English Muffin Loaf

Posted in Baking, Bread, Breakfast, Grains, North American, Vegetarian

I clipped this recipe from a magazine over 25 years ago. It is a small bread and not meant for sandwiches but comes together quickly as it only needs to be risen once. It is a great homemade replacement for english muffins and is great with eggs for breakfast or just for toast and jam.

Ingredients

5-6 cups unbleached white flour
1 tbls sugar
2 teas salt
1/4 teas baking soda
2 pkg yeast or 4 1/2 teas
2 cups milk, scalded(see note)
1/2 cup water
cornmeal

Directions

Measure 4 cups of the flour into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the sugar, salt, baking soda and yeast. Using the paddle combine on low speed.
Place the milk and the water in a large glass measure and heat to 125F (quite warm) in the microwave or in a saucepan on the stove top.
Add the milk to the flour mixture and mix at low speed.
Change to the dough hook and add the remaining 1-2 cups of flour with the motor running. Adjust speed to compensate for the load on the mixer. Mix 2-3 minutes. The dough should be stiff.
Grease and dust with cornmeal two 8 1/2 X 4 1/2 pans. Cut dough into 2 pieces and put in pans sprinkling the tops of the loaves with cornmeal. Cover with a tea towel and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400 F (375 F Convection) Bake bread 30-45 minutes.
Dump from pans and cool on wire racks.

Note: I use evaporated milk to make bread as you are not required to “scald” evaporated milk. I also use the full fat evaporated milk and dilute it 50/50 with water. So in this recipe I use 1 cup of evaporated milk and 1 cup of water to replace 2 cups of milk. If you use the 1% or 2% evaporated milk DO NOT dilute. So you would use 2 cups 1% or 2% evaporated milk.

Also you can substitute 1 3/4 cups unsweetened almond milk and 3 tbls olive oil for the 2 cups of milk.