The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

English Muffin loaves, my favorite recipe done as a loaf

jlewis30's picture
jlewis30

English Muffin loaves, my favorite recipe done as a loaf

I just tried my Easy English Muffins as a loaf rather than as griddle bread and I think it worked out well. I used the recipe unaltered from what I normally do to make English Muffins, just a loaded them up for a final proof in small loaf pans. I sprayed the pans with oil and coated them generously with corn meal, filled about 2/3 up with dough, and sprinkled the top with more corn meal. I heated the oven to 500 then turned it down to 350 about 5 minutes in to baking. They had a nice oven spring (nothing too dramatic) and cooked beautifully in about 30 minutes. 

The final loaf has a lovely crisp crust and moist delicious crumb with many respectable sized holes. I use a lot of honey in my formula (I use even more than I listed in the recipe), because I mostly eat this at breakfast with an egg or some sharp cheese, both of which are favorable with the sweetness. It can be cut way back if you prefer less of that flavor (I do a sourdough version when I want a less sweet formulation).

Here is the dough after proofing, ready for the oven

After baking there is a nice golden color, the crust is very crisp and wonderful. I think I did too many loaves at once and the sides in the pan were more pale than ideal, but all were cooked through and not gummy.

We busted in to the first loaf way to soon but I got an OK picture of the interior. The loaves that cooled properly were even better, though we all enjoyed the sacraficial butter carrier just fine =P. You can see there are tons of nice big holes to melt in to, nom nom nom.

These were smaller sized bread pans, as I was concerned with the sugary dough getting too brown befor the interior was done. I will try the bigger size pan next time since that will make a better egg sammach. I still think I prefer doing regular English Muffins on the griddle, but making them in to loaves did save some production time, and make some darn amazing toast for mah eggs.

Here is a fully cooled loaf, pardon my terribad phone camera, the real camera took a swan dive recently and is recovering.

AnnaInNC's picture
AnnaInNC

looks so good and doesn't seem to take much time.

Thank you !

anna

 

jlewis30's picture
jlewis30

It is very easy, I have yet to make a bad batch (well, once I made the dough too thin, thinking I would get a fluffier muffin, but I got a bad pancake instead). I make the English Muffins about once a week, since my sons will no longer accept Thomas' as their baseline for toaster muffins.