A Toast!

A little over five years ago when Husband and I got married, we had differing opinions on how to toast bread. Husband used a toaster. I had grown up with a toaster oven, and I gushed over how splendid it was to make cinnamon toast and mini pizzas on English muffins and who knows what else in a toaster oven. Being the kind and generous man that he is (and knowing that his wife is just weird sometimes), Husband let me get a toaster oven and that’s what we’ve had since. In those five-plus years, I think I’ve made cinnamon toast once. And I’ve never made mini pizzas. And it takes forever to make toast. How patient Husband is.

Since Baby is getting older and I want to be able to make toast in a reasonable amount of time, I decided we needed a real toaster. When I mentioned this to Husband he said, “Isn’t that what I wanted to begin with?” How sassy Husband is.

Anyway, we got one, and to initiate it I made English muffin bread. It’s quite easy, and it has all the joys of English muffins without having to knead or roll out the dough or cut out the muffins. Because I was lazy and didn’t want to open a new bag of all-purpose flour, I used whole wheat flour for two of the cups. It came out quite tasty.

English Muffin Bread
 
5 cups all-purpose flour, divided
2 packages (1/4 ounce each) active dry yeast (or 4 1/2 teaspoons of the loose stuff)
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups warm milk
1/2 cup warm water
cornmeal
 
In a large bowl, combine 2 cups flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and baking soda. Add warm milk and water; beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Beat on high for 3 minutes. Mix in remaining flour (batter will be sticky). Do not knead. Grease two 8 x 4-inch loaf pans. Sprinkle pans with cornmeal. Spoon batter into the pans and sprinkle cornmeal on top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes. Bake at 375° for 35 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans immediately and cool on wire racks. Slice and toast, preferably in an awesome new toaster.