English Muffin Bread
We love English muffins for their crunchy crust, chewy interior, and many nooks and crannies. We looked for the same great qualities in a quick, easy loaf bread. We’ve taken our favorite English muffin recipe and translated it into a simple bread recipe that toasts and tastes like English muffins but with half the work. We prefer bread flour in this recipe for its stronger gluten proteins, which give this loaf a chewy yet light consistency. Bread flour also has the ability to absorb more water than AP flour, an important aspect since this is a fairly wet and sticky batter/dough. The resulting crumb has a solid structure and consistent holes.
Servings: 2 loaves
Ingredients
- 5 cups bread flour (27 1/2 ounces/780 grams)
- 4 ½ teaspoons instant yeast or rapid-rise yeast
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3 cups whole milk heated to 120 degrees
Instructions
Make the dough:
- Grease two 8½ by 4½-inch loaf pans and dust with cornmeal.
- Combine the flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and baking soda in large bowl.
- Stir in the hot milk until combined, about 1 minute.
- Cover the dough with greased plastic wrap and let rise in warm place for 30 minutes, or until the dough is bubbly and has doubled.
Divide the dough:
- Stir the dough and divide it evenly between the prepared loaf pans, pushing it into the corners with a greased rubber spatula. (The pans should be about two-thirds full.)
- Cover the pans with greased plastic and let the dough rise in a warm place until it reaches the top edges of the pans, about 30 minutes.
- Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 375 degrees.
Bake and serve:
- Discard the plastic and transfer the pans to the oven.
- Bake until the bread is well browned and registers 200 degrees, about 30 minutes, rotating and switching the pans halfway through baking.
- Turn the bread out onto a wire rack and let cool completely, about 1 hour.
- Slice, toast, and serve.