English Muffin Bread and Secret Recipe Club

For April’s Secret Recipe Club, where food bloggers are paired and reveal their partner (and what they prepared) on a designated day, I was assigned Lynne’s 365 Days of Baking and More. She started her blog with the sole purpose of baking for 365 consecutive days. Wow. Craig would love that. (Sorry, babe, it ain’t happenin’.) Lynn continued blogging beyond a year and although she does have an extensive list of all kinds of baked goods, she also has a variety of savory foodstuff as well.

Her English muffin bread, something on my culinary to-do list, caught my eye. Craig eats a Trader Joe’s British muffin every day, and as of late, even though we don’t eat a lot of bread, any thing with yeast is of interest because of the challenge it presents. So baking this was an easy decision. Because I have limited bread baking experience, I cut Lynne’s recipe in half to make one loaf, and I substituted white whole wheat flour for half of the all purpose, and I had to add a quarter cup more water to get the dough smooth. One of her comments suggested increasing the baking soda to get the nooks and crannies typically found in commercial English muffins, which I also did. The recipe below reflects the changes I made.
The result? Success. I even surprised myself how tasty it turned out, and it’s very simple to make. I’m pretty excited to find something else on Lynne’s blog to continue boosting my baking confidence.
English Muffin Bread

Butter and cornmeal
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, divided
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour, divided
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cups milk
1/4  - 1/2 cup water

Prepare an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan by greasing it with butter and cover with cornmeal; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together half the flours, yeast, sugar, salt and baking soda.

In a small saucepan over low, heat the milk and water to very warm, between 120 - 130 degrees F. Add to the flour mixture and thoroughly combine. Gradually add the remaining flour. Place the dough in the prepared loaf pan.
Cover the pan with a towel and place in a draft-free, warm spot to rise for 1 1/2 hours. (I heated the oven to 170 degrees F. and then turned it off and placed the pan in the oven to rise.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Place pan in the oven and bake for 25 minutes. Immediately remove loaf from the pan and place on a wire rack to cool.

It turns out English muffin bread is tasty more than just for breakfast. Craig used it for garlic cheese bread, and it was perfect.

20 comments:

  1. I've made this before too...and it's definitely a family favorite!

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    1. Jen, thanks for stopping by. This was really good, much easier than I thought. A keeper for sure!

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  2. Craig, otherwise known as DHApril 22, 2013

    We don't have much homemade bread around here but I've suggested we start - and use this recipe as a base. It was great.

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  3. Denise, I'm SO glad you guys enjoyed this!! Great changes, too! Love the use of the whole wheat flour - will have to try that. AND will definitely have to make it into that Garlic Cheese Bread, too!
    Thanks for making it!

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  4. I love homemade bread! Oh my gosh I could just devour this!

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    1. Not only was this delicious, it was relatively easy for a novice baker. Thanks for the comment.

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  5. Please send some over for breakfast tomorrow! :)

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    1. Debra, thanks. I would, but it was quickly consumed. So good.

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  6. I have wanted to make homemade English muffin bread for a while too, and I love your tip of adding extra nooks and crannies. I agree, definitely one of the best parts of an English muffin.

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    1. Next time, I will experiment with adding a bit of vinegar, which is also supposed to provide more nooks and crannies. The bread was great, but not many of those.

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  7. WOW - this sounds amazing and a must make soon. Will be pinning. Glad to be part of SRC group C with you.

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    1. Lisa, thanks so much for stopping by. Don't you love all the great recipes we are exposed to thru SRC?

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  8. Thats a lovely loaf of bread ... love the garlic bread version too!!! Stopping by from Group A!

    I'm hosting a giveaway on my blog and would love for you to be a part of it -
    http://www.myhobbielobbie.com/2013/04/a-few-of-my-favorite-things-and-giveaway.html

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    1. Trisha, appreciate that you stopped by from group A, and I will check out your giveaway. Thanks for letting me know.

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  9. I eat English Muffins on a regular basis, why haven't I ever tried baking some as a loaf? Adding it to my culinary to-do list.

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  10. This is so interesting to me because I've never seen English Muffins in bread form. I love to bake bread and look forward to trying out this one!

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  11. baking always scares me too. but i think if you have faith in your yeast the way we do with our talents in the kitchen (hopefully!), it'll all work out. at least that's what i've found.

    Happy SRC reveal from a group C member!!

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  12. Fun bread! I've been wanting to try this too. There's actually a James Beard version of English muffin bread that you can make in the microwave - sounds very weird, but Beard did know his bread. Anyway, really fun post - thanks.

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  13. Amazing recipe! I can't wait to try it.

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  14. That garlic bread looks to die for!

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