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This English Muffin Bread recipe will quickly become a family favorite! Perfect for new bread bakers, made with simple ingredients, and a dream to toast with all those little nooks and crannies.
Nothing makes me feel more accomplished than baking up a batch of this simple English muffin bread!
Susie Homemaker In The House!
Baking bread from scratch can certainly be a little intimidating, but once you’ve done it once or twice you’ll see just how simple it can be. Especially when it comes to our English muffin bread that’s literally begging you to slice it up, toast it til browned and crispy, and slather it with our cinnamon honey butter, a bit of apple butter, or some salted butter + raspberry jam.
I have big feelings about this bread.
This is cheaper than buying a pack of English muffins, but more importantly, the sense of accomplishment you feel as you pull a loaf of fresh baked bread out of the oven is seriously second to none. And I don’t know if you’ve smelled a loaf of bread baking before, but it’s pure heaven.
Have I convinced you to give this one a try yet?
Ingredient Notes:
Yeast – We’re using active dry yeast. I buy it in bulk and store it in the fridge. We use it often to make our quick dinner rolls.
Flour – We use all-purpose flour. You could try using a combination of wheat and white flour, but we do prefer white flour.
Sugar – Just a touch of granulated sugar.
Cornmeal – This coats the loaf pan and gives the bread a bit of coarse texture on the crust.
Milk & Water – We use whole milk, but any variety should work fine.
How to Make English Muffin Bread:
Warm the milk and water in a pot until warm. Do this over low heat and target about 120 degrees F. Remove from heat and add the yeast. Let it set for 5 minutes.
Use your stand mixer with a dough hook and add your yeast mixture, flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda. Knead the mixture on medium speed for 7 minutes. Check the dough – it should be slightly sticky, but workable.
Grab an 8×4 or 9×5 loaf pan (either will work) and spray with non-stick spray or brush on vegetable oil. Then sprinkle the pan with cornmeal and shake the pan until the inside of the pan is evenly coated.
Shape the dough in the pan and let it sit in a warm place for about 45 minutes until it doubles in size.
Bake for 25 minutes at 400 degrees F, or until it is golden brown on the outside. Cool before slicing.
Karly’s Tips!
Bread Baking Tips:
- If your liquid is too cool, the yeast will not activate. If your liquid is too hot, it will kill the yeast. You want the liquid to be between 110-120 degrees Fahrenheit.
- This can be done by hand with a bit of elbow grease. No mixer needed!
- The dough should barely stick to your fingers when you pinch it. If it’s too sticky, you’ll have a hard time shaping it. You can add a touch more flour as needed, but don’t overdo it.
- The bread should be golden brown on the outside and should sound hollow when you knock on it with your fist. For the most accuracy, use an internal thermometer – bread is done at 190 degrees F.
- Some breads can be sliced warm, but this one works best if you let it cool completely before slicing.
Special Tools!
You can bake bread by hand, but we find it easiest to use a mixer.
We have a KitchenAid stand mixer that is excellent for making bread when fitted with the dough hook.
We recently purchased a Bosch Mixer that is a new favorite for making bread.
Whichever tool you decide to use, I’m sure the bread will be tasty!
The exact loaf pan I use is no longer available, but this one is very similar and so cute!
Serving Suggestions:
This bread is delicious toasted and topped with butter and jam.
We also use it to make breakfast sandwiches with scrambled egg, air fryer sausage patties, and cheese.
Try your hand at a delicious avocado toast! Toast the bread, spread with smashed avocado, sprinkle with crumbled feta, and top with Everything Bagel seasoning or a drizzle of balsamic glaze.
More Breakfast Favorites:
- Baked Donuts
- Hootenanny
- Blueberry Baked Oatmeal
- Homemade Biscuits
- Chocolate Chip Cake Mix Muffins
- Sheet Pan Pancakes
English Muffin Bread
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon corn meal
Instructions
- Warm the milk and water over low heat until warm, but not hot to the touch, around 110-120 degrees.
- Remove from the heat and add the yeast to the mixture and let bloom, about 5 minutes.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, add the yeast and milk mixture and stir in the flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda.
- Knead on medium speed for 7 minutes. Test dough and add more flour if it’s too sticky too handle. It should be slightly sticky, but workable.
- Spray an 8×4 loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and sprinkle in the corn meal. Shake the pan around so that the corn meal coats the inside of the pan evenly.
- Place the dough in the pan and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes.
- Bake in a 400 degree oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown.
