Sourdough Country French English Muffins

The recipe is from George Greenstein's Secrets of a Jewish Baker, but I'm using the starter from Silverton's Breads from the La Brea Bakery and omitting any commercial yeast. 

My brother usually won't eat my English Muffins, but I thought I would give it the old college try one more time; he is used to Old Bay brand, and is very picky about his muffins tasting just like them (he won't even eat Thomas').

I scanned a few recipes online for other tips, and one that I used was to bake the muffin for six minutes after the frying process, which seemed like a good idea since these came out so "Texas-sized".  Here is another image with a close up on the muffins: