Tag Archives: bread

What’s Great About English Muffin Bread? The Holes

The English Muffin History

First, let us get this out of the way. The English Muffin is NOT English. Samuel Bath Thomas gets credit for first making and promoting them as early as 1894, and the most famous English Muffin still bear his name. The American company, Bimbo Bakeries, now owns the brand, Thomas’.

When I saw a recipe for English Muffin bread on line, I was intrigued. When I saw how easy the creation of this bread would be, I got out the flour bin. I have made this great toasting bread several times now, and decided that even although it isn’t related to my English ancestors, I wanted to share the recipe with you.

Crumpets or Muffins?

By the way, in England, the “English” Muffins are simply known as Muffins, but in Ireland they are marketed at “American Muffins.” In England, you’re more likely to find crumpets on the menu than Muffins (English or otherwise), and in fact the baker who started the whole thing originally called them “toaster crumpets.”

One major difference between the two–crumpets contain baking soda which causes holes on top as well as inside. That makes the English Muffin Bread recipe more crumpet than muffin because it DOES have baking powder. This closeup shows that the English Crumpet(?) Bread has holes in the top.

I have always liked English Muffins, because of their main distinguishing characteristic–although they are smooth on the outside, holes cover the interior surface. Those holes provide little pockets to hold melted butter or drops of marmalade, jam or jelly. Mmmm, crunchy and soft and dripping with butter. Just think of strawberry butter dripping into all those holes! This bread mimics that characteristic of the muffin, like its cousins the English (or American) Muffin and the crumpet, I like it best toasted.

The English Muffin Recipe

My bread recipe comes from my favorite baking site, King Arthur Flour. Just a couple of comments.

Flexible pan size. I have made this in a 9″ bread pan instead of an 8 12″, and that works, too.

Thermometer. However, you will definitely be better off with a thermometer. Not only to measure the temperature of the liquids that you heat before mixing in, but also to test the bread’s degree of doneness. Don’t trust the looks of the outside crust, because when the outside tans, the inside may still be gooey.

The yeast. Note that the recipe calls for instant yeast which you mix in with the dry ingredients rather than regular/rapid rise yeast that goes into the liquid. Also, the recipe calls for one tablespoon of yeast. Unfortunately, that is ever so slightly more than one packet of yeast, if you buy your yeast in those strips of three small packets.

The cornmeal. While I have always used cornmeal when I made the bread, I did see some English Muffin recipes that call for semolina (Cream of Wheat will do the trick). Your choice.

So, on to the recipe. It really is simple. Only one rising that takes about an hour and a half. No kneading. (And if you have a bread machine, King Arthur Flour can give you a recipe for that, too.)

Once you’ve tried English Muffin bread, maybe you’d like to move on to English muffins. A search at King Arthur Flour will give you a recipe for them, also.

Bake Swiss New Year Bread

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Happy New Year

I’ll admit that I am a little late in wishing you a Happy New Year with this Swiss New Year Bread. I hope that I will get back to regular blogging, and intend to start with a collection of recipes that I used over the holidays.
Welcome back and thanks for reading.

Way back in November 2016, I shared a bread recipe used by my husband’s grandmother, Helen Kohler and his mother Agnes Badertscher. They used this incredibly delicious bread dough to make either rolls, loaf bread or coffee cake. My husband’s sister, Kay, told me that Grandma Kohler called it New Year Bread.

That seemed odd, because when I looked up Swiss New Year bread, I saw images of a braided loaf, and Granda Kohler, as far as we could remember, did not make braided bread. However, when I checked the Mennonite Cookbook that I like to refer to for traditional Swiss Mennonite recipes, I found a recipe for a braided New Year Bread that was very similar to Grandma Kohler’s recipe.

Sonnenberg Mennonite Cook Book — A collection of recipes from the Mennonite community where my husband grew up.

What is Zupfa?

In the Sonnenberg cookbook, I discovered a bread titled Zupfa And as is the rule in small communities like the Wayne County Ohio Mennonite community, my husband immediately recognized the name of the recipe contributor. Mrs. Merl Lehman, in fact is married to one of his not-too distant cousins.

