SD YW English Muffins - Some Fried As Donuts Per gmabaking With Apricot, Nectarine Ginger Glaze

Profile picture for user dabrownman
dabrownman on 22 Jul 2012 at 17:10

The last time we made English Muffins the kjknits way we took her SD version and added yeast water.  gmakaing made some for her grand daughter and also fried some as donuts!  What a great idea.  Her grand daughter really liked them and they disappeared fast.

Look at that color and the nice DO we got at the Estate Sale down the street.

When I told gmabaking I was doing another EM batch today and was going to fry some as donuts, I asked if she had glazed the donuts or put powdered sugar on them.   She said that they were gone too fast but thought that an apricot glaze would be nice.  Well, that sounded pretty good to me and a nice outlet for our home made apricot, nectarine and ginger jam.

The 100 g of combo YW and SD starter was pinched off a larger amount I was building for some WW Semolina bread.  It used  that nice Joe Ortiz cumin, WW SD starter and the now richly purple Apple, Minneola YW that has gone beautifully colored due to the addtion of fresh cherries inspired by Ian at isand66.  It matches my place mats which should be a requirement for any serious home baker - or possibly dumb luck :-) 

The starter was built with duram atta, whole soft white wheat and white whole wheat.  The muffin dough had 2 C of AP and 1/4 C of Duram Atta.  So these EM's were to be a healthy whole wheaty, semolina variety.  The rest of the recipe can be found at kjknits blog at http://weightloss-slim.fit/node/3241/sourdough-english-muffins/%3C/a%3E%C2%A0 We love this EM recipe and it has turned out to be easily modified and versatile too.  Always very tasty no matter nhow my apprentice butcher's it.

The starter, flour and milk (I added 2 T more than the Cup of milk due to the extra 1/4 C durum atta in the dough flour) are allowed to sit out overnight for 8 hours.  In the morning the rest of the ingredients go in.  Then knead for 3-4  minutes and  roll them out 3/8" thick for cutting.  After cutting, place them on parchment paper dusted in semolina top and bottom and rest for 45 minutes covered in plastic.  The EM's are then dry fried in a 12" cast iron skillet.

We made 6 flat donut shapes by hand by using the bagel forming method of ball with afinger poked through it and then using two fingers opening the hole in a cirular motion.  Then we squished (another fine baking term) them flat.  Why we squished them flat I have no idea and it doesn't make much sense now, since they were going to puff up in the hot nearly smoking Crisco anyway.

These EM are explosive with the YW and baking soda working with that vigorous Ortiz SD starter.  We made the EM's larger diameter this time (same as Thomas) and increased the thickness a little to 5/16" thick.  Will make them 3/8" thick next time because, even though these babies really spring,  they still were only a little over an 1" high after cooling .  We made 11 EM's and 6 donuts instead of the 24 mini EM's made the last time.

The EM's came out as usual but were more tasty with the WW and semolina flours.  Not quite as open as the all AP flour ones, but still pretty good like Wofferman's in KC where I worked as a sack boy nearly 50 years ago.  Best job I ever had too.  The donuts were a hoot to make and fry up.  Fried them 1 at a time to save on the oil since we don't fry much around here except Crab Rangoon's,  Egg and Spring Rolls and a few other appetizers.  Will make some dry fried or baked bagel ones next time too.

The donuts fried up nice and brown and the spring on them was very good.  The crumb was very open, light and moist.  The crust was chewy just like a fried English muffin would be so, these donuts aren't like the cake or glazed donuts you are used to but they are tasty none the less.

We mixed some of our apricot, nectarine and ginger jam with some powdered suger and a T of milk to make the glaze for the donuts.   We dipped them twice to get an extra thick coat.  Butter and this tasty jam were have too's for the warm EM's.  Just delicious.  I personally had 3 of each for breakfast and can attest to their addictiveness!

Thanks to gmabaking for her great donut and glaze ideas for these fine EM's

.

and not end up with any left over in the freezer.  Will definitely either dry fry or bake some of the bagel shaped ones next time too and won't squish them flat either.  Frying them made for a thicker chewy EM kind of crust but I could have over fried them too.  I was going for dark like bread when I should have probably been going for lightly browned.  Never had any donuts like them though.   The glaze was super and a cherry, peach, rasp / black berry or strawberry one would be nice too.  Will also not make the holes so big as they don't close up as much as proofed and boiled bagels do.