- Cool completely before slicing.
Tips & Notes:
Nutrition Information:
This recipe was originally published in February of 2014. It was updated in January 2023. Original photos below.
wanda says
Tastes just like english muffins without all the fuss.Thanks for the recipe
Karly says
Glad you like it! 🙂
Bryn says
Would this bread work with skim milk? It’s what I always have on hand. do I need to add a fat?
Karly says
Hi Bryn! I think it would work fine, but I normally use 2% or whole milk. 🙂
Pam Doty says
I have been making bread for decades, and would really like to try this bread. I have never made English Muffin bread before and was wondering why it doesn’t call for any shortening, oil or butter. Is there a reason why? Most bread has at least a tablespoon or 2.
Karly says
You’re right that most bread does. This one works just fine without it, though. 🙂
Ann says
I have been looking for this recipe for years my grandmother made it for years and my mom used to make 4-5 loaves every few days to keep 5 kids in bread LOL she passed on before I ot it from her so Thank ou for the memories. Now has anyone tried this in a bread machine. I have a new 1 that I can customize the recipe.
Karly says
Glad you found the recipe! Hope it lives up to your grandma’s bread! 🙂
I have no experience with making this in a bread machine, but I’m sure it would work fine.
Karen says
OMG. I found this recipe while googling for an English muffin bread since I wanted to make soup for dinner. It was so good, that my sons demanded that I make another loaf after dinner so that they can have it for breakfast! My one son’s reaction when he bit into it was, “OMG. This is SOOOOOOO GOOD!” This is an easy recipe to make and tastes like I slaved in the kitchen baking all day. Thank you for this amazing gem! LOVE IT.
Andy says
If you want to experiment a bit… use malt instead of sugar (same volume/weight as sugar) and use buttermilk. Malt, which you can find at specialty stores or brew supply stores, gives some of the characteristic english muffin/Bagel/sour dough pretzel taste. I also sour my milk (2T vinegar/1c. milk) or just use buttermilk. Use the electric mixer briefly (<2 min), then finish kneading by hand so as not to overwork the dough. overworking the dough won't give you the wonderful air pockets. The variations in my recipe are only that I don't use baking powder, I add a couple tablespoons of room temp butter and the milk is room temp.
Since I started making the loafs instead of the muffins everyone who tries it falls in love with it over the muffins. It is sooooo much simpler to slice off a bit vs. fork splitting… but the muffin breakfast sandwich is so good I may still make it for special occasions.
What a great simple breakfast staple!
Tifiane says
So can this made without a stand mixer? I’m not a regular baker, but this bread sounds amazing
Karly says
@Tifiane,
Sure, you’ll just make it like you would any other bread. 🙂
Anna says
The bread looks reeeeaaally yummy!
I’d like to make it for brunch next sunday but i have a couple questions:
Could I also use a 9×5 inch pan? i don’t have a smaller one….
Whould it affect the taste if I sliced the loaf only 15 minutes after taking it out of the oven? I’d like to eat it at 11-12 am but dont want to get up at 5 to have it ready ;D
I’ll probably use half whole wheat flour cuz I feel better about eating so much bread if its WW ;D
Thanks
Chantel says
Hi, thanks for this great recipe. I want to make it for my husband. I want to know, can you make the dough the night before to save time & pop it in the oven the next day? There is nothing better than freshly hot baked bread.
Thanks
Karly says
@Chantel,
Hi there!
I’m really not sure. I haven’t tried it myself with this recipe. I know that other recipes sometimes work in the fridge overnight, but sometimes they get too yeasty/gassy tasting. I would probably give this a shot, but know that it may not turn out as well as it would when baked straight away.
Betty Jo says
Do you know if this can be done in a bread machine?? I’m not the best from scratch bread Maker, but I can add ingredients to a bread machine just as good as the next guy 🙂
Karly says
@Betty Jo,
Hi there! I’m sure that it can be done in a bread machine! I don’t have or use one, though, so I’m not if anything would need changed, but I imagine it would work just like any other bread you make in there. 🙂
Lee says
I have never made bread before and this was the first time and I can’t believe how good this turned out~!!! Not good for a diet though!! LOL
Emily @ Life on Food says
Oh man yes! This looks so good. I can only imagine a slice still warm from the oven.
Lori Lemieux says
I don’t have a stand mixer, is this still doable with say a food processor or kneading by hand.
