Friday, November 06, 2015

Cabin Baking: No-Knead English Muffin Bread

I like making bread. I saw this recipe for No-Knead English Muffin Bread on the I Believe I Can Fry blog and wondered if it would be easy (yes) and if the results would be tasty (yes). The only problem was it made two loaves. Wayne and I don’t eat much bread, so one loaf will last us a week. Cutting recipes in half doesn’t always work, but this one was very forgiving.

Here's my version that makes one loaf in a 5X9 inch pan.


No-Knead English Muffin Bread

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups warm water (around 110°F)
1 package (1/4 oz envelopes) Rapid Rise yeast
½ tablespoon salt
¾ tablespoon sugar
2 ¾ cups bread flour
Melted butter (optional)

Directions:

Heat the water. I used a thermometer so it didn’t get it too hot. Pour the warm water into a mixing bowl. Mix in sugar and the Rapid Rise yeast. Add the flour and salt, then mix until it's JUST combined. Don’t over mix.

The batter will be moist and sticky. Pour it into a greased 5x9 inch loaf pan and spread it out to the corners. Let the dough rise for 30-45 minutes in a warm place or until it doubles (mine took about an hour in the oven with the pilot heat).

Bake at 350°F for 35-45 minutes or until it's golden brown. You can brush the top with melted butter for the last 10 minutes of baking, but I opted to leave it off. 


Cool in the pan for five minutes then remove to finish cooling on a wire rack. Let the bread cool completely before slicing otherwise it will be too moist inside. The recipe says it must be cool all the way through for the bread to become dry.

It was hard not to cut into the loaf while it was still hot, but we restrained ourselves. The result was a rustic, firm loaf of bread that makes great toast for breakfast and garlic toast for dinner. I'm sure I'll make this recipe again when I need a quick loaf on the shelf. -- Margy

4 comments:

  1. I like that idea, with bad arthritis I can't knead and I don't have a machine that can do it either. Looks tasty!

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  2. I wonder if it will work with gluten free flour.

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  3. I've made this kind of bread before - it is delicious. I had not seen the instruction to let it cool completely - good idea - we've made the mistake of cutting too soon. I do love it for toast. And - when you are in Bellingham have you been down to Fir Island to see the Snow Geese? They are back!! We are going down tomorrow. My big camera is being repaired and won't be back until Tuesday - drat - guess we'll have to make more trips down - which we always do in the winter - Trumpeter Swans are next.

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  4. Great recipe - we will be making this tomorrow - thank you for sharing it. We have been making the regular no knead bread that sits overnight to rise and we always make two loaves and give one to neighbors. We can do the same with this recipe by making the full recipe for two loaves.

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We welcome your comments and questions. - Wayne and Margy