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.
I decided to try the simplest recipe I could find, which was this Amish White Bread recipe from allrecipes. It was my first attempt at bread baking (except for challah), so they’re a little ugly. I wish I saw this post before I shaped those first two loaves.
Now I bake this bread all the time – I’ve tried other recipes, including Ina Garten’s white bread, but these are just so simple and turn out so delicious. Sometimes I use honey or agave instead of sugar, but I basically stick to the same recipe every time.
The loaves rose like crazy this time.
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)
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, dissolve sugar in the water and sprinkle on the yeast. Let sit for 5 minutes.
- Using the dough hook, mix in the salt 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.
- 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.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
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