English Muffin Bread

By mplsjess

Ingredients

• Cornmeal
• 5 cups (27 1/2 ounces) bread flour
• 4 1/2 teaspoons instant or rapid-rise yeast
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt (fine/table salt)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 cups whole milk, heated to 120°F

Details

Servings 2
Adapted from lottieanddoof.com

Preparation

Step 1

MAKES 2 LOAVES

3 cups whole milk, heated to 120°F

Grease two 8½ by 4½-inch loaf pans and dust with the cornmeal. Combine the bread flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and baking soda in large bowl. Stir in the hot milk until thoroughly combined. Cover dough with greased plastic wrap (so it doesn’t stick to top of dough) and let rise in warm place for 30 minutes, or until dough is bubbly and has doubled in size.

Stir dough to deflate and divide between prepared loaf pans, pushing into corners with greased rubber spatula. (Pans should be about two-thirds full.) Cover pans with greased plastic and let dough rise in warm place until it reaches edge of pans, about 30 minutes. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375°F.

I grew up on English Muffin Bread! My mom had the Fleischmann’s Yeast magazine ad with the recipe for it cut out and pasted into her recipe notebook. I still make it from that recipe.

I LOVE English Muffin Bread! I like it better than english muffins, actually ..at least I think so. I haven’t tested that theory in a while. This recipe is going on my list of “things to make VERY soon.”

Yes to all of this! I’ve been wanting to make English muffins for a while, but every time I contemplate it I feel far too lazy to throw each one on the griddle. I think that English muffin bread is the perfect solution!

Also, you’re right on in your diagnosis of Kinfolk. At first I was seduced by the beautiful photographs, but the writing put me off and I couldn’t figure out why. Humour! It is always the secret ingredient that makes good writing great.

This muffin loaf sounds much easier to make than English muffins themselves. I will definitely try it out. I think the best English muffins can be found at Marks & Spencer if you visit the UK try them out, maybe they should think about a muffin loaf too!

Tim, your writing in this piece is beautiful: “a gentle reminder that sometimes the roots of things are in places we can’t imagine” and “the origins of the renewed popularity of toast to be full of love and tenderness and not irony or superficiality.

The link you provided about the toast and coconut shop and the woman behind it is haunting me. In a good way, but still. I can’t shake it, or stop thinking about her life. Thanks for sharing that link.

Thanks for doing this long, past-due post. My mom would routinely make homemade bread, when I was growing up. The best use of it, from the taste buds of even a small child – was as toast! I’ve tried to reproduce hers a time or two, for the sole purpose of toasting it. Your post is inspiring me to give it yet another whirl!

Tim – if/when you come to San Francisco, you will have to stop by the Mill. It is the epitome of hipster toast. Also, out by the ocean, there’s a tiny little coffee shop that makes the most amazing cinnamon toast. I would say, “who knew” but you called it :)

This bread looks wonderful. Was just discussing the toast “fad” with friends recently, and I said that unfortunately, not many people seem to know how to make really good toast, so this is something I fully support! :-) My aunt used to make bread in coffee cans. Whenever I would go to her house overnight, she would make toast with cinnamon sugar and we’d sit up and watch British shows on PBS. Thanks for bringing back that memory!

English muffin bread is the best. There was a recipe printed in the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook (the… 2005 edition, maybe?) for it that I think is very similar. One of the best things I have ever done with it: mix in some chopped fresh rosemary, and then it only wants for butter. Mmmmmm.

Last night toasted, buttered, dipped in maple syrup. Then with eggs and marmalade (separate slices) for breakfast, then with arugula, tomatoes, and veggie pate for lunch today. Dinner will likely be some variation on Welsh Rarebit since I can’t seem to stop devouring it.