Homemade English Muffin Bread
Homemade English Muffin bread is the BEST bread recipe for beginner bakers. It’s the closest thing you will find to a dump and bake recipe for yeast bread. It takes about 15 minutes of active time, requires no kneading and only one rise. With a golden crust and chewy texture this bread is tasty on its own, but makes a fantastic toasting bread. Read on for my tips and tricks, then dig out your stand mixer and roll up your sleeves. It’s time for homemade English muffin bread.
The Easiest Yeast Bread
I love the smell of freshly baked bread. The warm, yeasty aroma makes my mouth water as I think of melting butter seeping into all the toasty little bits of chewy goodness. If you are drooling now, that’s okay, me too.
When it comes to homemade bread, this English muffin bread is hands down my favorite. It’s simple to make and doesn’t need a lot of active attention. The results are a chewy bread that resembles the inside of an English muffin and is perfect for toasting.
It’s great for eggs benedict, a breakfast sandwich, or avocado toast with a fried egg on top. You could also go the simple route and have it toasted with apple butter, orange cranberry sauce, or homemade blueberry jam. If you’ve never worked with yeast dough before, or maybe you are scared to try, this recipe is for you.
Making English Muffin Bread
When I called this English muffin bread easy, I was not exaggerating. Like most homemade bread, it only has five ingredients: flour, water, sugar, salt, and yeast. The dough is heavy and very sticky, but kneading is not required. While you can make it by hand, I’ll warn you that it’s quite the upper body workout. It’s much easier to manage with a stand mixer.
Baking with yeast.
Most beginner bakers are familiar with flour, water, salt, and sugar, but yeast can be intimidating. In my kitchen, instant yeast is the kind I keep on hand and use for recipe development. It’s also the type I recommend for this recipe.
Simplified, yeast is a living micro-organism that eats sugars to create carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide formed by baking yeast creates gas bubbles in the dough which cause the bread to rise. So, when a bread recipe calls for a little bit of sugar it’s not just for added sweetness, it’s also there to feed the yeast.
To get your baking yeast working, we proof it in water that is between 105º and 110ºF. Yeast does it’s best job of multiplying around 95ºF, but this increased temperature for proofing allows us to jump start the yeast. The instructions on the jar call for it to be combined with water that has been heated to between 120º and 130º F, but this is to compensate for yeast that is mixed directly with other room temperature ingredients. Since we are proofing it first, use water that is a little cooler.
There are two main types of bread yeast, active yeast and instant yeast. Active yeast has slightly larger pieces and MUST be proofed in order to do its job. Instant yeast, also called rapid rise or bread machine yeast, CAN BE added directly into the dough without proofing.
Proofing the yeast.
To proof the yeast, combine the warm water, yeast, and sugar in a small bowl and allow it to sit 5 – 10 minutes. The yeast should start to foam up, letting you know that it is in fact alive and ready to go to work. If it doesn’t, you’ll need to go buy fresh yeast and start again. Things like storing the yeast at the wrong temperature or using it past its expiration date may cause it to fail to perform.
Again, you MUST proof active yeast, but it’s not 100% necessary to proof instant yeast. However, if there is the slightest chance of your yeast not being good, letting it sit for 5 minutes or so can save you a lot of time and trouble. Personally, I have had yeast fail to work and sabotage my dinner plans, so I almost always proof the yeast before adding it to the rest of my dough.
The extra five minutes is a non-issue if you start it first. The time it takes to prepare your pans and other ingredients should be enough time for the yeast to activate.
Preparing your bread pans.
You will need two 9×5 loaf pans for this recipe. Liberally grease both pans with oil or butter. Can you use cooking spray? Sure, but I don’t think it does the job nearly as well and it can be a pain to scrub off. (It can also void the warranty on your pans, but that’s a whole other conversation.)
My go to for this recipe is butter, because the flavor works well with a breakfast bread and the semi-solid state makes it coat better than a liquid oil. The next best thing is coconut oil.
Using a nonstick pan? So am I. Oil the pan or the bread will stick. With nonstick pans it’s even more important not to use a liquid oil, as it will bead up instead of coating the pan. Again, butter or coconut oil work best.
Making the bread dough.
Now comes the fun part! Combine the water, sugar, and activated yeast with your flour and salt mixture. Using the dough hook attachment, mix on low 2 – 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and mix 2 – 3 minutes more.
The dough will be heavy and sticky. Divided into your two loaf pans, it should fill them just over half way. A silicone spatula really helps with this step. Let it rise 1 – 3 hours, or until it’s doubles in size, then bake according to the recipe instructions. It’s really that easy.
Tips for getting your bread dough to rise.
Bread needs to be in a warm spot to rise. Once mixed into a dough, yeast does it’s best work at human body temperature, aka 98.6ºF. No, your room doesn’t have to be that warm for the action to happen. In a cooler room it will take longer for the yeast to do its job. To help your bread rise, try some of these tips.
- Place it in a sunny window, on top of an oven that is turned on, or on top of or beside the refrigerator.
- To create extra heat on a cold day, you can sit the pans on top of a heating pad turned to low/warm or wrap them in an electric blanket on a low setting.
- Some newer, fancier ovens have the option of a proofing setting, which will heat your oven to very low temperature to speed up the process.
- You can turn your standard oven into a proofing box with these handy tips from Cooks Illustrated.
English Muffin Bread Recipe
Homemade English muffin bread is the easiest yeast bread recipe for beginning bakers. It’s simple to make, comes together quickly, requires no kneading, and only needs one rise in the baking pans. Try yours topped with grapefruit blood orange curd, small batch blueberry jam, or orange honey butter. As a more seasoned baker, you’ll return to it time and time again for breakfast staples like bacon and egg sandwiches, eggs benedict, and avocado toast.
