English Muffin Bread

English muffins were a staple at my house growing up.  My mom often left a breakfast sandwich for me on the counter when I was growing up.  Meaning I’d come upstairs and there, on a toasted English muffin, would be a fried egg, slice of cheese, and either a slice of bacon or ham if it was a good day.  I would simply re-heat and off I went.  No need for the morning drive-thru line up for my egg Mcmuffin.

I thought everybody ate English muffins.  Then one day before they started showing up in the stores here in Mexico, when I was complaining about how much I missed them, a friend from Argentina asked what it was.  I was so excited to explain it to her, although it wasn’t easy.  What’s so special about it? I couldn’t really differentiate it.  And when she finally had one of her own, she said it wasn’t much different than any toast and didn’t see the big deal.

Maybe it was all in my head? Or maybe it’s just that memories are so tied up with food? Whatever the reason, I still loved them and so when I originally tried this bread recipe, I was sooooooooooooo veeeeeeeeeeeery pleased and so were my family.  It’s super easy and freezes well and is great alone, toasted with butter, or made into that breakie sandwich.

Try it.  Double the recipe and you’ll have four loaves!  The first will disappear on sight so it’s probably a good idea.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 1/4 cups warm water
• 3 1/2 teaspoons quick acting yeast
• 1 TAB salt
• 1 1/2 TAB sugar
• 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS:

Add yeast to warm water and stir to combine.  Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and whisk to combine.  Add water mixture to flour and combine well.  Add more flour by the tablespoon if the dough is too wet, you don’t want it sticking to the bowl. Spoon into two well-greased loaf pans.  Let bread rise in pans until dough reaches the top of the pans (probably about an hour but depends on the temperature of your room). Bake in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes or until golden brown.  About five minutes before it’s ready, brush melted butter on top.  Remove from oven and let cool on cooling racks.  Let cool completely before cutting.

Makes 2 loaves.