This has popped up on my menu plan a few times here and there and lots of you have asked for the recipe. But it’s taken me FOREVER to get around to posting it.
Sorry ’bout that!
This is a soft, slightly sweet white bread. It’s got a more tender crumb than regular white sandwich bread, partly because it’s made with milk, not water, and partly because it has more fat in it, in the form of eggs.
It’s a bit like the dough you’d use to make cinnamon swirl bread, and it’s pretty darn delicious.
I often use it to make panini sandwiches because it’s firm enough to hold up to the grill pan but also soft enough to compress the way a panini should.
But it’s also delicious as-is, and it makes delightful toast.
To start, combine flour and yeast in your mixer bowl.
Heat your butter, milk, salt, and sugar to 120 °F, at which point the butter should be pretty soft.
Add the warm milk mixture to the mixer bowl, and beat until combined.
The add in the eggs.
Beat for 3 minutes on medium speed, then stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and knead for 2-3 minutes (alternatively, you can finish kneading in the mixer.)
When you’re done kneading, your dough should be a nice cohesive ball, but it should not be stiff. See how this kind of flattens out a bit on my counter in the photo below?
It should not be firm enough to hold its shape (way softer than cookie dough, for instance.)
If your dough is too hard, it’s not going to rise well and you’ll end up with a dense loaf. We’re going for a nice, soft dough here, people!
Put your dough into the bowl, cover it with a wet tea towel, and let it rise for an hour.
After it rises, turn it out onto a floured surface and divide it into three pieces.
Note: you can make four loaves out of this dough if you don’t want super tall loaves. But I like my loaves pretty tall, and besides, three loaf pans fit in my oven better than four. So three loaves it is for me!
Roll one piece out into an oblong shape, then roll it up, starting at the short end. Place the loaf into a greased 4×8-inch loaf pan, and repeat with remaining pieces of dough.
(I use Williams-Sonoma Goldtouch loaf pans.)
Cover the loaves and let them rise for about 30 minutes, or until they’re doubled in size.
(I am not the awesomest at dividing dough evenly. And I am also too lazy to weigh my dough!)
Before the loaves are done rising, turn your oven on to 350 °F. You want it to be nice and hot by the time your dough is done rising because loaves that go into a hot oven will rise better and brown better than loaves that go into a cold oven.
Bake the loaves for 25-30 minutes, or until they’re nicely browned. Remove the loaves from the pans and let them cool on a wire rack.
These are the cooling racks I own. They are so, so, so much better than the rickety ones I use to own, and I love that the cross-hatch design on these means that baked goods don’t sag down between the bars.
So. That’s how I make egg bread. Go make some for yourself!
This soft, slightly sweet bread is lovely on its own but also makes great sandwiches. You can make shorter loaves by using larger loaf pans. Or you can halve the recipe and make two loaves in the 8x4 inch loaf pans.
Homemade Egg Bread
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
Gina says
I should try my hand at making bread – this looks really good and my peeps would likely love getting fresh bread from the oven!
Jennifer says
Gina, I just started baking my own bread the past few years and I love it. The reason I never did before was due to the steps..mix, let rise, wait, punch down, let rise, wait, blah..blah. However, once I tried it I began to learn to work it in between my other household chores. My family loves it fresh out of the oven with honey and butter, so delicious. Always make a few loaves at time no matter what recipe you choose to use. It’s as easy to make a few loaves as it is to make one and you can chunk them in the freezer. One thing I have learned the hard way is that fresh baked bread molds quicker than bread from the store so if you don’t use it within 2 to 3 days put it in the freezer.
Melissa says
I started making bread years ago following your French bread recipe. Now, thanks to health issues, we’re gluten free, so no more bread making. I so miss it, especially when I see posts like this!
Kristen says
Oh, that’s hard! and there are gluten-free bread recipes from ATK but they are definitely not quite the same.
WilliamB says
Melissa, have you tried the GF recipes from King Arthur Flour? I haven’t myself, but most KAF recipes that I have tried have been keepers.
Here’s a link to GF recipes on their website:
https://search.kingarthurflour.com/search?p=Q&lbc=kingarthurflour&uid=994624365&ts=custom&w=Gluten%20Free%20Recipes&method=and&view=grid&af=type:recipes
Susan says
Kristen, 3 loaves is a lot for us, but I love fresh baked bread. Where in the process do you think I could freeze the extra 2 dough balls before baking?
karen b says
I would personally do 4 loaves so your pieces wouldn’t be huge.
Then wrap tightly in saran wrap & put either in a saved bread bag or another gallon size bag. Anytime we buy bread we always save the bags for future use. It should be good for a couple months this way.
