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Homemade Egg Bread for Texas Toast

Can I let you in on a secret? My other yeast breads that I've made have only turned out okay. Granted, I have not made that many yeast breads, rather many quick breads. Because damn, waiting around for things to rise is kind of annoying, right?

But this bread totally turned out! It rose like crazy. The best rise in a dough I've ever made! This makes it lighter with more air pockets on the inside, which is really what makes a bread a bread.

That may leave you to wonder why I would make this bread. It seems kind of random, perhaps? Well, recently I went to Phoenix and had a sandwich, a sandwich my boyfriend would come to call the best sandwich he's ever tasted. And it was made using this Texas Toast-style bread. Now, this was not my all-time favorite sandwich because it had too much aioli sauce on it, but I did like the bread. Incidentally, if you ever want to try this sandwich and you happen to be in Phoenix, it's the BLT Revival at Tonto Bar & Grill.

(P.S., my favorite sandwich appears to be this fish sandwich I had at another place in Phoenix. OMG it was GOOD. And, sadly, they don't make it at the same restaurant here in LA! What! Quelle horreur! So, if you ever go to the Hillstone in Phoenix, try out the Gulf Coast Fish Sandwich. You won't regret it!)

Anyway! I made the bread, and we ate almost a whole loaf in one day, including making some grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. I imagine it would be amazeballs when made into french toast, so maybe I'll have to get some maple syrup that hasn't expired and try that out with the remaining loaf!

Homemade Egg Bread for Texas Toast
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

6 to 7 cups all-purpose flour
2 packages active dry yeast
2 cups whole milk
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup butter
2 teaspoons salt
3 large eggs

Cooking Directions

In a large mixer, combine 3 cups of flour with the yeast. Leave that while, in a saucepan, you heat up the milk, sugar, butter and salt until warm and butter is almost all melted, stirring constantly. Mix this in to the flour mixture, then beat in your eggs one at a time on low speed for about 30 seconds each, scraping down the sides of the bowl when necessary. Beat this mixture on high speed for 3 minutes, then stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can with a spoon (probably around 3 cups).
Onto a lightly floured surface, knead the dough, adding in the last cup of flour (or so) until the dough is semi-stiff, smooth and elastic. Should take around 6 minutes. Shape this into a ball and place in a lightly buttered large bowl. Turn the ball over once to butter all sides of it. Cover with a towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled, which should take about an hour and 15 minutes. Make sure you keep it away from drafts, I usually stick this in a turned off oven.
After it has doubled, punch it down and divide the dough in half. Cover again and let rest for 10 minutes. Shape into 2 loaves and place in 2 sprayed loaf pans. Cover one more time and let rise for 35 minutes until nearly double.
Bake in a 375F oven for 35-40 minutes, covering with foil for the last 15 minutes to prevent over-browning. Let cool in the pans for a few minutes, then remove to a wire rack to completely cool.
Slice it up and do whatever you like - make some french toast, maybe some grilled cheese sandwiches, a BLT, or just butter it up and eat it as is!

(Recipe via Just a Pinch)

In Photos:

Mix together 3 cups of flour with the 2 packages of active dry yeast in your mixing bowl.

In a saucepan, heat your milk, sugar, salt and butter until warm and the butter is almost 100% melted. You can see one little bit of butter left in the bottom right area. Done!

Mix your milk mixture into your flour mixture.

Beat in your 3 large eggs one at at time, about 30 seconds each. Then beat that for about 3 minutes on high.

Mix in as much of the remaining flour as you can with a spoon (about 3 cups for me).

Turn that out onto a floured surface and knead the last cup of flour in until the dough is semi-stiff and elastic, about 6 minutes.

Put your dough into a buttered bowl and turn over so both sides get buttered. Cover and let rise for 1 1/4 hours until doubled in a non-drafty place. Take out and PUNCH IT! I forgot to take a photo pre-punch to show you how much it grew. Trust me, it grew a lot!

Divide that dough in half and put in two bowls. Cover and rest for 10 minutes.

Then form loaf-shapes and stick them in the prepared pans (butter 'em up!). Cover and let rise again for 35 minutes until almost doubled.

Look how much they grew! Also, if you don't want a weird looking loaf, make sure you smooth out the tops, unlike that one on the left there. Stick this in your 375F pre-heated oven for 35-40 minutes, covering with foil for the last 15 to avoid too-brownness.

Take those out of the oven and voila - you have bread!

Apart from the slightly wonky top of the one loaf, this is probably the most successful yeast bread I've made! Look how tall!

Take them out of the pans and let them cool on a wire rack, then get to slicing!

We made some delicious grilled cheese sandwiches with the bread. Super rich, very yummy with the bread!

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