I woke up this morning with a lot of anticipation about baking, and a little bit of anxiety about the whole process. I had a bit of cleaning to do before I had room in the kitchen to bake – last night was steak night, and my job is cleanup but I always leave it til morning.  So, decided to clean the kitchen and go to yoga class, THEN start the baking.  The dough had risen nicely this morning, so I stirred it down, sprinkled on a little baking soda and salt, and began to knead: 

I quickly wished I hadn’t done yoga first, as my arms got a double workout, and my abs, too!

After kneading, I rolled out the dough and cut the muffin shapes. Travis of the Jungle had taught me that the ring from a mason jar lid makes a good-sized cutter, so that’s what I used. The muffins were placed on a cookie sheet lined with parchment and sprinkled with cornmeal. (I bet you always wondered why the cornmeal was on the bottom of english muffins – it’s for sticking avoidance)

So lovely and uniform in shape!

Next they have to rise again – about an hour or two. Not sure how they should look afterwards, but a bit poofy-er.

I stuck them in the oven for this part, sprinkled some more cornmeal on top, too.

Next it was time to cook the english muffins, and this is my favorite thing – you cook them in a cast iron skillet on the stove! (or you can use a griddle) – seriously, it makes it a lot more fun. Start with a teeny sizzle of butter in the pan, low heat

They cook about 4-5 minutes per side, they’ll rise a bit and get nice toasty brown on the bottom.

Then off to a rack to cool!

Aren’t they pretty, hope they taste as good as they look.

Well, I couldn’t wait to find out, so I cut one open while it was still steamy, and slid some more butter onto it – DELICIOUS!

Hermanita is a winner!

I had so much starter left over that I decided to make a simple loaf of sourdough bread, too. This was incredible easy using the starter, just add flour and salt and mix and knead:

After rising twice, I heated up the baking stone, slit the top, and misted with water. (That is what gives bread a crunchy crust – again thank you to Travis of the Jungle for that tip)  – it’s in the oven cooking now, and I can’t wait to try it!

Sorry that the stone is so dirty, we leave it in the oven all the time and it gets some drips.

Finally – to end my week of sourdough adventures, I re-fed Hermanita because I have a friend who wants to try it out, so I will pass him along to her. What fun!!!

Twas the night before baking, and all through the house….

Hermanita is all poofed up and ready for baking!

How cool that I got an iPad this summer (Thanks Gale!) and it fits so nicely on my cookbook holder – makes it easy to see the recipe because I am one of those folks who double and quadruple checks ingredients and instructions – and still often manages to get something wrong.  Tonight is step one for baking, we add honey, milk, and a bunch of flour, and stir just to get the flour moistened.

Then Hermanita the Bread Dough rests all night, and rises, and tomorrow is baking day!

Night Night, HermanitaDough (wait, what is Spanish word for dough?….) Google says Buenas Noches, HermanitaMasa ! 

I’m quite excited, when I was getting out the clean towel to cover up HermanitaMasa for the night, I found my linen cloth for rolling out dough, and rolling pin cover – never used, but got them a few years ago!  Now I’m all set for a morning of baking, and then eating, my very own sourdough english muffins!

A couple of days ago, I was chatting online with my sourdough guru, Travis of the Jungle, and told him about my twice a day feeding schedule, and how active Hermanita was. He asked me when it was I planned to bake.  Sometimes a well-placed question brings enlightenment, even if it’s a small kind of enlightenment.

So…I told him that I hoped to bake on Friday, but more likely Saturday. He suggested that I may not want to boost Hermanita up so quickly then, with the double feedings.  I took his advice and cut back to once a day.  Hermanita seemed to take the change in stride. Here’s a BEFORE feeding pick, he gets nice and smooth overnight.

After feeding, he starts bubbling away like crazy. It’s amazing to me to think how fast that yeast starts eating and releasing gas – I love that it’s a bit of science to go along with a bit of baking.

Tonight (Friday) I start part one of the English Muffin recipe – taking a cup of starter and adding honey, flour and milk. It will rise overnight, and then the real fun begins! I’m using this recipe, which we used in the jungle: http://www.sourdoughhome.com/englishmuffins.html

I’ve read things all over the web, and this site seems to be the easiest to comprehend, the most common-sensical (is that a word?), and well, just my style as far as understanding goes. I also ordered the pdf eBook they have for sale, it’s FULL of great info. Even though

Can’t wait to show you some awesome english muffins tomorrow!

So before I went to bed last night, I checked and Hermanita was bubbling away in happiness with his flour/water feed! I set him in a bowl in case he overflowed:

This morning I got all ready for his feeding by putting him in a big bowl – the jar was not going to cut it!

I am using filtered water, from our amazing water filter, because our water has a LOT of chlorine in it – it smells like a swimming pool – and I don’t want to sterilize Hermanita! (You can get a water filter like this from the nicest man who makes them at home for a reasonable cost – at )

I’m feeding equal measures of water and flour (unbleached all-purpose) by WEIGHT, because flour volume varies a lot depending on how much air is in it.

Hermanita must have been really hungry, and he’s very active, because he started bubbling away as soon as I stirred him! 

Finally, I loosely covered him with NON-PVC plastic wrap, which we have only found at Whole Foods. (btw, we use non-pvc shower curtains, too) 

Happy Hermanita should be ready for baking this weekend!

While we were in Belize this past summer (2012), I was introduced to the fine art of fermentation in many forms, by Travis Van der Jungle, our intrepid guide during our stay. (aka Big Travis, or BT) He had sauer kraut going, he had kombuchu bubbling in several flavors, AND he had sourdough starter, from whence he created marvelous baguettes, philly cheese fake rolls, and my favorite – homemade english muffins. I resolved to find some starter when I got home and begin my own baking adventure!

SO…I posted to my ecomama FB friends group and received two offers of starter. My friend Lyn sent me some freeze-dried Carl, and my friend Rosalie happened to be babysitting some Herman, so she split me off a cup. I love that the starters have names!

I started with the Herman, and after letting him acclimate, I pulled off a cup which I will be converting to a flour/water starter. This Herman is a water/sugar/potato flakes starter, so I left the remainder for that experiment. I’m combining info from a few sites to get this experiment going.

When I get Carl revived, he’ll be another whole flavor, having come from a different line, and having different instructions on care and feeding. You can get some Carl’s for free here: carlsfriends.net

For the english muffins, I’ll use the recipe I tried, which Travis uses, from this website: sourdoughhome.com – I love this site!