I compared the two recipes–Grandma Kohler’s and cousin Mrs. Lehman’s Zupfa. The main difference between the two was that Grandma’s recipe included 1/2 cup of sugar. Additionally, she mixed the yeast with some sugar and water to proof it before mixing it in whereas Mrs. Lehman, mixed her yeast with the dry ingredients. And the Zupfa is a braided loaf that takes more than four hours to complete when you include all the waiting for multiple rising periods.

And what is Zupfa? As you may have suspected, Swiss New Year’s bread — a braided white bread.

Bread is Simple/Bread is Complicated

Note: Everyone makes bread with the same basic ingredients: flour, salt, yeast and water. However, it is amazing how many variations of bread exist by tweaks to that basic recipe. (For instance check out this very simple peasant bread). You can add eggs or shortening/butter, milk instead of water, or sugar. And of course there are a multiplicity of flour types, and you can add in fruit, nuts and seeds to the finished product. The shapes are different, the way you handle the dough, how many times it rises–all these variations to the simple basic four ingredients can make an enormous difference.

Swiss New Year Bread (Zupfa) braided dough before baking.

I think some people don’t try baking bread because bread making involves a kind of “baby sitting.” You can’t just mix up some stuff, pour it in a pan and put it in the oven. Zupfa particularly demonstrates that challenge. Although the work is not extensive, the baby sitting takes up more than three hours.

So here you have Swiss New Year’s Bread (Zupfa). Just remember:

Start early. (If you are in a hurry, bake the Peasant bread I linked above.)
Don’t be afraid of the braiding process. It probably won’t be perfect the first time–or in my case–ever.
I watched a couple of You Tube videos on braiding bread, and recommend you look for the King Arthur Flour video lesson. Plus a tip from another video–always pick up the bottom strand to fold over to the center.
You’ll notice if you are searching for tips on braiding bread, that you get a lot of challah recipes. The breads are very similar in appearance.

Swiss New Year Bread (Zupfa)

The Swiss New Year Bread (Zupfa) is not as complicated as you might think, but it does take a long time to make because of several risings–so plan ahead.

Course Bread

Cuisine Swiss

Keyword bread, Swiss

Prep Time 40

Cook Time 30

Resting/Rising 3 10

Servings 32

Ingredients

2 pkg dry yeast 4 1/2 teaspoons
6-7 C flour
1 tbsp salt
2 C Milk whole
1/2 C Butter plus some for brushing top
3 eggs for dough
1 egg for glaze
2 tsp water for glaze

Instructions

Mix 3 Cups of flour, yeast and salt in large bowl.
Heat milk with butter over low heat until just warm. If you are using an instand thermometer, you are shooting for 110-115 degrees. (I think of it as the temperature of baby’s bath water.) Mrs. Lehman adds that the butter does not have to completely melt.
Gradually add liquids to dry ingredients in bowl, Beat either by hand or electric mixer for at least two minutes.
Add one cup of flour and blend in.
Beat eggs slightly and add to the batter. Beat at high speed for two minutes, scraping the bowl occasionally.
Keep adding flour to handle easily, and stir in until no flour is visible.
Turn out on a lightly floured board and knead until smooth–five to ten minutes.
Grease another large bowl (or scrape out all remnants from mixing bowl and reuse). Shape dough in ball and turn it in the bowl so all sides are shiny with the butter. Leave sooth side up, cover with cloth or plastic wrap and let rise until double–about 1 1/2 hours.
Punch down gently, cover and let rise again until double–30-40 minutes.
Turn the dough out on board and divide in two parts. Make two rounds and let it rest 10-15 minutes.
Divide in two parts, and set one half aside, covered. Divide the half into three equal parts and roll each into a 14″ strand.
Using the three strands, place close together on lightly greased baking sheet. Braid the stands gently and loosely. Do not stretch.
Fasten ends and tuck under securely. Repeat the process with second half.
Brush the braided dough with softened butter, cover with damp cloth and let rise until double — 40-50 minutes.
Brush with egg yolk glaze and bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes. (190 degrees on instant thermometer inserted in center) Let rest on pan for ten minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. When totally cool, wrap tightly for storage or freezing if you are not eating the bread immediately.

Notes

Mrs. Lehman called for 7 1/4 to 7 1/2 cups of flour, which I found excessive.

I put the bowl of dough into an unheated oven with just the oven light on and that worked very well for the first rising periods. Just remember not to preheat the oven, until you get to the point where the braided dough is rising. You will let it rise on the counter or near but not on the stovetop while the oven heats.

