easy yeast breads Archives - The Midnight Baker

French Toast Bread

Judith Hannemann — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 23:00:02 +0000

Whether you braid it or not, this French toast bread makes the best French toast!

Easy French Toast Bread

Looking for a great all-around bread? This French toast bread fills the bill nicely.

Since it makes great French toast, it’s the bread that’s most often used in diners to make this dish. Any diner I visited in New York City uses it exclusively to make this popular breakfast item. There’s a reason for that too.

Because it’s soft and has a slightly sweet taste, it absorbs the egg custard easily. Also, since it’s an egg-based bread, it will brown gloriously when it’s grilled.

Don’t sell this bread short though; it lends itself to many other uses.

Not Just For Breakfast

Don’t let the name fool you.

This bread can be used just like any other loaf of bread. It make great regular toast, bread crumbs and sandwiches. If you make Monte Cristo sandwiches, this bread is the perfect choice. I’ve always considered that sandwich a cross between French toast and a ham sandwich. There’s a sweet yet savory factor there and this bread is perfect for that.

Are You A Bread Artist?

If you’re an artist with yeast breads then braiding this bread will come easy and will be perfect. My mother was such an artist. Unfortunately, I didn’t inherit that skill. I braid, but not very well.

But does that really matter? Think about it. It doesn’t. What you’re going for here is the bread itself and not a work of art. Merely making it as a regular loaf works just as well. So if you’re all thumbs at braiding or shaping, just divide the bread into two pieces and plop each piece in a loaf pan. It works.

The Recipe

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French Toast Bread

Much like challah this easy bread makes great toast and sandwiches too

Prep Time20

Cook Time35

Total Raising Time3

Course: Breakfast, Main, Main Course

Cuisine: American

Keyword: bread for french toast, breakfast breads, challah bread, easy breads with egg

Servings: 10

Calories: 443kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

4 1/2 tsp instant yeast or 2 packets
1/2 cup warm water
1 1/2 cups whole milk
3 eggs at room temp
1/4 cup unsalted butter softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbs kosher salt
7 cups flour
sesame seeds

Egg Wash:

1 egg yolk
2 tbs water

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Dissolve yeast in the warn water in a large bowl. Add the milk, eggs, butter, sugar, salt and 3 cups flour. Beat on medium speed until smooth. Stir in only enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. It is possible you will need more flour so you can add about 1/2 cup. I used 6 cups of flour in the loaves in the pics. The amount of flour can vary so always go by the consistency of the dough.
Turn dough out on a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic; about 8 minutes. Alternatively, if you have a heavy stand mixer, switch to the dough hook and let the machine do the work.
Place dough in a greased bowl turning once so the top of the dough is greased. Cover and let rise in a warm, draft-free place for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
Punch dough down and turn onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 6 equal portions. Roll each portion into a 14-inch/36 cm rope.
For each loaf, braid 3 ropes together on a parchment lined baking sheet. Cover with a kitchen towel (no plastic here) and let rise until doubled; about 50 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375F/190C.
Beat egg yolk and 2 tbs water. Brush over loaves and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Nutrition

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Everything Seasoning Pretzel Knots

Judith Hannemann — Sat, 03 Oct 2020 23:00:27 +0000

Since they contain the most popular toppings, these everything seasoning pretzel knots are sure to be a hit.

“Everything” Seasoning

“Everything” seasoning is really popular lately. People are using it on a lot of stuff although originally it first appeared on bagels.

It appeals greatly for when you can’t make up your mind to have a poppy, sesame, garlic or onion bagel since it includes all of those and some salt to round them all out.

You can even buy everything seasoning in the dollar store. I got mine there, however, you can always make your own if you have all the necessary ingredients on hand.

Pretzels Or Rolls

That’s pretty much up to you whether you do these as rolls or pretzels.

The dough bakes up nice and soft so they’re as much of a perfect dinner roll as they are a snack.

How you shape them makes no difference. In fact shaping a pretzel is just a looser rendition of a knot so it’s totally up to you if you want “open” or “closed” knots.

I would suggest that if you are going to do dinner rolls with this recipe that you opt for the closed knot. It’s easier to cut and put butter on.

