This has to be one of my favorite recipes of all time. I've just changed it so many times over the years and I think I've finally got it to a point where I can say, good enough. Well, maybe not really. I still think about perhaps balancing the amount of bread flour to all purpose flour ratio. But general technique, I think I'm good with. These are honestly, so delicious and satisfying to eat and shape and grill. Like, you just get done making these and you look over at them all sitting there on the cooling rack and you're like, man, look at those things. They're huge! But I digress. Let's make these things.
Couple Notes before we get started:
I don't ever make only 12 of these any more. Reason being is because the amount of time and effort that goes into making these, it's really not worth it to only make 12, in my opinion. So I always make at least two dozen. So this recipe yields two dozen. Feel free to scale the ingredients as you like.
This recipe assumes you have an active wild yeast starter and are familiar with making a levain and autolyse. It also assumes you know how to perform stretch and folds and coil folds on your dough. If you have any questions on these, please contact me and I'll try to help :)
Ingredients for Levain (280g at 20% total weight of flour):
This recipe uses a 1 to 2 to 2 ratio of starter to flour to water because I usually make it before bed and plan to mix the dough in the morning. If you're planning on using the levain ASAP, feel free to us a 1 to 1 to 1 ratio.
56g active starter
112g strong bread flour
112g water
Ingredients for Autolyse:
To be honest, I really doesn't autolyse anymore, even though I still call it that. Total water used (including water from the levain) brings the overall dough to about 70% hydration (including the extra virgin olive oil). Depending on the type of flour you're using, feel free to increase or decrease the water amount. This recipe calls for a lower hydration because it's primarily all purpose flour being used.
1260g all purpose flour
784g water
Other Ingredients Needed:
28g Sea Salt (2% total flour weight)
56g Extra Virgin Olive Oil (4% total flour weight)
12oz unsalted butter (to clarify for the griddle or pan)
Cornmeal (for dusting the sheet pans)
General Timeline for Process:
You can adjust your schedule accordingly. I've actually started this later in the day when I knew I'd be up past 2AM. You can also start the levain late at night and prep the dough in the morning. Just be careful that you're cold ferment time isn't too long.
10PM (Prep the Levain) - I put 10PM, but honestly, just start it before bed. 12AM/2AM, whenever. Yes, I get that you don't want your starter to rise and fall before you get a chance to use it in the morning but I'm not so picky. Combine the levain ingredients in a mason jar (or whatever you have). Cover with a lid but don't screw it on too tight. Levain needs oxygen but you don't want it to dry out. Allow to rise overnight.
8AM (Mix the Dough) - Combine the water and the levain and mix to dissolve the levain. Then add in the all purpose flour and the sea salt. Mix by hand to combine until the flour is well hydrated and you don't feel any salt on your hands.
8:30AM (Add in the Oil) - Add the extra virgin olive oil to the dough and mix by hand again, until well combined and you no longer feel the slickness from the oil. Note: I've tried adding in the olive oil in the prior step when mixing the initial dough, but it just mixes in better when waiting a little. Cover and allow to rest for an hour.
8:30AM to 2:30PM (Bulk Rise) - for the next few hours, perform some coil folds on the dough about once every 45-60 minutes, about 3 or 4 in total. Use your best judgement here to determine if your dough needs more strength built into it or not. If the dough is resisting stretching do not force it to the point of tearing. Let the dough rise until about 40% increased. Depending on the strength of your starter, temperature, etc., yours may go faster or slower. I said about 6 hours but use your best judgement.
2:30PM (Cold Retard) - Cover the bowl and place in the fridge for an overnight cold retard. I'm sure if you wanted to skip this step you could, and just move onto shaping, but I've never done it (at least not yet). If you do, let me know how it goes.
