English Muffin Bread-printable

English Muffin Bread

6 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 packages(4 1/2 teaspoons) active dry yeast
2 cups milk
1/2 cup water
cornmeal for dusting pans

Combine 3 cups of all-purpose flour with the yeast, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a mixer bowl.

Heat liquids to 120-125 degrees(I do this in the microwave). Add warm liquids to dry ingredients in mixer bowl, and mix for 2 minutes. It will be rather runny at this point.

Add remaining flour and beat for two minutes. The dough should be quite thick at this point.

Spray two 9×5 inch loaf pans with nonstick spray and then sprinkle with cornmeal.

My recipe says to pour the dough into the pans, but this dough is way too thick to pour. I usually try to roughly divide it in two using a metal spoon, but I normally get it wrong and have to take some dough from one pan and put it in the other. You don’t have to worry about it being pristinely neat…the lumps and bumps will straighten themselves out as the dough rises. You do want the pans to have relatively equal amounts of dough, though, or the loaves will need different baking times.

Cover with a wet tea towel(the type of towel that is not fluffy!) and let it rise in a warm place for an hour.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes. Turn the loaves out of the pans and cool on a wire rack. Here’s what the finished product should look like.

Like English Muffins, this bread is at its best when it’s toasted and buttered(jelly is a good addition too). Because this dough has very little fat and sugar(which are preserving agents), it will only stay fresh for a few days on the countertop. It freezes well, though, so if you aren’t going eat it all promptly, it’s a good idea to put it in the freezer. We usually eat one loaf for dinner and then I freeze the other one to use on a busy day.