When I was braiding the first loaf, at first I did not get the strands close enough together as I braided, so I had large lumps. It was not hard to unbraid it and start again. Of course you can make the loaf longer and skinnier or shorter and fatter as you wish.

I added the 1/2 cup of sugar to the recipe because I thought a slightly sweet taste would be appropriate for this special bread.

Finally, I have to mention that I apparently let the braided dough rise a bit too long. If you look at the final picture with the instructions you will see some strange strands. That is the sign of what is called over-proofing. Had I been aware, I could have corrected it by starting over with the shaping. Honestly, I don’t think the problem was serious enough to do all that, but it is handy to know that you can correct the problem and get a pretty loaf.

Easiest Bread Recipe EVER

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One of the reasons I got back to making bread after many years hiatus, is that donning that floury apron and baking bread makes me feel like I’m bonding with my grandmothers. For all those 18th and 19th century grandmas, making bread wasn’t just some Martha Stewart exercise in being trendy and “artisan.” If you wanted bread, you baked it! They were not making the easiest bread recipe, but I like to think that somebody discovered an easier way than their usual difficult job.

Easiest bread , sliced

Great-Great-Great Grandma Bakes Bread

If it was early in the 18th century, you went to the miller and bought a sack of flour, lugging it home in a wagon or on the back of a horse or mule. And you stopped off at the brewers to pick up some of the yeast that was a by-product of his operation–because packaged yeast was somewhere in the dim future that you couldn’t even imagine. And the easiest bread recipe may not have been part of your repertoire.

You went home and mixed up the magic three ingredients–flour, water, and yeast –or you pulled your sourdough starter from the cool underground icehouse–and stirred up your batter in a big wooden bowl with a carved wooden spoon. (Perhaps you used a different grain, or added salt or even a bit of sugar.

Then you set the dough aside to rise, perhaps covered with a towel made of flour sack. And you went about your other daily chores–collecting the eggs, milking the cow, sewing the clothes, cultivating your kitchen garden, perhaps “putting up” some fruits and vegetables (canning we call it now) for the winter. All in a day’s work.

Of course, the first thing that morning you had stoked the fireplace fire and from long practice, you knew which part of the hearth made the best place to bake your bread. You took time off from your other chores to give the dough a good workout–kneading, kneading, kneading, and set it aside to rise again (if you were not using the easiest bread recipe). When the dough had risen to perfection, you pulled off a hunk and shaped it into a loaf, and set it on the sweet spot on the hearth to bake.

And the next day–or perhaps two days later–you did it all over again.

The Easiest Bread Recipe

King Arthur’s easiest bread recipe–Peasant Bread out of casserole dish.

While I make plenty of bread that takes a lot of kneading and rising time, I recently found this recipe for peasant bread from King Arthur Flour, and it is the simplest and easiest bread recipe I have come across. Those ancient grandmas would not have made this exact bread, because it calls for quick-rise yeast, which they definitely didn’t have. However, making a simple bread that bakes without extensive kneading and multiple risings would have been appealing, and might well reach back even to Europe before our ancestors came to North America.

Just mix the flour, water, salt, sugar and yeast. Let it rise for 1 1/2 hours. Deflate it a bit, put it in a oven-safe bowl and let it rest for about 15 minutes. Bake for 15 minutes–and you’ve got bread. No kneading, no fuss no bother. Now isn’t that the easiest bread recipe ever?

(Follow the link to the King Arthur site for the recipe.)

A Bit of Bread History

This website gives us a fascinating look at the beginnings of bread. I learned that early Egyptians made the first commercial yeast–about 300 B.C. People got around to finely milling grains–thus enabling bakers to make softer breads instead of coarse “peasant breads” in 900 B.C. Another online history of bread tells us that bread was formed free-form on the bricks of the open oven until the 1800s. Finally pans were used. After the Civil War, we finally got commercially produced yeast and baking powder, which led to an easier way to make bread, if not the easiest bread recipe.

I love this Getty Museum article that tells you how to make bread the Medieval way–from growing your own wheat to building your own oven. Follow the link to see the entire process.

Baking bread in Medieval times. Not much had changed by the time our first Puritan ancestors had harvested their first crop of wheat in the 1620s–or throughout the next two centuries.

Ancestors in Aprons

Food and Family