Don’t Skip The Bath

It may seem like a pain and a step that can be skipped, but if you want a deep brown color and the nice shiny surface, don’t skip the bath with the baking soda.

That’s what gives a pretzel it’s distinctive taste. Also, baking soda in any recipe promotes browning.

You do have to make sure that all the baking soda is dissolved before starting so it’s imperative that you start with boiling water.

The butter also gives these rolls a rich taste. That’s one step and ingredient you may skip if you want.

The Recipe

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Everything Pretzel Knots

A great snack for anytime

Prep Time40

Cook Time10

Course: breads, Snack

Cuisine: American

Keyword: easy soft pretzels, everything bagel seasoning uses, using pretzel dough for rolls

Servings: 8

Calories: 192kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

Pretzel Dough:

2 1/2 cups bread flour
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
7/8-1 cup warm water

Soda Bath:

1 cup boiling water
2 tbs baking soda

Topping:

3 tbs unsalted butter melted
4-5 tbs everything bagel topping or pretzel salt

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Mix the dry pretzel dough ingredients in a large bowl. Stir in the warm water using only enough to form a soft dough. Knead dough preferably by machine for 5-8 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic.
Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover and let rest for 30 minutes.
While dough is resting, mix the soda bath ingredients in a square baking pan making sure the baking soda is dissolved; set aside to cool to lukewarm.
Preheat oven to 475F/250C. Line a large baking sheet with parchment or lightly spray with non-stick spray.
Turn dough out onto a lightly oiled surface. Divide dough into 8 equal portions. Let the portions rest for 5 minutes.
Roll each portion into a thin rope about 24-inches/60cm long. Shape into knots (or pretzel shape, whatever is easier).
Working with 4 knots at a time, place them in the baking soda bath, making sure each knot has been immersed in the liquid—you may have to spoon it over the tops. Let the knots sit in the bath for 2 minutes. Repeat with remaining 4 knots.
Place the knots on the prepared baking sheet and distribute everything bagel seasoning evenly over each knot.
Bake for 8-10 minutes or until a deep golden brown. Remove from oven and brush with the melted butter—use all the butter.

Nutrition

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Easy Hawaiian Rolls #2

Judith Hannemann — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Easy Hawaiian Rolls

Exactly like Kings Hawaiian rolls and so easy too!

I love Kings Hawaiian Rolls…I mean I REALLY love them…so much that I can eat practically a whole package in one sitting. There’s just something about the combo of the texture and the taste.

So easy and cheap you’ll never believe!

I’ve made other attempts at duplicating them, and they’ve been pretty good. This is another one of my copycat recipes for them. They are very good, but these are better. So good in fact, I cannot tell the difference.

The plus here is that they use very inexpensive ingredients so you don’t have to buy anything special. If you don’t have bread flour, then use regular all-purpose.

Light and fluffy. Just add butter….or not! Good just by itself!

The pineapple juice is nice, but you don’t need it. Water will do you here.

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Easy Hawaiian Rolls #2

Exactly like Kings Hawaiian rolls and so easy too!

Prep Time3 30

Cook Time45

Total Time4 15

Course: breads

Cuisine: American

Keyword: bread recipe, hawaiian rolls

Servings: 9

Calories: 230kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

1 cup warm water or pineapple juice
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/4 tsp SAF yeast (aka bread machine yeast)
2 tbsp oil
3/4 tsp salt
3 cups bread flour

Instructions

Place water (or pineapple juice) in a large bowl. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved. Sprinkle yeast on top and let sit for 10 minutes. If bubbles form, yeast is active and you may proceed.
Add the oil and salt; stir
Stir in flour, one cup at a time, until a soft dough forms. Turn out on floured surface and knead for 5-8 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic.
Place about 1 tsp of oil in the bottom of a deep bowl. Add the dough and coat the bottom of the dough with the oil; turn dough oil side up. Cover and let rise for 1-1 1/2 hours or until double in bulk
Stand mixer method:
Place water/pineapple juice in the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer. Add the sugar and stir. Sprinkle yeast over liquid. Let stand for 10 minutes. If bubbles form, you may proceed.
Attach dough hook to machine. Add the oil and the salt. Mix at low speed.
Add flour, one cup at a time, and knead for 3 minutes. Proceed as above.
Bread machine method:
Add ingredients as per manufacturer’s instructions. Set on dough cycle. When time is up, proceed to “shaping” instructions.
Shaping:
Lightly spray or grease a 9 x 9-inch pan.
Turn out dough on a lightly floured surface. Roll dough into a 9-inch log. Cut off 9 equal portions and form into balls. Place in pan, allowing space around each ball for rising.
Cover and let rise until double in bulk, about 30-45 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake rolls for 15-20 minutes or until internal temperature of rolls is 190 degrees F -OR- until when bottom of the rolls are tapped, it produces a hollow sound.
While still hot, brush tops of each roll with butter. NOTE: what I do is just rub the end of a stick of butter on each roll.

