Nostalgic pull-apart Butterflake Loaf is worth the wait

I recently received the following email from David Olin Tullis:

When I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, we often had a type of bread that I would love to find again. We called it “Hot Bread,” but I do not remember if that was actually on the package or if our family just called it that. It was a “brown and serve” bread, but instead of individual rolls (that are still commonly available) it was in two loaves with tearapart slices. Each loaf had about a dozen slices. It was delicious. If there were any slices left over, Mother made toast out of them the following morning.

I’m familiar with the rolls — often called flake rolls — and they are available in most central Arkansas grocery stores, however, as far as I can tell no one is currently selling brown-and-serve pullapart loaves.

The most recent reference I could find to brownand-serve pull-apart loaves was an announcement that Nickles bakery in Ohio was discontinuing production in 2015.

If you know of an Arkansas bakery or grocery store selling a similar product, please let us know.

It isn’t all bad news though. Pull apart bread isn’t all that difficult to make, like all homemade yeast bread it is time consuming.

This recipe is adapted from King Arthur Flour Co. Here the dough is spread with plain butter, but it is also delicious with garlic and herbs mixed with the butter or made with sweet with cinnamon and brown sugar.

Butterflake Loaf

1 cup milk

¾ cup butter, softened,

divided use

3 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons salt

2 eggs

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

4¼ to 4¾ cups all-purpose

flour

2 tablespoons instant potato

flakes

In a small saucepan or microwave, heat milk until it’s steaming, but not scalded.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, a large mixing bowl, or the bowl of a bread machine, combine the hot milk, ¼ cup of the butter, sugar and salt. Stir well. Let mixture cool to 110 to 120 degrees, then stir in the eggs, yeast, 3½ cups of the flour and the potato flakes. Mix on slow speed for 3 minutes. If dough is wet or tacky, add flour a few teaspoons at a time, mixing until flour is completely incorporated between additions. Once dough is smooth and soft (not sticky), transfer dough to lightly greased bowl (or leave in the bread machine), cover and let rise 1 hour.

Grease 2 (8-by-4-inch) loaf pans.

After dough has risen, deflate it and roll on a floured surface to ½ -inch thick rectangle, about 8-by-21inches. Spread the remaining butter down the length of one half of the rectangle. Fold the unbuttered side over the buttered side. Cut into 20 (3-inch wide) slices. Arrange slices, fold down, in the prepared loaf pans. Cover loaf pans with plastic wrap and let rise until the dough nearly fills the pans, 30 to 90 minutes depending on the temperature of your kitchen.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake loaf pans for 25 to 35 minutes, tenting with foil after 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Brush top of loaves with melted butter as soon as you remove it from the oven.

Makes 2 loaves.

REQUESTS

■ Boston seafood casserole like the one served at the recently

closed Cajun’s Wharf for Jill of Maumelle.

■ White balsamic vinaigrette recipe like that served at Cheers in the Heights for Karen Branton.

■ Baked beans like The Wooden Spoon in Gentry for Gayle Mason of Siloam Springs. The beans are “unlike any baked beans I’ve ever had. It has a variety of beans and the sauce does not have molasses or ketchup,” Mason writes.

Send recipe contributions, requests and culinary questions to Kelly Brant, Idea Alley, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, AR 72203; email:

kbrant@arkansasonline.com Please include a daytime phone number.