ATK's English Muffin Bread

By garciamoss

We love English muffins for their crunchy crust, chewy interior, and many nooks and crannies. We looked for the same great qualities in a quick, easy loaf bread.

We’ve taken our favorite English muffin recipe and translated it into a simple bread recipe that toasts and tastes like English muffins but with half the work. We prefer bread flour in this recipe for its stronger gluten proteins, which give this loaf a chewy yet light consistency. Bread flour also has the ability to absorb more water than AP flour, an important aspect since this is a fairly wet and sticky batter/dough. The resulting crumb has a solid structure and consistent holes.

Ingredients

• Cornmeal
• 5 cups (27 1/2 ounces) bread flour
• 4 1/2 teaspoons instant or rapid-rise yeast
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 cups whole milk, heated to 120 degrees

Details

Adapted from cookscountry.com

Preparation

Step 1

1. Grease two 8½ by 4½-inch loaf pans and dust with cornmeal. Combine flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and baking soda in large bowl. Stir in hot milk until combined, about 1 minute. Cover dough with greased plastic wrap and let rise in warm place for 30 minutes, or until dough is bubbly and has doubled.

2. Stir dough and divide between prepared loaf pans, pushing into corners with greased rubber spatula. (Pans should be about two-thirds full.) Cover pans with greased plastic and let dough rise in warm place until it reaches edge of pans, about 30 minutes. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees.

3. Discard plastic and transfer pans to oven. Bake until bread is well browned and registers 200 degrees, about 30 minutes, rotating and switching pans halfway through baking. Turn bread out onto wire rack and let cool completely, about 1 hour. Slice, toast, and serve.