English Muffin Bread

Welcome to February's What's Baking!

We were challenged to bake bread this month and I immediately knew that I wanted to try my hand at the popular English Muffin Bread recipe that has been popping up on all sorts of blog recently. Ron and I love english muffins and they have been on my cooking bucket list for a long time (soon I will try to make them!). The nooks and crannies are what gets me with an english muffin. I love mine fresh from the toaster with a bit of peanut butter. I love how the warm muffin melts the peanut butter....I am drooling just thinking about it. I decided to use a recipe for English Muffin Bread from Playing with Flour (original recipe is from Cook's Country) because the recipe was simple and received great reviews!

This bread could not be easier to make! The thing that takes the longest is waiting for it to rise, and beyond that the oven does all the work! I was impatient waiting for the bread to cool, and was so happy to see tons of nooks and crannies when I sliced the bread to try a piece. I spread a little of my favorite wild blueberry jam from Bonne Maman on a fresh slice of bread and it was fantastic! I love fresh bread and am so happy for challenges like this to make me try something new and delicious.

Tomorrow Kellen is with my mom for the day and he has his first swimming lesson! I am so excited for him, and can't wait to hear all of his stories! He loved swimming so much the last few times we went I couldn't help, but sign him up for class to give him more time in the pool.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour

2 1/4 tsp instant yeast

1/2 Tbl sugar

1/2  tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups whole milk, heated to 120 degrees

Cornmeal, for pan

Instructions

Whisk flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and baking soda into a large mixing bowl. Make a small well in the center and add the warmed milk into it.  Stir with a wooden spoon until combined and dough starts pulling away from the sides of the bowl.

Lightly spray plastic wrap with vegetable oil and tightly cover the bowl.  Let sit in a warm place to rise for 30 minutes.  

Spray a 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pans with cooking spray and dust with cornmeal. Give dough a stir with knock it down a bit.   The batter will be sticky and should fill the pans about 2/3 of the way.  Use a spatula to push the dough into the corners.  Cover the pans with greased plastic wrap.  Let sit to rise for 30 minutes. The dough should rise near to the top of the pan.

Bake in a 375 degree oven, in the middle rack for 30 minutes, rotating halfway through.  The internal temperature of the finished loaf should be 200 degrees when done.  

Makes 1 loaf