Here's what we all need right now - BREAD. Bread for toast, bread for sandwiches, bread for slathering with butter, bread for comforting our souls. Yay, bread!
This English Muffin bread is everything you want it to be. It has all of those "nooks and crannies" we all love, it has the crunchy cornmeal "crust," and it tastes so much better than store-bought English muffins. We've already eaten it toasted with butter, with jam, as a grilled cheese sandwich, and I'm planning on English muffin pizzas very soon!
The recipe comes from my friend Rebecca Lindamood's latest book,
Ready, Set, Dough! Beginner Breads for All Occasions. (Rebecca is the brains behind the addictive blog,
Foodie with Family.)
Let me tell you...NOW is the perfect time to purchase this book. With flour, water, and yeast, you can create magic while being sequestered at home. (Psst...the book is also available on Kindle.)
In
the book, you'll find recipes for basic breads, pizza dough, rolls, garlic knots, bagels, cornbread...I could go on. There are recipes for using bread, like Caprese Cornbread Panzanella and Tuscan Bread Soup! You need this cookbook!
Two things: this English Muffin bread requires next to zero effort. Really.
I'm not sure I've made an easier bread recipe. You stir it with a spoon! There's no kneading! Oh, and it makes TWO loaves! We're enjoying one now, and I have one tucked away in the freezer for later. I anticipate making this many, many times during our social distancing.
The pans are coated in cornmeal for that classic "crust."
Peek-a-boo! Two rises, but no kneading. The rises are relatively short, too - just 1 hour and another for 30 minutes.
I need to point out that the bread gets brushed with melted butter not once - but twice. Hellooooooo, gorgeous!
Tips for using what you have...1. the bread can be made with all-purpose or bread flour. I have both, so I mixed them in the recipe. 2. I used salted butter, but you can use unsalted.
English Muffin Bread
{from
Ready, Set, Dough! by Rebecca Lindamood}
1 pound, 9 ounces (5 3/4 cup) flour: a mix of all-purpose and bread flour
2 3/4 cup warm water
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon + 1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon + 1 1/4 teaspoon instant or active dry yeast
non-stick cooking spray
cornmeal
1/3 cup melted salted butter, divided
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, water, salt, sugar, and yeast until no dry pockets remain. The dough will be shaggy and very sticky. Spray a piece of plastic wrap and place loosely over the bowl. Let rise for about 1 hour, until puffy and about doubled in size.
Meanwhile, coat two 8x4" loaf pans, bottoms and sides with nonstick spray. Coat with cornmeal, tapping out the excess.
Coat hands with oil or spray. Divide the dough between the two prepared pans, filling just halfway. (You may have a bit of extra dough.) Cover loosely with the coated plastic wrap and let rise about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350.
Place the pans on the center rack and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and brush the surface of each with melted butter, using about half of the butter. Reserve the rest. Continue baking for 10 minutes more.
Immediately tip the loaves out of the pans and place on a cooling rack. Brush all sides with the melted butter. Cool completely before slicing.
To freeze, cool completely, Double wrap in plastic wrap, then in foil. Thaw on the counter for a few hours.
Now, while Amazon is still operating, go
buy this book! (And maybe
some yeast.)