Karly says
@Lori Lemieux,
I’ve never tried making bread dough in a food processor, but if you’ve had luck with that, go ahead. Otherwise, I’d just knead by hand the way you would any other dough.
Shirley Sayers says
I tried this using self raising gluten free flour…and it tasted great, I needed to add more liquid though.
karen lincoln says
Okay, I have made this three times, it will not rise. 1. did everything but I used a hand mixer with a 4 open wire beaters, no rise, 2. did again this time kneaded on counter by hand, no rise, 3. went and bought new bottle of yeast even though the other was fairly new in frig, kneaded by hand no rise. Any suggestions, I have had this kind of bread before and loved it, now it’s like challenge to make it. Karen
Karly says
@karen lincoln,
Well, that’s no good! Are you sure that the water you’re using isn’t too hot? When you add the yeast and let it sit for 5-10 minutes, does it bubble and foam up and smell yeasty? If not, I would guess that your water is either too hot or too cold. It should just be slightly hot to the touch, but not uncomfortable. If it does bubble and foam, then the bread should rise just fine. Are you putting it in a warm, draft free place to rise? I like to turn my oven on just long enough for the heat to kick on and then turn it back off and place the bread in there to rise. The warm environment really helps it rise, but again, too hot and you’ll kill the yeast.
KAREN LINCOLN says
@Karly, it smells yeasty, didn’t bubble or foam, maybe to warm, but I put my finger in it didn’t seem to hot to me. I had one of those grease splatter screens ontop of top of a pot soup pot of water at a simmer level, put bread pan on top and covered with dish towel. Guess i’ll try again tomarrow.
Karly says
@KAREN LINCOLN,
Try letting the yeast sit for an extra few minutes. It should look like this when it’s ready: http://pad1.whstatic.com/images/thumb/4/4f/Bloom-Yeast-Step-4.jpg/629px-Bloom-Yeast-Step-4.jpg
You can also add the sugar to the water before you add the yeast to give the yeast something to eat. I don’t usually do that, but if your yeast is being stubborn it might be worth a try.
karen lincoln says
@KAREN LINCOLN, yea, I put in the oven like you did and it did rise but not to top of pan, did bake and it came out nice. I have a bread machine but they eat electricity, so I use the gas oven. if I need on counter by hand do I do it just till elastic and all combined or even longer. can you over knead. I still didn’t get froth with the yeast, just smell and are you heating milk and water together and then add yeast, that is what I did. Thanks for all the help. Can I use with wheat flour? do you have a receipe for Indian bread, like in cast iron pan type?
Autumn says
Have you tried instant yeast? There’s no worrying about proofing, frothing, etc. You just mix it in with the dry ingredients. The results are exactly the same as regular yeast, but a lot easier (and quicker because the proofing step is omitted, which is what I like) to use. I buy SAF or Red Star in 1 or 2 lb. pkgs. for just a few dollars. I keep it in a jar in my fridge, and it lasts me several months, even though I bake bread every 2 weeks. It works great in English muffin bread, and I’ve also used it with excellent results in whole grain breads as well.
Diane says
If I use the rapid rise yeast and add it to the dry ingredients do you still heat the milk up ?
Emily says
@Karly,
If it didn’t bubble, it’s possible your yeast is dead (it should bubble or look frothy, for sure). Also, if you think your liquid is too hot, try a thermometer. I think they say 95 – 115 F is an idea range for activating yeast. I think too cold will just mean you need to let it rise longer… I don’t think it will kill anything.
I am going to try and make this in the next couple of days. Has anyone tried whole grain variations? I try not to eat “white” bread. Thanks!
Emily says
@Emily,
I meant to reply to Karen, not Karly. Sorry!
Caroline says
Regarding killing the yeast – I spoke with the bakers at King Arhtur Flour about what temp. is too hot for yeast – I’m told 120 deg. is too hot. The only time I use a wire whisk is wIhen I’m stirring the water and milk with the yeast. I let it sit for about 20 min. After that I use a mixer with a paddle attachment. I blend that for a few minutes and then use the dough hook. I do like to use instant yeast because it will work in cool water. If your yeast doesn’t foam up could be that the yeast is old. I keep my yeast in the fridge. Regarding heating up water or milk for the yeast – I don’t use the stove – I use a microwave. I run it for about 30 sec. then take it out and test it with a thermoter. Slightly hot but not uncomfortable – that’s true but 120 will be uncomfortably hot. Oh ouch!
MJ says
Looks really good and I intend to give this a try!