly reduced so the dough has a chance to rise and cook through without burning. Monitor the color of the muffins closely so they don’t burn.
- Cook four at a time so they have space to expand, otherwise they may stick together.
- Don’t try to flip the muffins until they come up easily from the pan. The goal is to only flip them one time.
- If the muffins are browned on the outside, but still not done on the inside, put them in a 250 to 300 degree oven for 10 minutes or so.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hey Lisa!!
Thanks so much for sharing! It’s so encouraging to find like minded people. And I’m just loving your recipes! I started my started and I can’t stop baking!!! It’s all so delicious!
I was just curious how you store your baked goods; English muffins, tortillas….and for how long?
Thanks again for sharing!
-Diana
I usually just store them in ziplocks on the counter, because we never can keep them very long. My kids love baked kids! Haha. I should probably find a better solution than plastic, but thats what it is for now.
I have made your sourdough starter for the first time and it worked perfectly. However, I followed the English muffin recipe to a T and it was a very loose or slightly runny dough. Not just sticky but to soft to even pick up and put in my hand. I ended up adding nearly 2/3 C. of flour to make it work. Any idea what I did wrong? Thanks!
Thank you for your wonderful blog. I’m exploring and very much enjoying trying your recipes! Any way these muffins could be baked instead of cooked on the stove top? I’d love to be able to walk away from the stove with a timer to listen for!
I bake mine in the oven at 350 degrees and turn them over after about 10 minutes so they are flat on both sides. Otherwise they puff up a little in the middle. I put them back in for about 10 more minutes. You would need to watch them the first time and time them as everybody’s oven is different.
This is what I was wondering too! It seems easier for me to put them all at once into a cast iron and in the oven. I am going to try this so wish me luck! Lol
Can i freeze left overs?
Yes, you sure can!
Can I use almond flour to make these?
This is a weekly go-to in our home. I double the recipe and batch-make these for the week for breakfasts and use them for sandwiches for my husband’s lunches. I keep them in the freezer and pull as needed.
Hi! I have a sourdough starter question. This was my first time using it and I put my starter out on the counter yesterday and feed it. It was super happy and looked great,though I wanted to leave it fro 24 hours. I didn’t take in to acoxu t the temperature of the house which is closer to 78 or so. This morning, it was not even really bubbling and looked so sad. Did I kill it? On your video you talked about having all the good bacteria eaten up… But can I save it? I went ahead and took the 1/2 cup from it and made the proof for the muffins anyway. Will it work? Do I disguard the new mixture and retry something with my starter? Right now I just put the starter in the fridge. So, I’m confused and don’t really know what to do, so any help would be appreciated!! Thanks!
It should be totally fine! It won’t die that quickly.
Hi Lisa,
I really want to try this but if I don’t have a cast iron pan can I use a stainless steel pan?
Hey Megan! I am afraid they would stick to stainless steel.
They will not stick, just like the cast iron you let your stainless steel pain heat up on high then turn down to low to cool a bit then add your oil and you shouldn’t have any problems with them sticking unless you don’t let your pan heat up first
Hi Megan, I’ve just tried them with a stainless steel pan and it worked great. It’s a better quality one, though, it would definitely not work on my other, cheaper one.
Great to know! Thanks for sharing Dorothea!
Gluten free momma over here. Just made these with Pam’s bread flour and they came out great. (The sourdough starter was from that flour as well.) Be mindful that GF baking tends to be a bit more moist… this worked really well for me. Thanks for the recipe!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing!
Lisa, I did everything the way you described but my dough was sooooo sticky. It’s like I didn’t have enough flour or something. Any thoughts on what I did wrong? :/
Try adding a little more flour next time. It definitely depends on hydrated your starter is.
I am having a hard time getting my english muffins to rise. I’m doing everything correct for the recipe and my start looks like it is supposed to. They just don’t rise and turn out as flat as a pancake almost. Do you have any ideas?
Try putting them in the cast iron skillet on a super low temp and allow them to rise for a bit there. As long as the cook slowly they should rise.
I have noticed that if the starter is really broken down then the dough is more liguid-y… I speculate that the starter needs to be refreshed and/or less proofing time. There needs to be gluten proteins/sugars left for the bacteria/yeasts to eat to get the rise.
Hi. I love this recipe, it was amazing!!!! I shared it with everyone i know who has a sourdough starter!!!!
But I have a question: i onky have my starter for about 5 months, its still pretty liquid, I noticed yours is much thicker. Now my English muffins were pretty flat and I had a hard time getting a good rise. Do you have any suggestions? What are your approximate measurements when you feed your starter? Mine has a consistency of a really thick pancake batter. And my engkish muffin dough turned out about the same… Very very stretchy and sticky but not like a real dough… Seems less firm than yours even though I used the exact measurements.
Thank you
Same Flora, mine is drippy. I want to add more flour but feel like that defeats the purpose of letting it sit so long to sour.
Hello everyone! Same here, it is still pretty liquid. The recipe is so delicious, but my english muffins are flat.
Try using some whole wheat flour when you feed your starter. I use 60-40 Ap to WW.
My sourdough starter was also very liquidy. I started feeding it a bit more flower than water and now it is a lot thicker and still very healthy or maybe even healthier.
My english muffins were also very flat in the beginning. Now I add a bit more flower if I see that the batter is a bit runny.
i used a starter guide from “the perfect loaf” and have an amazing and healthy starter. to maintain, i use a 50/50 percentage mix of milled rye and AP flour, then 100% water. you can adjust the grams based on how much discard and usable starter you want/need for your use.
if you use too much water in feeding your starter it will be too liquid. or, if you don’t feed it enough, based on how you store it, you will have more liquid.
hop that helps!
I read the sourdough starter guide and was surprised to see the measurements listed in cups, not grams. The other sourdough starter recipes I’ve read instruct you to add equal amount of flour and water by weight not mass. So rather than adding a cup each of flour and water, I’ve been adding 40 grams each of flour and water.
Hi Lisa,
I have recently discovered your site and am so happy that I did!!
I am making sour dough starter now. I started it Sunday night. I am concerned, though, because our house isn’t always real warm. Is there something that I can do to insure that the starter stays warm enough to do what it is supposed to do?
Thank you so much,
Carolyn in not so warm Florida.
Not warm in Florida?! That’s a bummer. Do you have a stove you could set it on, or maybe the oven with a pilot light on? Or possibly on a heating pad with a towel over it. If your house is close to 70 it should be totally fine. You definitely don’t want it too warm.
Put it in your microwave with the light on. It should hit between 75-80 deg F in there.