If you like this recipe, please give it a FIVE-STAR rating, leave a comment, and share it on your favorite social channel!
Homemade English Muffin Bread
Ingredients
- 2 3/4 cup of warm water
- 1 TBSP instant yeast*
- 1 1/2 TBSP sugar
- 5 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 TBSP salt
Instructions
- Add water heated to between 105 – 110º F, yeast, and sugar into a small mixing bowl or 4 cup measuring cup and allow to bloom, approximately 5 – 10 minutes.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer measure out the flour and salt, then stir to combine.
- Grease two 9×5 loaf pans with butter or coconut oil.
- The yeast, sugar, water mixture should be frothy by this point.** If so, add it into the flour mixture.
- Using the dough hook with the mixer on low, mix for 2 – 3 minutes. Stop to scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl then mix an additional 2 – 3 minutes. The dough will be lumpy and VERY sticky.
- Divide equally into your loaf pans. Sit in a warm spot, cover with a tea towel and allow to rise for 1 – 3 hours or until doubled in size.
- Once risen, preheat the oven to 350ºF. Be careful not to bump or drop the pans, as this can cause the dough to fall.
- Gently place the bread in the oven and bake for 35 – 45 minutes. Tops will be golden brown and the bread will pull away from the edges of the pan.
- Allow to cool 5 – 10 minutes, then turn the bread loaves out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Check out my Amazon shop to see all of my recommended kitchen tools.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated and is for general information purposes only. For the most accurate information, calculate using your select brands and exact measurements.
It will be very helpful if people who actually made this will comment on it. Or somebody who intends to make it and has a relevant question.
Reading that “it looks wonderful” doesn’t help the readers who are looking for comments.
Hi Amira,
I totally agree with you that proper reviews are more helpful, but I cannot control who does or doesn’t take the time to comment. As long as people aren’t being mean to me or others, their thoughts on the recipe get published. Perhaps the peer pressure of so many thinking it looks good is enough for you to try it, then come back and share your thoughts. Maybe? I’d love to know what you think!
Renee
Can I make this in a bread machine
Hi Karen,
I haven’t tried this one in a bread machine. Part of me wants to say no, because doesn’t require kneading and most bread machines don’t have a setting that will mix but skip kneading. On the other hand, I don’t believe that the results would be bad if the machine did the kneading for you. If I had a bread machine, I would be tempted to try, but I no longer have mine. If you do decide to try it, please report back and let me know if it works!
Renee
I just ran across your recipe. Can this be made by hand? I don’t own a kitchen aid mixer. Also, may I use bread machine yeast?
Yes and yes.
You can make it by hand, but be forewarned that it is very sticky and can be a little difficult to mix. For best results, make sure that your dry ingredients are thoroughly combined before adding the water.
Instant yeast and bread machine yeast are basically the same thing and can be used interchangeably.
Best of luck!
Cheers,
Renee
I followed directions and bread came out beautifully.
My family loved it and gobbled it up. Thank you for this wonderful recipe. I have a question about how to store the bread to keep it fresh, any ideas?
Thank you.
So glad it worked out well and your family enjoyed it! I make homemade bread at least once a week and have found that storing it in my 6 quart dutch oven works really well. I like that I don’t have to use plastic for storage and it looks pretty to have my “bread bin” sitting on my stove top. Before I realized that trick, I would reuse bread bags from store bought bread. (If you don’t own a dutch oven and don’t want to shell out for a new one, you can often find good deals on them at second hand shops. Although, you may find a good one on a Prime Day sale tomorrow.
Renee
Hey! Just found your web site and I want to try the English Muffin Bread but I can’t find what type of flour to use………All-Purpose or Bread Flour? Or something else? Can you please let me know? Thank You kitty
Hi Kitty! It uses all purpose flour. Thank you for asking for the clarification, I’ll add it to the recipe too.
I just made two loaves of this bread. Followed the directions exactly except that after greasing the pans with butter I dusted them with cornmeal. The bread is wonderful, super delicious. Very easy to make.
As a long time breadmaker it appears to me that you’re over proofed the yeast therefore you had a cave-in in the front maybe you left it too long in the second rice only a suggestion
I made this last night. Easy to make rise was wonderful. Went to bed got almost asleep remembered the bread. Ran to the oven , pulled them out . They weren’t burnt yet . Cooled overnight. This morning I had 2 bricks. I thinks they were 10#s each. LOL. However I got a mini chainsaw and cut one in half to see the texture.Beautiful. The chickens loved it. Will definitely make again but watch the time better.
Oh no Kelly! I hate when something like that happens. I’m so glad you caught it before it burnt the house down. I’m glad your chickens got a treat but I hope you get the treat next time!
Renee
Thank you for a recipe that looks easy to follow.
You are welcome!
Something is missing here — “To speed things up, pour the milk and water into a small sauce pan along with your cook it”. Along with your what? Also check, ” Honey butter is simple to put together. I used a/2 cup of room temperature butter”. How much butter isn’t clear.
I know you posted this years ago, but I thought you might still want to correct it.
Anita, Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a comment. This recipe may be old, but it shouldn’t be ignored. I’ve added it to the calendar for a full facelift this winter with new pictures and obviously better writing. I know mistakes happen and I’d like to know about them so that I can fix them. Thanks again.
This looks SO good! I can’t wait to try it!!
Oh wow this looks so yummy. I feel like making english muffin bread at home would be so much better than buying english muffins from the store….I’m thinking a grilled cheese made with english muffin bread could be DELSIH.
Hayli from HayliDeJong.com
I love this recipe. I can’t wait to try it.
wow these look delicious. Definitely going to need to try this recipe asap! Thanks!
This English muffin bread looks absolutely delicious. Thanks for sharing!