My Mother’s Thanksgiving Bread

I was inspired to start filling our home with tastes and aromas from the past. It is always a simple pleasure to cook these recipes and one that fills my heart to the fullest.

There are recipes that you make only during certain times of the year, aren’t there? One that holds true for me is my mother’s Sally Lunn Bread recipe from her Pepperidge Farm Cookbook.

As a child, and even still today, more often than not The Pepperidge Farm Cookbook could be found sprawled on a counter in my parent’s kitchen. My mom cooked many of our family week night dinners from the recipes that filled that book.

There were other recipes in the cookbook that only found their way onto the family table for special occasions. Sally Lunn Bread was one such recipe.

“Sally”, as my siblings and I called this bread, would take center stage on a crystal cake stand on the beautifully dressed Thanksgiving table.  We would all fill our holiday plates with a healthy slice of “Sally” and more often than not sneak a second piece.

On the rare occasion that we did have “Sally” leftovers we would toast slices for breakfast the next morning. Spreading pats of butter on top and enjoying every bite as it melted.

My mom surprised my sisters and I one Christmas with a gift she found on eBay. She had found three original versions of the cookbook that played such a large part of our family meals growing up.

And do you know what? It wasn’t Thanksgiving time, but “Sally” was still the first recipe I made from that book.

Sally Lunn Bread Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 t salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 2 packages of yeast
• 3 eggs well beaten
• 4 – 4/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

Method

1. Heat your oven to 350 degrees. I use the dough hook for my mixer when making this recipe.
2. In a mixer, combine 1 1/2 cup of sifted flour, sugar, salt, and yeast. Blend until mixed.
3. Scald the milk then add the butter. Remove from the stovetop and cool down until lukewarm.
4. Add the milk & butter mixture along with the water to the dry ingredients. Blend together.
5. Next add the eggs and 2 1/2 cups of sifted flour to the mixer and beat on high for 2 minutes.
6. Add remaining 1/2 cup of sifted flour if needed.
7. Cover; let rise in a warm place, until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
8. Stir down the dough, pour into a well-greased 10-inch-angel food cake pan.
9. Cover, let rise in a warm place, for another 30 minutes.
10. Bake in a hot oven (350 degrees) for 30-40 minutes until brown on top (depending on your oven).

*You can also use 2 well greased 8-inch-square cake pans