English muffin bread is one of the easiest homemade breads you can make. With no kneading, no mixer, and simple pantry ingredients, it's perfect for beginner bread bakers.
You'll get the classic nooks and crannies of English muffins in an easy loaf that's made for toast, jam, and sandwiches.
⏱️ Quick Answer: How Easy Is English Muffin Bread?
Mix without kneading, let rise, bake, eat. That's all—really.
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👍 TL;DR — Recipe Summary
What is it: English muffin bread has the classic nooks and crannies of English muffins in an easy homemade loaf.
Why you'll love it: No kneading, no mixer, and simple pantry ingredients with delicious results.
How to make it: Just mix the dough, let it rise twice, and bake until golden brown.
🥣 Ingredients
AYou only need a few simple pantry ingredients to make this easy English muffin bread.
- All-purpose flour—bread flour may also be used.
- Instant yeast—or another quick-rise yeast.
- Milk or dry milk with water—adds flavor and tenderness.
- Sugar, salt, and baking soda—for flavor and texture.
- Cornmeal (optional)—for the traditional English muffin crust.
👨🍳 Quick Overview: How to Make English Muffin Bread
1. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda, and sugar.
✅ Pro Tip: Proofing yeast is an old-school way to confirm that it's still active. Most fresh instant yeast can be mixed directly into the dry ingredients, but proofing never hurts.
2. Mix warm milk and yeast, then stir into the dry ingredients until no dry flour remains.
3. Cover in an oiled bowl and place in a warm spot until doubled in size—30-60 minutes.
4. Coat a loaf pan with butter and cornmeal (optional).
5. Move the dough into the pan, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place until level with the top of the pan—about 30 minutes.
6. Bake at 375°F until golden brown and an internal temperature of 190°–200°F, about 30–35 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for about 1 hour before slicing.
For more details, keep reading. See the Recipe Card below for complete instructions and to print.
🤔 What Is English Muffin Bread?
If you love English muffins, this is the bread for you. Sometimes called English toasting bread or muffin bread, think of English muffin bread as English muffins baked in a loaf—even with the traditional cornmeal-coated crust.
Instead of shaping and cooking individual muffins, the dough is mixed, allowed to rise, and baked in a loaf pan. The result is a soft bread with the same nooks and crannies that make English muffins perfect for butter, jam, and toasting.
It's one of the easiest homemade yeast breads you can make. No kneading, no mixer, and only a few pantry ingredients stand between you and a warm loaf of homemade bread.
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✔️ Tips for the Best English Muffin Bread
- Bake until golden brown and an internal temperature of 190°–200°F. A fully baked loaf will also sound hollow when tapped.
- This is a "light dough" with not a lot of structure. It needs the loaf pan for support while baking. The top will not crown like sandwich bread and may fall slightly as it cools.
- Let the loaf cool completely before slicing or it may tear apart. A sharp serrated bread knife works best.
- Hand mixing is preferred. Stand mixers and bread machines tend to overmix this dough.
- One package of yeast equals 2½ teaspoons of bulk yeast.
- Bread flour will give slightly better structure than all-purpose flour because of the higher protein content, but either works well.
- Instant yeast is essentially the same as fast-rising, rapid-rise, quick-rise, and bread machine yeast. Active dry yeast can be used but may take longer to rise.
- Cornmeal on the pan is traditional but optional. It adds a little texture and the classic English muffin crust.
🍞 Serving English Muffin Bread
English muffin bread is perfect for toast with butter, jam, honey, or peanut butter. It also makes excellent French toast, breakfast sandwiches, grilled cheese, and everyday lunch sandwiches.
❄️ Storage
Like most homemade bread, English muffin bread contains no preservatives and is best used within 2 to 3 days when stored airtight at room temperature.
For longer storage, freeze tightly wrapped for up to 3 months. For convenience, slice the loaf first and separate the slices with parchment paper before freezing.
😊 Other Bread Recipes
If you enjoy homemade bread, try my Stand Mixer Bread—Basic White, Julia Child's French Bread, and Stand Mixer Peasant Bread.
❓ FAQs
fYes. You can replace part of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour. For best texture, keep the whole wheat flour at 50% or less of the total flour. Higher amounts may require a little extra liquid and can produce a denser loaf.
No. The cornmeal is traditional and adds a little texture and crunch to the crust, but the bread will bake fine without it.ins.
Yes. Active dry yeast will work, but it may take a little longer for the dough to rise. Proofing it in the warm milk before mixing is recommended.
The most common causes are old yeast, liquid that was too hot or too cold, or not enough time in a warm place for the dough to rise. Fresh yeast and patience solve most problems.
The high-moisture dough and simple mixing method create the open texture that English muffins are known for. Those nooks and crannies are perfect for holding melted butter, jam, and other toppings.