8AM-8:30AM (Shaping) - After the overnight rest, take the cold dough out of the fridge, weigh the total dough using a digital scale and divide into 24 equal pieces. Should be approximately 98g (~3.5oz) for each piece. To shape the dough pieces, grab the outside edges and fold them into the middle, working all the way around the outside. Imagine the dough piece is imploding into itself. Eventually the outside will start to smooth out and get nice and taught. Then, place the dough, seem side down, onto an un-floured counter, and using the friction of the counter to further tighten the dough balls. I use both my pinkies and just pull the bottoms of the dough balls towards me, slightly rotating them as I pull. This takes practice. Then place the dough balls on a sheet pan, lightly dusted with corn meal. Cover, and allow to rise to about 40% for about 3.5 to 4 hours (depending on how hot your kitchen is). Note: pictured below I'm using plastic wrap. However, I actually prefer to use a separate baking sheet pan, inverted on top. The dough can remain really tacky and the plastic wrap can stick to the dough balls and pull at the dough when it comes time to unwrap them.
11:30AM-12PM (Prep the Clarified Butter) - When the first of the dough balls look nice and airy and proved, you'll want to prep the clarified butter. You can also do this earlier if you'd like. 3 sticks of butter should be enough for all 24 muffins but feel free to make more clarified butter if you'd like. It's actually nice to have on hand for cooking other things. To clarify the butter (unsalted works best I've found), put in a small sauce pan, cover, and place over medium low heat. Once the butter melts, it will quickly start to boil and start sputtering as the butter starts losing it's water and the milk fats start separating. Just keep boiling for a few minutes and eventually the sputtering will stop, and the butter will just go to a normal, gentile boil. Turn off the heat and allow it to rest in the pan for about 5-10 minutes. At this point, the milk solids are fully separated and the butter just needs to be strained. You can either pour this over a cheese cloth to completely remove the milk solids, or (and this is what I do because I don't usually feel like buying cheese cloth) just pour over a sieve into a Pyrex cup. When pouring from the pan, most of the milk solids will be sitting at the bottom. I just pour the clearer part off the top of the pan until all that's left is the milk solids. What's left in the Pyrex cup is mostly clarified then.
12:15PM (Cooking) - Start cooking. I've only used a cast iron pan for this so I can't speak to other pans. Put a pan on medium low heat and start heating. Then prep the other cooling/draining pan. I use a large sheet pan, lined with some paper towels. Then I'll have two silicone spoons/spatulas at the ready. When the pan is just smoking, add in a very thin layer of the clarified butter. Like, barely enough to coat the bottom. Temperature wise, I shoot for close to 400 degrees F. The temperature will drop back down some when I add the dough balls to the pan. Even sitting out at room temperature for 4 hours, the dough will still be somewhat cold. Then carefully and gently pick up a dough ball and place it in the pan. I use two hands for this and try my best to pick them up from the bottom so they maintain their shape. I do no more than 4 muffins at a time. And once I've added the 4 muffins to the pan, I constantly rotate the muffins in the pan. I find it helps with more even browning on the bottom. Now, just like a pancake, these will start to show signs when they're ready to flip. It should take a few minutes. They will start really rising upwards and you'll start to see bubbles form on the surface. The butter will also stop sputtering for the most part as well. When this happens, start checking the bottom for browning. Then flip and repeat. This will also take practice. Don't be alarmed if you see little (or not so little) bubbles start to push out from the sides of the muffins. It's all good. Remove the muffins from the pan once both sides are nice and golden, and transfer to the paper towel lined pan. Before adding the next batch be sure to check the butter temperature. For me, the butter is ready right when it starts smoking. That's what I look for. Adjust the burner flame and add in more clarified butter as needed. Allow these muffins to cool slightly and then enjoy!
Wrapping Up!
You can leave these in a plastic bag on the counter for a few days but I'd recommend sticking them in the fridge. Remember, these are sourdough, and the flavor can intensify over time. Plus, because there's no preservatives, they won't last that long on the counter. Storing in the fridge will just help them last longer. Also, these store great in the freezer. So that second dozen that you're not planning on sharing or eating anytime soon will be there when you're ready for more.
Please reach out to me on email if you have any questions. Hope you enjoy!
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