This sounds like a good recipe
karen b says
opps didn’t catch freezing the dough balls that I don’t know
Shelley B says
I don’t know the answer to your question, but I have a whole wheat bread recipe that makes three loaves…I bake all three and freeze two for later. It always comes out of the freezer tasting delicious. Obviously you don’t get the “fresh out of the oven” yumminess, but still, delicious bread!
Kristen says
I’d actually just halve the recipe and make two smaller loaves. Then you could freeze one while you eat the other one fresh.
You could try freezing the dough after you knead it, then let it thaw in the fridge until it’s completely unfrozen, and then shape it into a loaf, but I’m not positive how the results would be. I usually just bake all the loaves and then freeze the extra loaves.
Mrs. Picky Pincher says
Ooooh thank you for this recipe! There are some weeks where I have way too many eggs and this would be a fantastic way to use them up.
Mr. Picky Pincher is extremely Picky about his sandwich bread. I’ve been looking for a homemade bread that meets his specifications, so I’m hoping this recipe will be light and fluffy enough to pass the test.
JD says
This looks like the dinner roll dough that my mother used to use, and passed on to me. I know the rolls are delicious, so I’ll bet the bread is fabulous. The recipe looks easy to divide in half — my mixer won’t take that much flour at once, or at least, the manual says not to put in that much, so I think I might try halving that and making one or two loaves out of it.
I admit I had to chuckle at the uneven sizes — I can’t divide my dough equally either, and I’ve even weighed it and still got unevenly sized loaves. Don’t sweat the small stuff, right?
Kris says
Sounds delish. I promise that I am not a nit-picky reader about spelling errors, but I did get a smile out of your recipe–did you know that you wrote “party” for “partly”? I think more fat in a recipe calls for a party, so it seems appropriate to me.
Kristen says
Oh, haha, whoops! That’s kind of a funny typo.
I fixed it now.
Mary G says
This looks marvelous. Thanks so much for sharing! I’ll have to try to make the recipe this weekend.
Sarah says
Just to clarify….. This calls for 2 pkgs of yeast which would be 2 1/4 tsp EACH, right? So 4.5 tsp yeast total? I buy my yeast by the pound (therefore not in the convenient packages) so I wanted to clarify.
I haven’t bought store-bought bread in years. I always make 3 loaves at a time and freeze 2. They are delicious from the freezer. This recipe sounds easy and delicious!
Kristen says
Yep, 2 1/4 teaspoons for each package. I’ll edit to make that clear. Thanks for pointing it out!
Barbe says
Made this today! Delicious! Thank you for the recipe.
Kristen says
Woohoo!
Barbe says
P.S. I just noticed in the comments that it should have been 4 1/2 tsp. of yeast. I made it before reading that comet and it turned out fine.
Christy says
I am wondering how to change the recipe if I want to use white whole wheat flour? Any ideas?
Thanks.
Crystalyn says
Looks delicious! I’ll have to try your recipe sometime.
Stacey J says
Could almond milk be used in place of the milk? If not, does the type of milk make a difference skim, 1%, whole etc.?
Kristen says
Yep, you can substitute other milks. A lower fat percentage product will make your bread a little less soft, but it’ll still work fine. I use 2% when I bake, since that’s what we always have in the house.
deb in sc says
I’m sorry to leave this comment here, but wasn’t sure if you’d see it if I posted on an old blog entry. I believe you’re recommended TING Wireless in the past. My hubby and I are considering getting cell phones and eliminating our land line. I have a couple of questions….does TING have it own network? Or are they using towers from other carriers? Have you ever had a problem where you couldn’t make a call? Also, my hubby and I are not techno savvy in anyway….what do you use DATA minutes for? Is that for accessing your emails? Or going to GOOGLE? Or anything else you would go to the internet for???
Kristen says
Ting operates on the Sprint network and also on one other network. They have a coverage map on their site to help you figure out if you will get good coverage where you live.
The data is for accessing the internet…so yep, emails, social media, a web browser, etc.
Use this link to get a discount on your first month if you sign up: https://thefrugalgirl.ting.com
Let me know if you have other questions!
deb in sc says
thx so much!! I missed the data map when I was browsing, so went back and looked. The only reason we are looking at TING is because of your recommendation and I will definitely say that if they ask where I found them. Thanks so much…I don’t comment much, but read and like ALL of your posts!
Nikki says
What make/brand of cooling racks are pictured in your post?
Kristen says
It’s this one, which I got from Amazon: https://amzn.to/2llSiVb
I LOVE these cooling racks! The cross hatches really prevent any sagging of the baked goods while they’re cooling.