We learn as we go around here.  My apprentice and I can be amazed at how lost we get when going where ever sometimes.  My apprentice says it's my age but I say it is because of my 'I could care less' attitude - which means -  it's not that I don't care but just that I don't care what she thinks! I think there is a difference.

Those gmabaking gals are full of ideas, baking genius and surprises.   Like many on TFL, it pays to watch them closely, listen carefully and not care if you get a little lost along the way - regardless of what your 5 apprentices say!.

Glad you liked the donuts and EM's.  One of these days, we are going to convert the base AP recipe over to grams if my apprentice remembers to weight the stuff out.

Glad to see that they turned out so well. It seemed like a silly idea at the time but it turned out to be a good one. I think your donuts were lighter than the ones I made. The extra thickness is a good idea too. Will have to make a batch next week when the California kids and grandkids will be visiting. Just a few years ago the advance requests were for chocolate chip cookies, meatloaf with plenty leftover for sandwiches, gnocchi, and homemade rolls, ....last year we made them all but added pan de coco, peach pies, a couple of varieties of jalapeno jelly, and a really good strawberry jam made with Prosecco (I think that is spelled wrong but it is a sparkling wine). Can't wait to see what fun this year will bring.

Those look and sound so good... I think my next batch of EMs will be like dabrownman's picture of half donuts and half muffins... that seems like a great idea... the glazes look so good too.... yummmy!


dry fried or baked un-squished bagel ones - with grilled salmon cream cheese!  Haven't made them yet but they sure sound interesting.  The glaze was a big hit, especially with the apprentice and fine as jam on the EM's too.

Will be watching for you gals next ITJB  project results!

cook and baker to get those kinds of requests from the CA kids!   We treat pies, meatloaf, gnocchi and jams like bread around here.  Anything that sounds good at the time goes in - but have never used sparkling wine in any of them - not that we won't now :-)

We love the Muscato Prosecco - Dreamstone is very inexpensive but drinkable one that is pink too.  Moscato makes it slightly sweet instead of the personally; brutally dry, nearly undrinkable side of most sparklers - unless you mix it with sweet stuff to make blinis, mimosas  - which are nice for special occasions too or jams in your case.

We really liked your donut and apricot glaze idea too.

Bake on to points unknown.

that we think the colorfully purple YW makes all the difference when it comes to light open airy and most crumbs.  That Joe Ortiz Cumin Wheat SD starter is also very active - making the most open crumb in bread when only 3-4 days old.

Somehow I missed this starter thread. Just watched the Julia Child video and will start one up this afternoon! Have only white whole wheat so it won't be exactly the same. Interesting note re cumin, wonder if other spices have a similar effect ? Would appreciate any hints, cautions and guidance on this new adventure-

Barbra

where she does a great job of explaing it with photos here http://weightloss-slim.fit/node/27528/joe-ortiz-pain-de-campagne-wonderful%3C/a%3E.%C2%A0%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3EI also talk about it on my blog here  http://weightloss-slim.fit/node/29320/joe-ortiz-pain-de-champagne-rye-and-ww-sprouts%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3E.I followed Joe's method except Joe makes a huge batch of levain and throws most of it away.  I didn't throw any away.  I started with 1/8 tsp of cumin, 2 T of Whole Wheat (I ground mine from seeds in a coffee grinder and used some store bought WW) 1 tsp of milk and a timy bit of water to make about a 100% hydration.  I covered it with a paper towel after letting it sit out for a few hours.  After about 6 hours I added another 1 T of flour and some water to keep the hydration the same and covered it again and left it overnight.  The next day I added anther 2 T of flour and some water and let it sit 12 hours.  That's when the bubbles started.  I added another 2 T of flour and some water but reduced the water some to get the hydration down to 80% and left it overnight.  By the 3rd day, I fed it again but reduced the hydration down to 70% and let it sit 12 hours, said it was done and pinched off some of it to make my normal levain for a loaf, fed the remainder, dumping none and put it in the fridge at about 60% hydration, made a nice loaf of bread and went on vacation for 8 days to recouperate :-)

Hope this helps