English Muffin Toasting Bread

Submitted by senseicheryl

"This recipe was featured in an email today from the www.kingarthurflour.com website. "This yeasty, coarse-textured bread makes the best toast ever, a perfect partner to fresh summer jam or preserves. A purely mix-it-slap-in-the-pan-bake-and-eat-it loaf, it's earned a place of honor in our King Arthur test kitchen Hall of Fame.""

 

• Ready In: 1hr 20mins
• Ingredients: 9
• Yields: 1 loaf of bread
• Serves: 12

ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons salt
• 1⁄4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon instant yeast
• 1 cup milk
• 1⁄4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil or 2 tablespoons olive oil
• cornmeal, to sprinkle in pan

directions

1. Whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and instant yeast.
2. Combine the milk, water, and oil in a microwave-safe bowl and heat to between 120°F and 130°F The liquid will feel very hot (hotter than lukewarm), but not so hot that it would scald you. As a reference point, the hottest water from your kitchen tap is probably around 120°F (unless your tap water is so hot that it burns you).
3. Pour the hot liquid into the bowl.
4. Beat at high speed for 1 minute. The dough will be very soft.
5. Lightly grease an 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan, and sprinkle the bottom and sides with cornmeal.
6. Scoop the soft dough into the pan, leveling it in the pan as much as possible.
7. Cover the pan, and let the dough rise till it's just barely crowned over the rim of the pan. When you look at the rim of the pan from eye level, you should see the dough, but it shouldn't be more than, say, 1/4" over the rim. This will take about 45 minutes to 1 hour, if you heated the liquid to the correct temperature and your kitchen isn't very cold. While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 400°F
8. Remove the cover, and bake the bread for 20 to 22 minutes, until it's golden brown and its interior temperature is 190°F
9. Remove the bread from the oven, and after 5 minutes, turn it out of the pan onto a rack to cool. Let the bread cool completely before slicing.

Reviews

[Andi Longmeadow Farm]

This is a delightful loaf that just begs for anything and everything to be put on top of this crusty, toasting bread. I followed the ingredients, but put the whole deal in the breadmaker, since I was out pruning fruit trees, and planting potatoes. This worked out perfectly! I followed my bread/makers instructions, adding the milk-water-oil first (after heating) added dry ingredients, and yeast on top. This is the best/toast ever. Will make this alot, so nice. Made for *I Recommend* tag game April 2009.

 

[sabessel]

What an awesome recipe! Definitely one I'll use again and again. I wanted to make two loaves, but didn't have enough AP flour. Used 4 cups AP and two cups of freshly ground whole wheat, but otherwise doubled the recipe exactly. The texture of this bread is wonderful and the flavor is out of this world. My crew wouldn't wait for it to cool completely, so it was still slightly warm when they cut it and enjoyed with elderberry jelly that I'd made this morning. Thanks so much for sharing such a great recipe!

 

[MichMondello]

Wow, made it this morning and will bake another tonight. So simple and so tasty!

 

[Gail11]

This is a delicious toasting bread that I have made with all bread flour and 1/2 bread flour and 1/2 wheat flour. Delicious each way! It's hard to keep a loaf around here. Sorry I forgot to review it before!

 

[Curlee]

Fantastic bread. I have made several loaves and absolutely love it. To make it a bit more healthy, I use 2 cups bread flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour and add 2 teaspoons of wheat gluten and only 2 teaspoons of sugar. I do the whole thing in the bread machine. Perfect toast for the morning. No more store bought english muffins in our house.