Amish White Bread

by Stephanie

I decided that instead of buying bread made with high fructose corn syrup I would make my own. How hard could that be? It happened to be very easy, until it came time to shape the loaves; the first time I made them they looked a little funny, but the bread tasted great! It was such a simple recipe, and made two loaves. I made sandwiches with one for an entire week and froze the other. That was a while ago, and these pictures are from the first batch of this white bread I’ve ever baked. Now I bake this about twice a month. It makes the house smell like a bakery and leaves my stomach and wallet happy.

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IMG_1391When choosing a recipe, I decided to try the simplest recipe I could find, which was this Amish White Bread recipe from allrecipes.com. I wish I saw this post before I shaped those first two loaves. Check it out if you’ve never shaped loaves before. I found it really helpful!

Now I bake this bread all the time – I’ve tried other recipes, including Ina Garten’s white bread, but this one is so easy and simple and it always turns out great. Why go through the trouble of a long list of ingredients if this one always works and is super delicious? Sometimes I use honey or agave instead of sugar, but I basically stick to the same recipe every time.

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The loaves rise like crazy. It’s awesome.

Amish White Bread, adapted from here:

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups of warm water (110 degrees)
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
  • 1/3 cup sugar or honey
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1/4 cup oil
  • 6 cups bread flour (or all purpose if you don’t have bread flour on hand)
  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, dissolve 1 teaspoon of the sugar in the water and sprinkle on the yeast. Let sit for 5 minutes.
  2. Using the dough hook, mix in the salt, the remaining sugar/honey, and oil. Mix in flour one cup at a time, and knead until smooth, about 3 minutes.  Place in a well oiled bowl and turn to coat. Cover with a dish towel or loosely fit plastic wrap and let rise for one hour, or until doubled in bulk.
  3. Punch down dough and knead by hand for a few minutes. Divide the dough in half. Shape into loaves and put each into 9×5 loaf pans. Allow to rise for 30 minutes (covered), until dough is one inch above the pans.IMG_1407
  4. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.