📖The Recipe Card
Easy English Muffin Bread
Ingredients
- 1 package instant yeast - approximately 2 ½ teaspoons
- 1½ teaspoons sugar
- 1 ½ cup milk or water
- ½ cup dried milk - if using water
- 2½ cups bread or AP flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- butter - For loaf pan
- cornmeal-optional - For loaf pan
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Optional proofing of the yeast—Mix one pack of instant yeast into 1½ cups of 105°F to 110°F water or milk. Let's sit while you do the dry mix. It should foam a little after a few minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix 2½ cups of AP or bread flour, ½ cup dried milk (if not using milk), 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon of baking soda, and 1½ teaspoons of sugar.
- Mix wet into dry and stir until there is no dry left.
- Spray the bowl and some plastic wrap with a good spray of PAM on one side and cover the bowl with the plastic. The PAM will prevent sticking if the plastic touches the sticky dough. Place in a warm spot until double in size—30-60 minutes.
- Coat a loaf pan with butter and swirl about two tablespoons of cornmeal to coat.
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Move the dough into the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until even with the top of the pan — about 30 minutes.
- Remove plastic wrap. Bake until golden brown and internal temp of 190°F-200°F—about 30-35 minutes.
- Allow to cool for about 60 minutes on a rack.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips
- You may use fresh milk or dried milk.
- Use either bread flour or all-purpose flour.
- Most yeasts will work other than old-fashioned “active dry yeast.” One pack of yeast is 2½ teaspoons if you use bulk yeast. You can round that up to 1 tablespoon if you want.
- I suggest an 8½ by 4½ inch loaf pan. A 9 by 5 should be ok, but not bigger.
- I suggest using a thermometer to check for a final internal temperature of 190°F to 200°F. Also, when tapped, a nice brown color and a hollow sound should be present.
- The top of the loaf will probably be flat or even sunken a bit.
- Cool completely before cutting, or it will rip apart.
- Store tightly sealed at room temperature for 2-3 days. It may last 4 days, but maybe not. Do not refrigerate. You may freeze well-sealed for 2-3 months.
Your Own Private Notes
To adjust the recipe size:
You can adjust the number of servings above; however, only the amount in the ingredient list is adjusted, not the instructions.
Nutrition Estimate (may vary)
Based on Cook Country English Muffin Bread Recipe (membership required). I made it a one-loaf recipe and added options and details.
Editors Note: Originally Published January 18, 2014. Update with expanded discussion and refreshed photos. A table of contents was also added to aid navigation.
Bllue says
Looking forward to trying this recipe. I love English Muffin bread, especially toasted.
In Pro Tip #8 it says "You may freeze well sealed for 2-3 days." I'm hoping that should be months rather than days. This bread always disappears quickly but I was going to double the recipe and freeze 1 loaf!
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Yep, months—fixed.
Joy Beckerley says
Can you use whole wheat flour in this recipe? Can you add dried fruit? Thanks. Joy
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Joy,
Welcome to the blog.
I have never done it. It is ok to try some whole wheat but here are some generalities. Whole wheat needs more fluid, so the more whole flour added, the more liquid. Also, whole wheat has less glutin and a lot of the appeal of this recipe depends on the glutin creating the nooks and crannies.
So you can probable get away with 25% whole wheat by just adding a bit more fluid. Also, switch the white flour to bread flour, which has more glutin, would be a good idea.
50% will be a more dense bread but probably would be acceptable (I think). More the 50%- find a different recipe, it just won't be good.
Adding dried fruit would be generally fine. Dust the fruit with some flour before adding it and it will help keep it suspended throughout the dough.
Hope that helps. If you try it, please post your results.
Dan
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Bev,
Welcome to the blog.
As they say, see something say something. Thanks so much for the proofread. This one is embarrassing. Fixed. That is 375 everywhere.
Dan
Jan says
Dr Dan
First off I want to say I like your recipes very much. My husband and I are empty nesters. After cooking for 5 for alot of years I was finding it hard to cook for 2 again not with the help of your recipes I getting used to it. Do have a question about your English muffin bread recipe ; when you say dry milk do you mean powder milk?
Thanks for your time
May god bless you and keep you safe
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Jan,
Welcome to the blog and I'm glad you are finding it useful.
Yes, I use the terms "dry milk" and "powdered milk" interchangeably. I have seen both on packages and it is all the same and meets USDA standards.
I like to use powder (dry) milk since I can get the temperature I want for the liquid right much easier. I seem to never "hit the mark" when trying to get fresh milk to the temperature I want. I'm lazy.
Also, as you know, in a smaller household, keeping fresh milk can lead to waste. I always have dry in the pantry and I frequently don't have fresh.
So I published the recipe as dry milk but gave a fresh milk option.
Dan
Caroline says
Thanks! I was looking for a way to use up some dried milk. I'll definitely give this a try.