Sally Lunn Bread

Over the past few days, I have been baking breads that I had done previously. No point talking about them when there is no breakthrough or nothing new.

Last week I baked a Sally Lunn bread using recipe found from the net. As the original recipe was meant for a 1.5 pound load, the amount of ingredients were adjusted accordingly.

3/8 cup fresh milk
1 big egg
1.75 cup bread flour
1/6 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoon butter (about 30 grams)
1 teaspoon instant yeast

This is the first time that I'm using a recipe that is not shown in the book. One of the key ingredients that is featured in all the other bread is missing i.e. water. The amount of bread flour prescribed by the recipe is also much lower than other breads. Will the bread be too overly dry. Will it be hard. What setting should I used on the machine: Firm or regular loaf? Light or regular crust?

Despite these reservations, I embarked on my journey. I chose Regular loaf and light crust.

After waiting impatiently for 3.5 hours, I was greeted with a 'short' bread. It is shorter than most bread. Probably due to the high dosage of butter, it has a pleasant butter scent. Texture wise, I thought it was a little dry especially when you ate in on the next day. Nevertheless its a nice bread. The higher butter content makes the container more oily and you'll have to spend more time cleaning it.

Here's another Sally Lunn recipe (for 1 pound bread) found in Betty Crocker's Bread Machine cookbook (ISBN No 0-02-860367-2):

1 egg + enough water to measure 3/4 cup
2 cups Bread flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter (softened) (about 57 grams)
3/4 teaspoon bread machine yeast

I have not tried this recipe. But the amount of ingredient stated here appears to be more consistent with other breadmaking machine recipes. It also addresses some of my earlier concerns.