Making a Sally Lunn Bread Recipe

The Sally Lunn bread recipe has a lot of speculative history and legend surrounding it. The story starts as Sally Lunn was a young girl in France. She took a job for a baker to sell his baked goods on the streets. Here is where her talent for baking bread was discovered. She had such a skill at baking brioche bread that the customers would only eat the bread that she made.

Later Sally Lunn arrived in Bath England in the late sixteen hundreds as a French refugee. She took another job at what is now called the Sally Lunn House. Here she developed the rich round brioche, Sally Lunn bread recipe. Some thought that she might have developed this rich egg bread off the French solilemme bread from Eastern France; the dough and serving method  are much alike. Today there are versions of the Sally Lunn bread recipe all over the world.

The original Sally Lunn bread recipe (or “receipt” back then) is yeast bread.  Some call it bread and some call it cake; it is baked in a cake pan, loaf pan, muffin pan or many other pans. The recipes floating around today by this name vary greatly; most are a yeast recipe but many are also made with other leavenings like baking powder and are more like a quick bread.

Differing from most breads the Sally Lunn bread recipe is traditionally sliced in a horizontal direction. It is then toasted and spread with butter, jams or jellies. There is documentation of putting the slices back together after spreading with flavorful spreads then slicing the warm loaf in vertical slices to serve.

SALLY LUNN (yeast bread recipe)

• 1 Cake yeast
• ¼ Cup lukewarm water
• 4 Eggs
• 1 Cup melted butter
• 1 Cup lukewarm milk
• 3 Tablespoons sugar
• 1 Teaspoon salt
• 4 Cups sifted flour

Preheat oven to 350F degrees.

Butter well a funnel cake pan.

Soak yeast in warm water. In a large bowl beat eggs until light. Add the warm milk, butter, sugar, salt and yeast mixture; beat well. Let set to rise to double in bulk. Beat down with a spoon and pour into a funnel (angel food) cake pan. Let rise again until double in bulk. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes.

SALLY LUNN (quick bread recipe)

• ¼ Cup sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 4 Tablespoons melted butter
• 1 Cup milk
• 2 Cups flour
• 3 Teaspoons baking powder
• ½ Teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350F degrees.

Grease muffin tin heavily with butter.

Sift the flour baking powder and salt together; set aside. Add sugar to the eggs and beat until light. Beat in melted butter. Combine the sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture alternating with the milk. Beat until well blended and bake in muffin tin until pick come out clean.

NO KNEAD SALLY LUNN

This no knead recipe is easy to make.

• 2 Packages dry yeast
  
• 2 Cups warm milk
  
• 1 Teaspoon sugar
  
• 1 Cup butter cut in pieces
  
• 1/3 to ½ Cup honey
  
• 3 Large beaten eggs
  
• 2 Teaspoons salt
  
• 7 to 8 Cups unbleached white flour
  
  

Scald milk; add butter and set to cool to lukewarm (110F degrees)
In a large bowl measure 7 cups flour; add salt, eggs and honey (DO NOT MIX YET)
When milk has cooled add yeast and sugar to milk.
Pour warm milk mixture over flour mixture in bowl; stir vigorously with spoon.
Add enough of last cup of flour to make dough; DO NOT KNEAD.
Cover with plastic wrap and towels; set to rise in warm place until double in bulk about 1 to 1 ½ hours.

Punch down with spoon; spoon into lightly greased 10 inch tube pan.
Cover and let rise in warm place until double; 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350F degrees; bake about 50 to 60 minutes.
NOTE: Last 15 minutes lay foil lightly over top to prevent over browning

More Great Bread Baking Tips and Recipes

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