Amish white bread

[ally79]

For those of you who haven't made bread before but want to try it this is a really easy first timer recipe. I have made it several times now, and it always turn out beautifully.

Ingredients:
2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45
degrees C)
2/3 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
6 cups bread flour
Directions:
1. In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam.
2. Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix in flour one cup at a time. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Place in a well oiled bowl, and turn dough to coat. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
3. Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. Shape into loaves, and place into two well oiled 9x5 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise for 30 minutes, or until dough has risen 1 inch above pans.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes.

 

[Ellyn]

Thanks so much for posting this! I do believe that Amish white bread was the first bread recipe I ever did, after a cooking class that had us make bread under guidance. I pulled the recipe off from the net and didn't save either the URL or the recipe, though--but this reads as at least as simple.

Thanks for including the temperature, too. Our baking instructor just made it a vague, "water temperature should feel like a fever" but at 45ºC, that's probably already fatal. I've also read that 370º-375º F or something, a higher temperature, is the baking temperature needed for a proper bread...but I like small loaves and prefer my handy electric toaster oven (that can fit a whole chicken to roast, and rather unevenly baked my bread the first time but baked it) even though it only goes up to 350º because I'm usually baking for myself. I refer to it as "an easy-bake oven all grown up." Well, pubescent at least. If I recall, that first Amish bread recipe that I looked up said 350º too--and that's probably why I tried it out.

I always wanted to have another go at it, maybe using the same recipe to make bagels (boiled with a very tiny bit of lye water to make the crust rubbery, then finished in a real oven)--and now I can! Thank you again!

 

[evelynmcgregor]

Thank you so much for sharing your recipe. I have baked bread off and on for several years and this recipe looks so good. There is a farmer's stand near my home that sells produce and they always have things from the Amish farms not far from us. They also have Amish baked goods and the bread is so delicious. I do look forward to trying this recipe.