The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Has anyone tried Tartine's English muffins?

SallyBR's picture
SallyBR

Has anyone tried Tartine's English muffins?

My computer is misbehaving and the search is painful =  apologies if this has been discussed...

 

I was browsing through Tartine, and noticed they use their baguette recipe to make English muffins, and their photo in the book is absolutely wonderful!

 

has anyone tried them?   THe recipe uses both a pate fermentee AND a sourdough starter.   

 

 

LindyD's picture
LindyD

I was doing the same thing last night, Sally - browsing through Tartine Bread - and came to a halt at the photo of the lightly charred muffin on p 141.  I love deeply colored breads and that muffin is mouth watering.  

I might just give it a try this weekend.  Don't really need 12 to 14 muffins, so maybe I'll use half the dough for a baguette and the other half for the muffins.

If you make them, would love to hear about it.

SallyBR's picture
SallyBR

You know, great minds browse alike!   ;-)

 

Pretty cool that you were doing the same...    If you give it a try this weekend, let me know.  I cannot do it until I'm back in Los Angeles next week, as my griddle is there.   But I've got those muffins in my mind....

 

this weekend, to profit from the fact that I am in our home with a regular oven, I'll celebrate by making Tartine's Country Rye

 

can hardly wait...

LindyD's picture
LindyD

Great to hear that you're back home in your own kitchen for a bit, Sally.   Got to be hard with your cooking gear scattered between two states!

I plan to read through the Tartine baguette/muffin recipe later to see if the timing will work for me this weekend.  

Electric griddle or Lodge cast iron fry pan?  No idea which to use.  I've never made English muffins before.

My thanks to totels for his breakdown on the dough portions.  If I screw up the muffins, at least I can fall back on the baguettes.  Maybe.

SallyBR's picture
SallyBR

I have a Tartine Country Rye shaped and rising.... can you hear the birds singing and butterflies flying?  Well, I guess butterflies don't make that  much noise..

 

yeah, feels good to be back for a little while, but of course, my bench scraper stayed in LA, and I really missed it!

LindyD's picture
LindyD

No butterflies here - only snowflakes.  But I do have a big gob of dough in the first phase of bulk fermentation.  Maybe it will turn into English muffins and/or baguettes. 

Late start.  The leaven did not at all like its overnight temperature (an unheatead room) and went into hibernation.  Took a few hours near the woodstove to wake up the leaven.  The poolish was quite happy in the refrigerator. 

Bummer about the bench knife.  If you have a paint scraper, that will work in a pinch.  ;-)

totels's picture
totels

It uses a Poolish and a Sourdough starter, no Pate Fermentee(no salt and 100% hydration).

I have made them several times now, they are amazing. Baking for not more than 2 people I usually end up splitting the baguette dough into 3 portions, 2 of which end up as baguettes and the 3rd as English Muffins. My girlfriend and I love them as alternative burger buns too.

SallyBR's picture
SallyBR

sorry, my mistake.... I did not have the book with me and used the wrong term. Indeed, it uses a poolish

 

Great that you like it so much, I am going to make it very soon and will report back...

eugenerella's picture
eugenerella

Hi all,

Like Linda D. I can relate to trying to compute the necessary timing on a Friday night in order to accomplish a weekend baking trek. I also, am a sucker for a dark crust. Must admit the cover of Tartine Bread drew me in like a beacon onto the starship " Enterprise " ! However, sometimes the mental and physical rigors of the week don't even leave me enough strength to refresh my icebox starter. That's why I'm glad to pass on this link that I had some fun with. I don't know about many of you, but when I finally get around to reading the Freshloaf posting I am naturally drawn to certain recipes that I'm on a life long quest to try and conquer. English muffins are one. Key words.... Sour dough.... rolled & cut.......  muffin rings..... whole wheat or white....etc.  OVERNIGHT REST  !!!!!!!! -Oh well not tonight thank you. That's why this recipe fit my bill.  Cold starter right out of the ice box.... first thing in the morning....  Hey I can handle that. I did and they weren't have bad " If I do have to say so myself". Give a try.  Only adjustment, was I found the quantity of the recipe wasn't quite enough to fill 8 rings. Adjust accordingly.

http://cookistry.blogspot.com/2011/03/sourdough-english-muffins.html

 

LindyD's picture
LindyD

Too soon to tell about the muffins because the dough is the cooler retarding.  Of course,  the timing was really bad - they went in at 5:13 p.m.  It's a weekend.  I don't get up at 5 a.m. midweek and I'll be darned if I'll turn on my alarm clock tonight.  So they're in the cooler for 15 hours.  If the dough doesn't work out for muffins, I'll turn it into flatbreads.

