english muffins
I had some left over biga from making pain puglese last week. last night I weighed the flour left in a bag, 21 ounces. The biga amounted to about a cup and a half. I scooped that with my hand and mixed it with 16 ounces of warm water and a teaspoon of yeast and 10 grams of salt. I calculated that this gave me about 75% hydration. I mixed the dough by hand and allowed several periods of resting between turning and folding the dough 3 or 4 strokes. After about six hours I covered the dough for the night and refrigerated it, because I have learned that cold dough is not as elastic as warm dough. This morning I speard cornmeal on the table and dumped the dough spreading it to about a half inch thick. I cut rounds with an empty #2 tomato can.
Several years ago I rescued an electric griddle that had no power cord. I removed the legs and handles. It fits perfectly over two burners on my gas stove. On this I baked the muffin rounds. The heat spring was impressive. Going from the half inch cold thickness to a bit over an inch. After they have been turned I could lift them with my fingers to check the bottoms. The texture of the crumb is typical english muffin with nice holes and peaks.
The biga was quite sour and imparted that sour to the taste.
The yield was 14 pieces about 3 1/2 inches across.