English Muffin Bread and Very Little Bother Bread—Secret Recipe Club

I love this bread!  I made this for the Secret Recipe Club from my assigned blog this month.  I seriously don’t eat white bread, like almost never.  I just know that whole wheat bread is much better for me and I most often prefer it, especially over store bought bread.  When I saw this bread on Shannon’s blog, Searching For Dessert, I remembered seeing it before other places online and wanting to make it, but never had.  Kevin likes English muffins so I figured he’d like it, too.  The loaf of bread was eaten pretty quickly and I have to admit, I ate more slices of it than I thought I would—a couple pieces one day, a couple the next. 

I love the denseness of it and all the little nooks and crannies that perfectly hold melting butter and my other favorite, honey. 

While I certainly think the bread is good freshly sliced (and it slices so nicely), my favorite way to have it is toasted, with the aforementioned butter and honey.

Love the crispy crust and still tender middle.   I adapted Shannon’s recipe ever-so-slightly.  Check out her English Muffin Bread, she added a little cinnamon to it.  I decided this first time to leave it out.  I also needed more flour than she used.

English Muffin Bread, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Searching For Dessert

3  1/3 cups all purpose flour (I used unbleached)

2  1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast (which is the same as one packet)

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup milk (I used 2%)

1/4 cup water

1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, whisk together one and a half cups of flour, the yeast, and baking soda. Heat in a small saucepan over medium heat the milk, water, sugar and salt just until warm.  Stir to combine the sugar and salt.  Remove from heat before it is hot.  Stir the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and combine well.  Stir in one and a half cups of flour.  If the dough is still quite sticky, add some of the remaining 1/3 cup flour to the countertop and put the dough on top of it and begin working in some of the flour, adding more of the remaining 1/3 cup until it isn’t too sticky.  It only needs to be kneaded just until it all comes together and isn’t too sticky to shape. 

Shape it into a loaf and place it in an 8x4 inch loaf pan that is greased.  Cover the pan with plastic wrap sprayed lightly with cooking spray and let it rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes.  After about 30 minutes, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Bake the bread for 25 minutes.  Remove the bread from the pan and let it cool on a wire rack until you just can’t stand it anymore and need to slice in to it. ;)

Ready to bake with no kneading and just 45 minutes rise time.

Perfect in just 25 minutes.

I also made this bread from Shannon’s blog, Searching For Dessert because I love the name of it and the idea of it being easy!  Very Little Bother Bread  The recipe makes enough for two loaves, so I halved it and only made one loaf.  It was good and easy.  The mixer does the short time of kneading.  The dough then goes through two 30 minute rise times, then is shaped and put in the pan for one more 30 minute rising.  Baked, then—with very little bother, you have a great homemade bread.  I used about half whole wheat flour and half all purpose flour.

Very Little Bother Bread

Other recipes I printed out from Shannon’s blog and plan to try soon are---

Southwest Quinoa Sliders

Crisped Rice Cookies

Banana Brownies with Peanut Butter Drizzle  (Shannon loves creating all kinds of different flavored brownies, so do I!)

There is so much more deliciousness on Shannon’s blog.  Check it out, especially if you are Searching For Dessert. ;)