As to the baguettes, well I absolutely hate looking at them.  The dough was nice to work with, but things went downhill quickly when my peel fell off the counter after I placed the first baguette.  Managed to catch the baguette before it hit the floor, but it has an odd hourglass shape.  Funny now.  I said some ungracious things at the time.

I followed Mr. Robertson's suggestions about steaming and I shouldn't have.  I know my oven better than he does, but I didn't think about that.  So I have three dull, lusterless baguettes with undeveloped cuts and a big yuck factor.  Their only saving grace is they had great oven spring and nice crackles in the crust.  Go figure.

I'll wait for the muffin (or flatbread) results before posting pictures of the debacle.

I love baking bread.  It keeps one humble.

sam's picture
sam

Hello,

A few weeks ago, I decided to visit the Tartine Bakery in San Francisco.  I live about an hour away.  Prior to going, I read on their web site about their schedule -- calling a day ahead to get bread, etc.   Not knowing anything, I decided -- well, they must have some bread leftover from the previous day.  So I would just go in the morning and get some slightly older bread.

Nope.

Took the train to the city.  Gloriuous beautiful morning, sun was out, very nice.  I walked a few blocks to Tartine.  Showed up around 10am.  There was a line out the door extending a half-block down the street.

Sign on the front door:  "Due to increased demand, we require 72 hours notice for bread orders, and we only accept pre-payment."

Yowsa.  So no bread for me.

Well, I was still hungry so I waited for a bit, and got some Bread Pudding and a Morning Bun.  I've never had a Bread Pudding before, but it was pretty good!  The star was the Morning Bun.  That was excellent.

But, it was a bummer they didn't have any extra bread around...

 

LindyD's picture
LindyD

Here's the English muffins using Tartine Bread's baguette recipe.  I followed Robertson's formula for mixing the baguette dough.  It wasn't until midway through the bulk fermentation when I noticed that for muffins, the baguette dough is supposed to given only one or two light turns during the three to four hour bulk.  Oops.   I had been turning it every 40 minutes per the baguette dough instructions.   So much for keeping "the dough handling gentle and to a minimum." 

I used a three-inch egg ring to form the muffins.  Had to move the dough from my linen couche to a cutting board, since I had to use a knife around the outer edge of the ring to cut through the dough.

The instructions call for cooking the muffins over medium-low heat for about five minutes.  I used a Lodge cast iron skillet and didn't like the feel of the first three after five minutes in the pan, so the subsequent cooking time went to six minutes.  The additional time added a nice bit of char, but the one I did eat was still a bit gummy in the center - toasting fixed that.  Haven't checked the five-minute batch.

I wound up with about 2345 grams of dough and made three baguettes, nine muffins, and have dough left over, which I'll use as a pâte fermentée.  I probably could have flattened the remaining dough and made three more, but nine seemed more than adequate.

Mr. Robertson claims his baguette dough formula will make 12 to 14 muffins.  They must be big ones.  

They taste pretty good.  While the crumb isn't as open as pictured in the book, at least I don't have to worry about butter dribbling down my chin.  

 

SallyBR's picture
SallyBR

I had to smile reading your post - I don't know how many times I read a recipe without paying close enough attention, and do exactly as you did!

 

But they turned out pretty good!  Nothing to complain about!

flour fingers's picture
flour fingers

I know this post is old, but I recently made the muffins from the Tartine Breads book with amazing results. They look a lot like the ones already posted here.

https://lapetitekitchen.wordpress.com/2015/09/25/homemade-english-muffins/

(I couldn't figure out how to add a photo. There are some on my blog post.)

Maverick's picture
Maverick

Sounds good. I didn't notice the english muffins in the book. I like the idea of using a baguette dough for english muffins (with or without the levain). I am surprised that there isn't any baking soda. I have some baguettes that I have made that I really enjoyed and would love to eat them as english muffins. I will have to try the Tartine ones at some point.

TangoDancer's picture
TangoDancer

I made the Tartine EM's according to the recipe in the book and the summary is that they tasted great.  However, the first muffin turned out gummy and I remembers that a thermometer is a baker's best friend.  I cooked each to about 210 internal temp on a grill of 350F (176C).  They took a long time 10+ minutes for each muffin.  I found the dough sticky and hard to work with.  It may be that it was in part that I was using a cookie cutter that had serrated edges.  I see some folks use a glass or a can.  And, I should have pushed the dough down to 3/4 of an inch instead of 1" when putting in the sheet for overnight.  I put the dough on a silicone sheet dusted with cornmeal instead of a towel.  Perhaps the towel absorbs some of the water to make for an easier to work with dough.  Lots to try new next time, but again, they tasted great says the family.