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Here's the recipe (with apologies to the Sands, Taylor & Wood Co.) for sourdough English muffins from the King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook (my comments in italics):

1 cup sourdough starter (this recipe assumes a wet starter, not a stiff one)

1 1/2 cups milk

5 1/2 to 6 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon salt (I usually cut this to 1/2 tablespoon)

1 teaspoon baking soda

cornmeal to sprinkle on baking sheet

Making the sponge: In a ceramic bowl, mix together the starter, milk and about 3 cups of flour. Cover this with plastic wrap and leave it to work anywhere from 2 to 24 hours. You might want to mix this up just before you go to bed so you can have fresh English muffins for breakfast the next morning. (I spray the plastic wrap lightly with vegetable oil; otherwise the sponge really clings wherever it contacts the plastic.)

Makng the Dough: When the sponge has developed, mix the sugar, salt, baking soda and 2 1/2 cups flour together in a separate bowl. Stir these into the sponge as thoroughly as you can and cover the resulting dough with plastic wrap and let it work for anywhere up to an hour. This allows the gluten in the flour you've just added to absorb some moisture, and to relax.

Kneading and Shaping: Flour your kneading board and hands well as this dough will be soft when you turn it out. Knead for only 2 to 3 minutes until the dough is smooth and no longer lumpy. With a floured rolling pin, roll it out, like a pie dough, from the center to the outside, until it is between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick.

Cut out circles between 3 and 4 inches in diameter (the muffins will shrink in diameter as they cook). A large tuna can with both ends removed works well, or you can even throw tradition to the wind and cut squares.

Place the muffins on a cookie sheet that has been sprinkled with cornmeal and let them rest for at least 15 minutes. (This step is really important in forming all of those lovely nooks and crannies, so don't rush it. You don't have to put them on a baking sheet; the countertop or a cutting board works just as well. I like to cover them with plastic so that they don't dry while they are resting.)

Cooking: Place 4 or 5 circles on a lightly greased skillet on low, low heat with the cornmeal side down first. Cook slowly for 10 minutes, gently flip the muffins over and continue cooking for a further 10 minutes. (I'm still experimenting with times and temps. On my stove, low to medium heat at about 5-6 minutes per side seems to work well. Greasing the griddle, even a non-stick type, really improves the color of the muffins, making it easier to determine when to flip them. I also find that the top surface tends to dome upward as the first side cooks, so gently pressing the muffins with the spatula immediately after flipping brings the entire surface of the second side into contact with the griddle, giving more even cooking and better coloration. Don't mash them flat, just use enough gentle pressure to bring the second side into full contact with the griddle.)

Serving: Cool your muffins, split with a fork to make the most of their wonderful open texture, toast and enjoy right away, or store the cooled muffins in a plastic bag to use at your leisure. English muffins also keep well in the freezer (so long as no one knows that they are stashed there.)

Other Notes: I generally set the bowl with the sponge to ferment in my basement, where the temperatures are cool and stable. Intially, I was concerned about the milk in the sponge going bad, but each batch has turned out well so far. The shortest sponge fermentation that I have used was about 10 hours, the longest was about 20 hours. I couldn't detect a noticeable difference in flavor in either. My impression is that the wetter you can keep the dough, the more open the crumb; so don't push to get every last speck of flour incorporated that the recipe calls for. You'll wind up working in more flour during the kneading and shaping steps. I happen to have some English muffin rings on hand, so I use one of them as my cutter. They are about 4 1/2 inches in diameter and produce about 15 muffins from this recipe, depending on how thickly or thinly I roll the dough. Enjoy!

PMcCool