Sally Lunn: Now That's A Keeper!

Before I start on the main post, I must apologize for the long delay. You don't want to know what the last few days have been like.

So, Sally Lunn bread was a major success. I don't think I got everything quite perfect; but the end result was that one of the two loaves I made was gone in three days. With very strong approval from Nancie and her mom as well. There was the "not-very-bready" taste to it I remembered; I can now say definitively that this results from the eggs. Three eggs are more than I usually put in two loaves of bread (which is to say, more than none). And one thing I learned from it was that only about 25% of the pictures I take are really good enough to use as illustrations.

Here's the recipe, then:

Sally Lunn Bread

• ½ cup warm water
• 1¾ teaspoons (1 packet) active dry yeast (I actually used 2, I don't remember my reasoning at the time)
• 1 cup warm milk
• ½ cup (1 stick) butter
• ¼ cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3 eggs, well beaten
• 5½ – 6 cups flour

Mise en (not quite) place

Measure warm water into bowl; add yeast and stir until dissolved. The recipe didn't actually specify to proof the yeast, but I did, for about ten minutes. Not that it did any good:

Even after 10 minutes, not much in the way of foaming or activity. Hmf.

Add milk, butter, sugar, salt, and eggs.

You might notice I poured the salt on top of the butter. I'm usually kind of leery of adding salt—especially that much salt—without it being mixed with some amount of flour.

Stir in 3 cups flour; beat until well blended. Stir in enough remaining flour to make a soft dough.

This is just the three cups of flour, before the "make a soft dough" stage.

Cover and let rise in warm place, free from draft, until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. Okay, I have a problem here. Because the bread doesn't require kneading (unneeded? unkneaded? Whichever.) It was hard for me to judge what constituted "doubled in bulk". I let it go for at least an hour and a half and still wasn't entirely satisfied with it. But it worked out well.

Cross fingers and hope this is risen enough.

Stir down (I punched it down, but I definitely should have stirred); spoon into well-greased and floured 10-inch tube pan or 2 well-greased 9" x 5" loaf pans.

Like this—it's very much like a cake at this stage

Cover (again), and let rise until doubled in bulk (again), about 1 hour. (Here I did see it rising.) Bake large loaf at 400 °F (200 °C; Gas Mark 6) about 30 minutes, or until done. Bake small loaves at 375 °F (190 °C; Gas Mark 5) for about 30 minutes, or until done. Remove from pans and cool on wire racks.

Again, it looks more like cake; but it tastes like a cross between cake and bread. I love it!

And there you have it! Mama says she used to make this every Wednesday (I don't remember her making it that often) because I loved it so much. I hope you enjoy it just as much. God speed, and remember: All sorrows are less with bread.