Daily Bread

English Muffin Bread. Yum!

There’s something about the confluence of this week’s events that leads me to one conclusion: I need to bake. If I’m feeling blue, firing up the oven and pulling out mixing bowls is my go-to remedy. Even if I’m crying while I’m measuring and mixing, having a recipe to follow amidst uncertainty really does help. And this day in particular, I find myself grasping on the life raft of the most elemental food: bread.

Give us this day our daily bread… Yep, today praying seems in order. And since when is religion the sole domain of a political party? Aren’t we called to care for the weak, feed the poor, and stand up for the marginalized?  All of us? The sanctimonious “prosperity gospel” makes no sense to me. None. Quick! Preheat the oven! The slogan of the Penzeys spice company is: “Love people. Cook them tasty food.” Now that makes sense to me.

About bread baking. I realize that to most people the notion of baking ones own bread seems a bit daft. It’s not that expensive to buy, and it takes a lot of time to make. Not only that, but it’s tricky to make. After all that mixing and kneading and rising, there’s a high probability that ones loaf will resemble a brick. I know; I’ve been there. And truth be told, I still go there from time to time. But wait! I have a yeasted bread recipe that’s super easy and almost guaranteed to come out well. It’s an english muffin toasting bread, and it requires no kneading at all. Zero. The idea is that those little air bubbles that kneading eliminates are actually a key feature of this bread. The air bubbles make those nifty “nooks and crannies” to hold butter. Sweet!

I use an America’s Test Kitchen recipe because it has the fewest ingredients. It has also been tested. Alot. And it got good grades. Whatever. This recipe requires bread flour, though, so if you don’t have any, you could use the King Arthur Flour recipe that uses all-purpose flour. (Bread flour gives the loaf its hearty, chewy texture.) Mind you, KAF flour is higher in gluten then, say, Gold Medal, but let’s not get sucked into minutia! I’ve halved the ATK recipe to make a single loaf. You could certainly double it. Here goes:

English Muffin Bread

2 1/2 cups bread flour (thats 13.75 ounces)

2 1/4 teaspoons instant or rapid rise yeast (that’s one packet)

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups whole milk heated to 120 degrees (very warm)

A bit of cornmeal for the pan

Beau keeping watch

Combine flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl. Stir in the hot milk until combined, about 1 minute, then cover with a piece of plastic wrap. Give it a spritz of baking spray for good measure. Here’s a tip! I use a shower cap to cover the bowl. It’s super easy, and I can poof it up to make sure the rising dough doesn’t stick to it. (Yes, I am a shower cap kleptomaniac. Hotels beware.)

Place the bowl in a warm place and leave it to rise for at least 30 minutes (mine took more like 45 minutes because my house is on the cool side). It’s ready for the next step when it’s about doubled in size and the dough looks bubbly. That’s the yeast at work. While the dough is rising, prepare an 8 1/2 X 4 1/2-inch bread pan by spraying it and dusting the inside with a bit of cornmeal. (If you don’t have cornmeal, just make sure the pan is well greased.)

Dough ready for the second rise

Give the doubled dough a stir, then scrape it out of the bowl into the prepared bread pan. Coax the dough into the corners of the pan (I use a moistened finger) and pop the shower cap (or piece of sprayed plastic wrap) back on top. Return it to the warm spot for another 30 minutes or so, until the dough rises up to the edge of the pan. During that second rise, it’s finally time to preheat the oven! 375 degrees.

Bake the bread on the middle rack of the oven, rotating it half-way through, for 3o minutes or until the loaf is nicely browned. (That’s 200 degrees in the middle of the loaf for those of you with a nifty food thermometer.) Take it out and tip the loaf out of the pan onto a wire cooling rack. Voila! (You did take off the shower cap before you put the pan in the oven. Didn’t you?)

It will take about an hour for the loaf to cool enough to slice, but go ahead and cut off an end before that, if you’d like. I find that letting bread cool completely makes cutting slices much easier. This bread is made for toasting (like an English Muffin), and it’s also excellent used for french toast. (Why do I always end up with Maple syrup?) Here’s a photo of a slice of toast topped with my homemade apple butter. Now that makes me feel better!