I was not going to let Andrew sneak by without having his fair share in the learning to cook game this week. It took a lot of effort to convince him that he needed to cook, but I did succeed in getting him to put forth some effort. Yea, even commanded him to cook.
On Monday morning, he made English Muffin Bread for us to use later that evening for dinner. He did just fine. Just so we’re clear, this is a lot of work in spite of the recipe’s ease. The bread is “baked” in the microwave so it is fast. The recipe is time consuming and the dough is very sticky.
First you mix the dough, let it rise, mix in dissolved baking soda, let it rise, and then bake it in the microwave. This yields a nice loaf of of cooked but not quite cooked English muffin like bread. You still have to toast it. It makes a bread that toasts wonderfully and has a wonderful flavor. The texture is a little different from an English muffin but it does still yield nooks and crannies similar to an English muffin only on a lesser scale.
For dinner we were having Eggs and Soldiers which was requested by Lance. Dinner was a group effort of all the children. Kyle cooked up the bacon on the large double burner griddle. First he cooked my chicken bacon, then the regular pork bacon. I sliced the English muffin bread and popped the slices in the toaster. Lance flipped the pieces over in the toaster and toasted them again. They were slightly too long for the toaster. Then he buttered them. Andrew soft boiled the eggs in the microwave. We have a microwave boiler that made his job quick and easy.
Dinner was actually quite fun to do with this bread. Tasty.
Andrew did a fabulous job with the bread. He made a triple batch – three loaves. We only used two loaves for dinner. I cut the the remaining loaf earlier today. It cut nicely after sitting on the counter in a large zippered bag for a day and an half. I am not sure I would leave it sitting on the counter longer than that. It is now going in the fridge for longer keeping.
Nicely sliced English muffin bread. Excuse the crumbs on the counter. I promise the counters were clean. I had already sliced two other loaves of sweet bread – banana nut chocolate chip bread and strawberry bread that had been pulled out of the freezer and been defrosting in the fridge for a couple of days. The boys made short existence of the loaves.
An up close look at the texture of the bread. As you can see, there really are nooks and crannies in the bread. It toasts nicely and has good texture and taste. It is crispy when toasted yet not too crispy.
It was requested that this go in the standard line up for bread that gets made. Aside from the fact that it is a bit of work and time consuming to make, it is not hard. It is not hard work. It is not complicated. There are not complex ingredients. Some patience is required, especially if you are making multiple batches at one time. I would definitely make it again, but I would have to allow at three to four hour block of time to be on the safe side for preparation and cooking.
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