English Muffin Bread

This is a re-post of an older post.  I made this and devoured it almost immediately (with the help of my husband) so originally, there were no pictures.  Now, there are pictures.  Also, I highly recommend you make this.  Right now.  Go.

Ingredients (adapted from One Good Thing by Jillee):

• 5 1/2 cups warm milk
• 3 packages (each package is 2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 11 cups bread flour

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients together.
2. Let rise for 30 – 60 minutes (until about doubled).
3. Spoon into (4) well greased (and floured) loaf pans.
4. Let rise in pans until dough reaches the top of the pans (30 – 60 minutes).
5. Bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until golden brown.
6. 10 minutes before done, brush with melted butter.  Bread will be moist at first, so allow to cool completely before cutting.

My favorite part of this recipe is that I get to throw all the ingredients in the bowl, mix, and watch.  Most yeast bread recipes require the yeast to sit in vaguely warm water and activate.  This may be why the texture is so much moister and spongier than other yeast breads.

You can eat this bread as-is, but toasting slices is so worth the wait.  I did notice that I needed to toast a single piece on the “7” setting on my toaster oven.  This might be because it is such a moist bread.  Honey, jam, butter, or other bread-spreads are all fantastic on this bread!  It lasts barely two days in our house if we don’t control ourselves (I usually half the recipe to make just two loaves just for this reason).

A few notes:

• On this go-round, I ended up having to let the dough sit overnight because I didn’t have time to bake it the same day.  While it still ended up tasting really good, but there was an additional fermented “sourdough” flavor, not unlike the flavor I like added to my pizza dough.  I would suggest that you don’t let it sit overnight.  Try to bake these the same day.
• You’ll notice that the baked pictures look sort of funny and are smaller than the risen picture.  This is because they sat overnight.  Normally, the baked bread would be the same size as the pre-baked risen dough.
• Lastly, I forgot to let the dough rise in the bowl.  This didn’t seem to affect the flavor or texture.  I just let the dough rise for twice as long in the pans.

Making the dough.

Ready to rise.

RISEN.

This looks funny because I let the dough sit overnight. Don’t do that.

Nom Nom!

Delicious with honey.