What winter is good for

I have finally succeeded in making yeast bread I am not totally embarrassed to be associated with. Seriously. I love to bake. I bake a lot. Pies. Cookies. Drop cookies. Bar cookies. Cut-out cookies. Cakes. Layer cakes. Cup cakes. Fudge. Candy. Quick bread.

But not yeast bread.

I don't know why. I tried it a time or two with very little success. I was getting a complex. So I quit trying.

Then I found this recipe and thought, "That sounds amazingly yummy and what could possibly go wrong?"

Well, apparently nothing! So here they are, my first two loaves of yeast bread success.

It's called English muffin bread. It's chewy. It has the most wonderful crust.

It has the most wonderful texture. All those little holes hold a lot of butter or honey or what-have-you.

ENGLISH MUFFIN BREAD
Cornmeal
6 C. all-purpose flour
2 packages active dry yeast
1⁄4 tsp. baking soda
2 C. milk
1⁄2 C. water
1 T. sugar
1 tsp. salt

Grease two 8x4 2-inch loaf pans. Lightly sprinkle pans with cornmeal to coat bottoms and sides; set pans aside.

In a large bowl combine 3 cups of the flour, the yeast and baking soda; set aside. In a medium saucepan heat and stir milk, the water, sugar and salt just until warm (120 to 130 degrees). Using a wooden spoon, stir milk mixture into flour mixture. Stir in remaining flour.

Divide dough in half. Place dough in prepared pans. Sprinkle tops with additional cornmeal. Cover; let rise in a warm place until double, about 45 minutes. (It only took 30 minutes for my dough to double in size and our house is not what most people would call warm. The next time I make this, I may try letting it rise a little more than double to see if that changes the texture at all.)

Bake in a 400 degree oven about 25 minutes or until golden. Immediately remove bread from pans. Cool on wire racks.

This has excellent flavor and texture. It was awesome hot with butter the first night, then toasted with jam the next morning, then I made grilled ham and cheese sandwiches with it the next night, then more toast . . . and . . . oh . . . it's gone. Bummer.