Vegan, Oil-Free Sourdough English Muffins
These are adapted from the King Arthur Flour Sourdough English Muffin recipe to be vegan and free of refined oil. They use pureed winter squash (pumpkin, kabocha, or other squash of choice) or mashed sweet potato, and plant-based milk powder (coconut or soy).
Servings: 21 muffins
Calories: 171.2kcal
Ingredients
- 25 g sugar I use coconut sugar, but you can use any sugar you'd like
- 454 g warm water (110-115˚F)
- 227 g sourdough starter discard or ripe (ripe will give a more vigorous rise)
- 57 g winter squash puree or mashed sweet potato
- 43 g plant-milk powder coconut or soy
- 1 tbsp active dry yeast
- 422 g Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
- 421 g All Purpose Flour
- 18 g salt
- course semolina for coating trays
Instructions
Making the Dough
- Combine the sugar, water, sourdough starter discard, winter squash or sweet potato puree, and plant-milk powder in your mixer fitted with a dough hook and mix to blend.
- Sprinkle with dry yeast and mix to combine. Allow yeast to bloom onto the surface, about 5 minutes.
- Combine flours (I use half whole wheat pastry and half all-purpose flours, but you can use other combinations you like) and salt in a separate bowl.
- Slowly add flour to wet ingredients in the mixer bowl and mix and knead. You can also do this by hand. Dough should be soft and elastic but not sticky. Add more flour if needed.
- Place the dough into a large ungreased bowl and cover with a towel. Set in a warm place (I put in my oven with the oven light on only) and let rise until it's puffy, about 1-1/2 hours.
- At this point you can cover the bowl and put into the refrigerator for 24 hours to develop the sourdough flavor, or continue on. I generally do NOT refrigerate and just continue on to make muffins.
Making the English Muffins
- Gently deflate the dough and turn out onto a lightly floured work surface. Set your bowl upside down to cover and let the dough relax for a few minutes to develop the gluten.
- While the dough is resting, prepare two baking sheets. Sprinkle coarse semolina onto two baking sheets. I put down a silicone baking sheet first and then sprinkle with semolina. The semolina will allow you to remove the muffins from the trays without deflating them when it's time to cook them.
- Divide the dough in half and pat or roll out 1/2-inch thick. Cut into 3-inch rounds (I use a wide mouth canning jar ring). Place the muffins on the prepared baking sheets, allowing room for them to rise. I put 12 muffins on a standard baking tray. Reroll and cut the remaining dough. Repeat with the other half of the dough.
- Sprinkle more coarse semolina on the tops of your cut muffins. Cover with a towel and return the trays to your oven with the oven light on. Let them rise until puffy, about 45-60 minutes if you used non-refrigerated dough, 2 hours if you refrigerated the dough overnight.
Cooking the Muffins
- Heat a griddle or skillet to 350˚F, or on low-heat on the stovetop. Do NOT grease the griddle or skillet.
- Carefully transfer the muffins with a spatula off the semolina-coated tray onto the heated griddle. Do as many as you can fit without overcrowding the pan.
- After about 5 minutes, place a light cookie sheet on top of the cooking muffins and continue cooking about 3-5 more minutes. This helps keep the tops flat on top.
- When the bottom is golden, carefully flip the muffins and cook for another 8-10 minutes, until golden. An instant-read thermometer should read 190˚F when done while the edges may feel a bit soft. If you can't get them to cook through on the griddle before getting too dark on the bottoms, you can transfer to a preheated 350˚F oven and bake about 10 minutes until the centers are cooked through.
- Remove muffins from griddle (or oven) and cool on a rack. Store at room temperature for 4-5 days in a sealed container or freeze.
Notes
Adapted from: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/sourdough-english-muffins-recipe to be vegan and refined-oil-free.
If you'd like a more pronounced sour taste, refrigerate overnight or add 1/4 tsp citric acid to your flour when mixing the dough.
Nutrition
Calories: 171.2kcal | Carbohydrates: 33.9g | Protein: 5.3g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1.1g | Sodium: 338.6mg | Potassium: 101.9mg | Fiber: 2.9g | Sugar: 1.6g | Vitamin A: 424.2IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 11.5mg | Iron: 1.7mg