English Muffin Bread

Recently I realized how great home-baked bread really is.  It smells great, it's great warm from the oven, and it's fun to make.  At some point I will be buying the Breville BBM800XL Custom Loaf Bread Maker because I have three other Breville appliances in my kitchen that I love.  At the moment I can make great loaves with my KitchenAid stand mixer (now going on 13 years old) using the dough hook, or with just a bowl and wooden spoon.

Bread is new territory for me.  The multi-step process seemed intimidating.  Rising dough and warm spots in the kitchen and refrigerating overnight and hollow noises -- I mean really, just too many steps that I didn't fully understand.  But I have become a more confident baker, and King Arthur Flour has a lot to do with that.  Two main ingredients have really taken my baking to the next level --King Arthur flours and Kerrygold butter.  Once my recipes started TASTING so amazing, I started paying more attention to technique and nuances to make things I'm really proud of.

I started with boxed bread mixes from King Arthur.  I had good results with those, so now I'm trying recipes from scratch.  First I tried brioche, then a country white loaf, and tonight I'm making English muffin bread.  Brioche was pretty challenging, so I think this bread I'm making tonight will be much easier.  This recipe makes two loaves in smaller pans (8X4).

5 cups all-purpose flour
4 1/2 tsp dry active yeast
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 cups warm milk
1/2 cup warm water
cornmeal

In my KitchenAid mixer I added the yeast, sugar, salt, milk, and water.  I gently stirred in half the flour.  Let this sit for 5 minutes for the yeast to activate.  The activation happens from the warm liquids and the yeast eating up the sugar.  You will see bubbles forming in the dough.  This is perfect.  If you aren't seeing bubbles, you may need to set your bowl in a warm place in the kitchen to encourage the reaction.  When the top is completely covered in bubbles, add the remaining flour in 2-3 additions.  This will be easier if you use a wooden spoon at this point, as the dough gets quite sticky and thick.  Using the mixer will probably OVER-mix the dough, which will make tough bread.  Stir gently to incorporate all the flour.

Grease the bread pans on all sides with whatever spray or oil you like.  I use organic vegetable shortening.  Once they are greased, sprinkle cornmeal generously all over the sides to coat the pan.  Your oil or butter will help it adhere.  Tap out the excess.  Divide the dough in half and roughly shape a loaf that fills the pan from end to end.  It will be a bit sticky, but it's okay.  It may even look a bit ugly, but it's still going to be okay.  First we work on taste and then we work on presentation.  Do the same with the second loaf.

Cover the loaves and put them in a warm spot to rise.  I preheat the oven to 400 degrees F at this point and put the loaves on top of the oven covered with a clean dish towel.  The heat from the oven helps the loaves rise.  The loaves are ready to bake when the volume has doubled in the pan or the dough rises higher than the top of the pan (30 minutes to 1 hour).  Just before you are ready to put them in the oven, sprinkle more cornmeal on top.

Bake at 400 for 30 minutes.  The bread will brown nicely and has a nice hollow noise when you tap it.  Cool the loaves completely on a wire rack.  I actually put on oven mitts and removed the loaves from their pans to cool.

Cut loaves with a long serrated knife.  This type of bread will be great with butter and jelly, or my daughter's favorite of peanut butter and honey.  Mmm, nooks and crannies...

*Evening edit:  We couldn't wait to taste it, so we all had a warm slice.  My daughter and I had ours with butter and Bonne Maman strawberry preserves, and Eric smeared his slice with Stonewall Kitchen's fig and walnut butter.  We are impressed.