Nutrition

Easy Hawaiian Rolls

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Amish White Bread

Judith Hannemann — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Amish White Bread

It may be called Amish White Bread, but it tastes just like King’s Hawaiian Rolls! Very easy-to-make bread and inexpensive too.

I found this recipe years ago. When I first saw the recipe, I could not believe this would actually taste GOOD.

Why? The ingredients were so basic–nothing outlandish at all. Yeast, water and sugar. I thought this was something I’d end up throwing out, but I figured I’d try it anyway. It’s a VERY inexpensive bread to make and I wouldn’t be out much if it were a failure.

Amish White Bread–Sliced

Boy was I surprised. This was the BEST bread I’ve EVER eaten! It reminded me very much of my beloved King’s Hawaiian Rolls, because it was on the sweet side yet not sweet enough to be called a cake or sweet bread.

I made it this time the conventional way, but I always made this in my bread machine in the past. Excellent results either way. If you use a machine, follow your manufacturer’s suggestions for the order you add the ingredients, but basically all your liquid is added FIRST with the flour last and the yeast on top of the flour (I always made a tiny “crater” in the center of the flour to add the yeast).

Easy!

If you don’t like the obvious sweetness of the bread, reduce the sugar to 2 tbs and you’ll have a fine-tasting plain white bread.

Amish White Bread–Close Up of Crust

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Amish White Bread

It may be called Amish White Bread, but it tastes just like King’s Hawaiian Rolls! Very easy-to-make bread and inexpensive too.

Cook Time2 30

Total Time2 30

Course: breads

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Amish white bread, bread dough, bread recipe

Servings: 12 slices

Calories: 163kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

1 cup warm water 110 degrees F
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast or 2 tsp SAF yeast*
3/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 cups flour all-purpose or bread (strong) flour are fine

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

In a large bowl, combine the warm water, the sugar and the yeast. Stir and let stand for about 10 minutes–this is “proofing” the yeast. If you get a bubbly foam on the top of the water, your yeast is active and you may proceed.
Add the salt and vegetable oil. Stir to combine.
Add the flour, one cup at a time until a soft dough forms. You may have to use more flour depending on weather conditions. For instance, today I needed close to 3 3/4 cups of all-purpose to get this right. The dough should be soft but NOT sticky.
Turn dough out on a floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes. If using a stand mixer with a dough hook, knead for about 3 minutes.
Pour some oil (about 1 tsp) in a large bowl and place the kneaded dough in that bowl, coating the bottom of the dough with the oil. Turn oil-side up and cover the bowl with a greased piece of plastic wrap.
Set the bowl in a warm draft-free place** and let rise until double in bulk–between 1-1 1/2 hours.
Punch dough down. Turn out on lightly floured surface and shape into a loaf–this is done by pressing the dough into a sort of rectangle then rolling up tightly from the smaller end. Seal edges and place in a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan that has been sprayed with non-stick spray. Cover with greased plastic wrap and place in a warm draft-free** place to rise until double in bulk–when loaf is about 1-inch higher than the side of the pan. This should take anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on temperature/humidity conditions.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake in preheated oven 30 minutes.
Remove from pan and cool completely on a rack.

Notes

*SAF yeast is often called “Bread Machine Yeast” or “Instant Yeast.”

Video

Nutrition

**My house is drafty so how I raise bread dough is by turning on my oven and setting to 400, then after about 20 seconds, turning the oven OFF. I then put a bowl of hot water on the bottom rack and put the bowl or pan I am rising the dough in on the rack above.

Apply Butter Liberally!

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