Sourdough Jalapeno English Muffins
I’m starting to really like peppers and I’m not talking about regular green or red bell peppers. I’m talking about spicy peppers like jalapeno and serrano. Maybe it’s due to my taste buds wanting more intense flavors. I did turn fifty this year and they do say when you start to get older your taste buds can start craving stronger flavors. Either way I’ve started buying spicy peppers at the farmers market. The only thing is they’re sold in pints so I have to come up with ways to use all the peppers before they go bad. Which is how I came up with these amazing Sourdough Jalapeno English muffins. In this post I’m going to talk a little bit about the aging process of our taste buds, natural ways we can try to sharpen our taste senses and at the end give a recipe for the best Sourdough Jalapeno English muffins ever!
Taste Buds and Aging
Most people when they age are more concerned about eyesight and hearing loss. However loss of taste is important too. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the average person is born with 10,000 taste buds. Every ten days these taste receptors are regenerated. If you’ve ever burnt your tongue, you’ll realize it doesn’t take that long before it’s healed. It’s because the cells have regenerated practically giving you a new tongue. However the older a person becomes, the regeneration process takes longer. Along with the length of the regeneration process changing, taste buds also start to dull as well as diminish in quantity.
It’s been reported that women start to lose some of their sense of taste around their 50s and men in their 60s. The increase for foods with more flavor in these age groups becomes greater. Which means people may start to tolerate and even crave flavors which are more bitter, sour and spicy. There’s also another side to all this, when it comes to sugary items it’s the opposite. The older a person gets the less sugar they might desire. Sugary items eaten in childhood years sometimes don’t carry the same appeal by the time middle age hits. There’s more of a want for sweet items with subtle sweetness instead of sweets which are overwhelmingly sweet.
How To Sharpen Your Sense of Taste
There’s a few things we can do to make sure to take care of our taste senses:
- Adding spices to foods can help to sustain taste buds.
- Zinc is important to the development and growth of taste bud cells. Adding a zinc supplement or eating foods heavy with zinc can help to sharpen taste.
- Increase water intake. Dry mouth or dehydration can effect your sense of taste.
- Exercise. Even a 10 minute brisk walk or run can help. It can help open up the senses.
- Quit smoking. Smoking is known to dull the senses, especially taste and smell.
The Recipe
This english muffin recipe will definitely kick up your taste buds. Not only is there the sourness from the sourdough but there’s also the spicy flavor from the jalapenos. I took my basic sourdough english muffin recipe and added jalapeno peppers. I also increased the size of the muffins to be more like sandwich buns. These muffins are great as a vehicle for sandwiches. They’re also good for breakfast with some all natural fruit preserves on top. The combination between the sweet and spicy is perfecto!
Sourdough Jalapeno English Muffins
Ready for a little kick in flavor? Try these plant based sourdough jalapeno english muffins! They're great to use for sandwiches especially breakfast sandwiches.
*You want to make sure your starter was fed beforehand and is bubbly.
In a large bowl mix the starter, honey and plant based milk. Mix together till blended.
Add one cup at a time of the two cups of einkorn flour. Mix just until the flour in incorporated. Do not over mix.
Cover the bowl with a clean towel and place in a room temperature, draft free area. Let sit overnight up to 12 hours.
Stir down the mixture. Then take the baking soda and sea salt and sprinkle it on top of the dough. Take a wooden spoon and mix it into the dough.
Add a half cup of the einkorn flour to the dough and mix it with the wooden spoon.
Add the jalapeno peppers to the dough and mix the peppers into the dough.
Place the other half cup of flour onto a board or counter. Place the wet dough on top and knead the rest of the flour into the dough using a scraper or hard spatula. Once most of the flour is incorporated into the dough with the scraper or hard spatula. You might need to add some more flour. You want the dough to be soft, but not sticking to your hands. So you might need to add more flour to get it to the right consistency.
After kneading for 5 minutes form dough into a mound.
Take a sheet of parchment paper and lay the paper on a tray or cookie sheet. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the oat bran on top of the parchment and set to the side.
Roll the dough out on a well floured surface to 1/2 inch thick. Take a 3 to 4 inch circle cutter and cut out the rounds. Place the rounds on the oat bran sprinkled tray.
After all muffins are cut out. Sprinkle the remaining oat bran on top of the muffins. Place a clean tea towel over the muffins. Let them rise in a warm area for an hour till doubled.
After doubled. Now it's time to cook them.
Preheat a fry pan or cast iron pan over the stove on a low medium heat. (*I have an electric stove so my setting was on number 4.)
Place a little coconut oil or ghee in the pan. Place your muffins in the pan and cook for 5 minutes.
Flip them over and press down on them with a spatula. Place a lid over the pan for the muffins to cook inside. After 5 minutes on the other side with the lid on top, take the lid off and remove them from the pan to cool.
*Whatever you do, do not flip them more than once.
Place muffins on a cooling rack to cool.
Slice and eat!
You can also store these in the freezer. What I do is slice them in half, put them in a freezer bag and place in the freezer.
Ingredients
Directions
*You want to make sure your starter was fed beforehand and is bubbly.
In a large bowl mix the starter, honey and plant based milk. Mix together till blended.
Add one cup at a time of the two cups of einkorn flour. Mix just until the flour in incorporated. Do not over mix.
Cover the bowl with a clean towel and place in a room temperature, draft free area. Let sit overnight up to 12 hours.
Stir down the mixture. Then take the baking soda and sea salt and sprinkle it on top of the dough. Take a wooden spoon and mix it into the dough.
Add a half cup of the einkorn flour to the dough and mix it with the wooden spoon.
Add the jalapeno peppers to the dough and mix the peppers into the dough.
Place the other half cup of flour onto a board or counter. Place the wet dough on top and knead the rest of the flour into the dough using a scraper or hard spatula. Once most of the flour is incorporated into the dough with the scraper or hard spatula. You might need to add some more flour. You want the dough to be soft, but not sticking to your hands. So you might need to add more flour to get it to the right consistency.
After kneading for 5 minutes form dough into a mound.
Take a sheet of parchment paper and lay the paper on a tray or cookie sheet. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the oat bran on top of the parchment and set to the side.
Roll the dough out on a well floured surface to 1/2 inch thick. Take a 3 to 4 inch circle cutter and cut out the rounds. Place the rounds on the oat bran sprinkled tray.
After all muffins are cut out. Sprinkle the remaining oat bran on top of the muffins. Place a clean tea towel over the muffins. Let them rise in a warm area for an hour till doubled.
After doubled. Now it's time to cook them.
Preheat a fry pan or cast iron pan over the stove on a low medium heat. (*I have an electric stove so my setting was on number 4.)
Place a little coconut oil or ghee in the pan. Place your muffins in the pan and cook for 5 minutes.
Flip them over and press down on them with a spatula. Place a lid over the pan for the muffins to cook inside. After 5 minutes on the other side with the lid on top, take the lid off and remove them from the pan to cool.
*Whatever you do, do not flip them more than once.
Place muffins on a cooling rack to cool.
Slice and eat!
You can also store these in the freezer. What I do is slice them in half, put them in a freezer bag and place in the freezer.
*Here’s a video showing how to add the flour into the English muffin dough with a scraper:
References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2579627/
https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/taste-disorders#6
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/05/05/526750174/why-taste-buds-dull-as-we-age
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/263176.php
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