It occurred to me the other day that I haven’t done near as much creating since we started living Tiny. I used to be a hard core DIYer and tried my hand at everything I could think of. There’s something very satisfying about making something yourself instead of buying it at the store, especially if it ends up saving you money. But with no workspace to leave my projects out, I’ve pretty much quit creating altogether. With the exception of cooking! I would definitely have to say I’ve improved my cooking and baking skills quite a bit since we started living tiny. My current kitchen is one of the nicest kitchens I’ve ever had!! Custom built to my cooking style by my husband.
Where I got my sourdough starter
While we were in Utah, my gardening friend and co-worker gave me a jar of her sourdough starter! This being my second try to keep a sourdough alive, I was determined! (The last sourdough starter I had was given to me by my brother and it died/spilled in transit between Oregon and Arizona.) I added sourdough feeding to my plant baby care routine. LOL! I figured that since I always remember to check on and care for my plants, this would help me keep a close eye on my starter.
Learning to bake the things we already buy
I’ve tried a few common things with my sourdough starter (bread, cinnamon rolls, and pancakes) and they’ve all turned out amazing!! So I thought it was time to bake something we actually use and buy regularly – English Muffins!! My husband loves these for breakfast, it’s definitely a go-to breakfast for us. But sometimes, depending on the stores available at our current location, we can’t even find a healthy English Muffin option in the stores! We are very careful to avoid GMO’s and the generic English Muffin brands definitely have GMO and other garbage ingredients.
Choosing a recipe
After reviewing a few recipes on the internet, I decided to go with the one from Food.com because it allowed an overnight rise and I was ready to mix my dough around 7pm. 12 – 16 hours of rise time would put me to cooking these bad boys about the time I finished my morning routine the next day. So I mixed up my dough and put it in a warm place to rest all night.
The next day I just kneaded a few ingredients like salt and baking soda into my dough and then rolled it out, cut the biscuits out with a drinking glass, and sprinkled them with cornmeal. I have no idea what the cornmeal does, but I know there’s always cornmeal on store bought English Muffins so I went with it! LOL!
The hardest part
The hardest part was definitely cooking these things. How in the world to get them to cook all the way through to the center! To my surprise, I learned that you do NOT bake English Muffins at all!! They are pan fried bread. So I heated the electric skillet and decided to try a few in my cast iron skillet over the gas stove as well. They cook for 3 – 5 minutes on each side. It took me a lot of testing to figure out what worked without burning their bottoms. The recipe said I should smash them down after flipping them over too but I found that not to work so great. What I concluded was that they cooked best on high heat on the electric skillet, covered with an airtight lid, and I did not smash them down after flipping them over.
Keep them fresh by freezing
One other thing that surprised me is that the recipe said they would only keep on the counter for one day. So I put two full bags of these away in the freezer…and we’ve already been grabbing them for snacks because they really are quite tasty. I’m not sold on the taste yet though; they taste good, but they don’t have that distinct English Muffin taste. I definitely plan on trying a few more recipes before I decide on my go to favorite.
