English Muffin Bread

[KYHeirloomer]

Although we bake a lot of different breads, we've settled on three recipes as our everyday breads. One of them is this recipe that came off the back of the King Arther bread flour package:

English Muffin Bread

1/2 cup cornmeal
6 cups bread flour]
5 tsp active dry yeast (or two envelopes)
1 tbls sugar
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 cps milk
1/2 cup water

Grease two loaf pans. Sprinklw with cornmeal, distriubte evenly to coat. Discard any excess.

In a bowl combine 3 cups flour, yeast, sugar, salt and baking soda. Heat mile and water until very warm. Stir into the dry ingredients, adding up to 3 cups flour until a stiff batter is formed. Pour into the prepared pans.

Cover and let rise about 45 minutes.

Bake at 400F for 25 minutes.

Note: this will make two standard sized (one pound) loaf pans, which are actually smaller than regular bread. If you use the larger pans, as I do, increase all the ingredients by 50%.

[Cook Chatty Cathy]

Hi KYH,

I hope you get that kitchen with all the lovley extras one day soon! You do dream big I must say

I am interested in this recipe, can you let me know how the bread turns out? Is it real dense like an English Muffin? Just kind of on a kick right now to discover as many different breads as I can.

I love dark pumpernickle, but have always been a wee bit intimidated to try my hand at it, I know that sounds silly, but I just hate to buy all the good flour and stuff to make it and then find out it is not at all what I am used to (which of course is store bought!) which I love. Have you any knowledge of that type bread baking? (Rye, Pumpernickle, etc.)

Thank you, Cathy

[KYHeirloomer]

Cathy, whole grain breads can be a bit more difficult that white breads. Too often they turn out barely risen, chewy bricks. All has to do with gluten development and enzyme action. This gets worse with things like pumpernickel, which have heavy flavorings like molassas.

Best bet is to start with what are called "transitional" breads. These are doughs that use regular white bread flour as well as whole grain. With these, you get the gluten development from the bread flour with the taste of the whole grains.

BTW, most store bought (if you mean at the market, rather than at a bakery) "whole wheat" "multi-grain" and other whole grain breads actually are transitional. Check the labels if you don't believe me.

Also, you can substitute up to 25% whole grain flour in any bread recipe with no poor effects.

As you progress to true whole grains there are ways of increasing gluten development. Sometimes additives do it, and many people go that route.

A better bet, in my experience, is to get a copy of Peter Reinhart's new book "Whole Grain Breads." After much experimentation, consultation with other artisan bakers, and using more than 300 field testers, he came up with ways to use delayed fermentation and preferments with whole grains. The results are spectacular.

I'd never been successful getting a whole grain bread to rise properly and give me the light, open crumb you find in store-bought bread. But from the first, using his techniques, all that changed. I've made four different breads from his book, and they all came out perfect.

[Cook Chatty Cathy]

Thank You KYH I will sure have to get a copy of that book. I am so glad we have help available to us for such things. Man if I ever get started on baking homemade Rye, Pumpernickle and such....WOW I don't know what might happen!

Thanks so much, Cathy

[hayden23]

Thanks for the recipe. Whenever I try to bake biscuits they always seem to come out tough. Is it a lack of butter?

[Mama Mangia]

BAKING PERFECT BISCUITS

Follow this simple seven-step process for perfect biscuits every time.

Stir the flour to loosen it up before measuring. Measure the flour by lightly spooning it into a measuring cup.

Cut in shortening with a pastry blender (or with two knives in a crisscross motion) until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Cutting in distributes bits of shortening throughout the flour before the liquid is added. As the biscuits bake, the shortening melts in pockets which produces the tender, flaky layers. For extra-flaky biscuits, leave the shortening in larger, pea-sized chunks. Lard or butter may be substituted for the shortening.

Mix by making a well in the dry ingredients and adding the liquid all at once. Stir with a fork only until a soft ball of dough forms and the mixture leaves the sides of the bowl. The dough should be soft. If the dough is dry, add an additional 1 to 2 tablespoons milk. Using buttermilk instead of milk will give the biscuits a tangier flavor and moister texture.

Knead by turning the dough out onto a floured surface or pastry cloth. Roll the dough around to lightly coat it with flour. Knead just enough to thoroughly combine the ingredients, 10 to 12 times.

Roll out the dough with a rolling pin to an even 1/2-inch thickness. Biscuits double in height during baking.

Cut with a floured cutter. Push any leftover dough scraps together and gently reroll them.

Bake in a preheated 450 degrees F. oven on a lightly greased baking sheet. For a golden crust, use a shiny baking sheet. Dark cookie sheets will cause the biscuits to over-brown on the bottom. For crusty sides, place the biscuits 1 inch apart. For soft sides, place them close together. Brush hot biscuits with melted butter or margarine, if desired.




Let me make three suggestions for tender, flaky biscuits:

1. Use the right flour. Never use bread flour but use a soft, low protein flour. The proteins in wheat flour, when hydrated and worked, create the gluten strands that make our breads chewy. A pastry or cake flour has less protein. All-purpose flours have less protein than bread flours.

2. Don't overwork the dough. Working the dough develops the gluten. Handle the dough as little as possible.

3. Keep your butter and dough as cold as possible. If you are using butter in your biscuits, the trick is to keep it a solid, not a liquid. If the butter gets warm and melts as you handle the dough, the texture of the product will be very much different. With little bits of butter imbedded in the dough, those bits will melt during baking, create steam, and make for flaky separations in the biscuit.