Your Free Beginner Sourdough Guide: Starter Care + Same-Day English Muffins

Mary Chadd
5 days ago
2 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

Welcome to the Mother’s Love Homestead sourdough table. This beginner guide gives you a simple starter-care rhythm and a dependable same-day English muffin recipe made with our wild-fermented starter, Myrtle.

A Simple Sourdough Starter Rhythm

Keep a small amount of starter and feed it with equal weights of starter, water, and flour. For example: 25 g starter, 25 g water, and 25 g flour. Stir well, cover loosely, and keep at comfortable room temperature.

Feed daily when keeping your starter at room temperature.
Refrigerate between baking days when you bake less often, then feed before using.
A ready starter should rise, show bubbles throughout, smell pleasantly tangy, and look airy rather than flat.

When Is Your Starter Ready to Bake With?

Use your starter when it is near its highest point after feeding. The top may be rounded or just beginning to level off. If it has fully collapsed and looks thin, feed it again and wait for another rise.

Same-Day Sourdough English Muffins

Yield: approximately 24 English muffins

Ingredients

240 g active sourdough starter
430 g warm milk
8 g instant yeast
30 g honey
60 g melted butter
1 large egg
760 g bread flour
13 g fine sea salt
15 g dry milk powder
Cornmeal or semolina for dusting

Method

Combine the starter, warm milk, yeast, honey, melted butter, and egg.
Add the bread flour, sea salt, and dry milk powder. Mix and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic.
Cover and let rise until noticeably puffy, about 60–90 minutes depending on room temperature.
Divide into 24 pieces, about 63 g each. Shape into rounds and flatten gently.
Place on a cornmeal-dusted tray, cover, and proof until light and puffy, about 30–45 minutes.
Cook on a lightly greased griddle over medium-low heat until golden on both sides, about 4–6 minutes per side.
Transfer to a 375°F oven and bake until the centers are fully set, approximately 8–12 minutes.
Cool before splitting with a fork for the classic nooks-and-crannies texture.

A Few Homestead Tips

Keep the griddle heat moderate so the outside does not brown before the inside begins cooking.
Freeze cooled muffins in an airtight bag and toast directly from frozen.
Sourdough timing changes with temperature. Watch the dough rather than relying only on the clock.

Rooted in Faith & Love. Made by Hand. Thank you for learning and baking with Mother’s Love Homestead.