Victorian Milk Bread

Submitted by Lucy Valitchka 

Ingredients:

        2 tsp dry yeast

        1 tsp sugar

        1 ¼ cups lukewarm milk

        3 ½ cups unbleached high gluten flour

        1 ½ tsp salt

        Egg glaze, made with 1 egg and 1 tbsp milk 

Sprinkle the yeast and sugar into ½ cup of milk in a bowl. Leave for 5 minutes; stir to dissolve. Stir in half of the remaining milk. 

Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center and pour in the dissolved yeast. Mix in the flour. Stir in the reserved milk to form a sticky dough. 

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead the dough until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. 

Put the dough in a clean bowl and cover with a dish towel. Let rise for 45 minutes. Punch down, cover, and let the dough rise again until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. 

Grease an 8 in X 4 in X 2 ½ in loaf pan. Shape the dough into an S-shape. Cover with a dish towel. Proof until the dough is 1 in above the top of the pan, about 1 hour. 

Brush the top of the loaf with the egg glaze. Bake in the preheated oven (400 degrees) for 45 minutes, until golden and hollow sounding when tapped underneath. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool. 

(From “The Art of Bread”, Cooking Club of America, Eric Treuille and Ursula Farrigno, c. 1998)