Community Pick
Amish White Bread
"This is my favorite home baked bread recipe. I got it from an Amish cookbook years ago and no other bread recipe I have tried beats it. It is a standard in our house with beef stew."
photo by Bonnie G #2
- Ready In:
- 5hrs 30mins
- Ingredients:
- 8
- Yields:
-
2 loaves
- Serves:
- 24
ingredients
- 1⁄4 ounce dry yeast
- 1⁄2 cup water
- 1⁄3 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 cups water
- 2 1⁄2 tablespoons shortening
- 6 -7 cups all-purpose flour or 6 -7 cups bread flour
- 1⁄8 - 1⁄4 cup butter
directions
- Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup warm water.
- In large bowl, combine sugar, salt, 2 cups water and shortening.
- Stir in yeast mixture.
- Gradually add flour to form a soft dough.
- Turn onto floured surface and knead until smooth.
- Place in a greased bowl and cover and let rise for about 2 hours.
- Punch down and divide into 2 portions and form loaves.
- Place in greased 9 x 5 loaf pans and prick tops with fork.
- Let rise until higher than pans (about 2 hours).
- Bake at 375 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.
- Cool for ten minutes.
- Rub butter all over tops of loaves.
- Place pans on sides until loosened.
- Remove bread from pans and cool completely on racks.
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Reviews
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Excellent bread with easy to follow instructions. I used bread flour and kneaded (with Kitchenaid) for 15 minutes. Baked one loaf for dinner and rolled the second one out, sprinkled it with a bit of brown sugar, granulated sugar and cinnamon, rolled it up and let it rise overnight in refrigerator. This morning I set it in a barely warm oven for about an hour to finish rising and then baked cinnamon bread for breakfast. Thanks for the recipe! -
Yummmmm! I'm so happy with this bread...it's wonderful. Nice and light and tasty. I found the rising time in the pans to be just an hour, so that was a bonus. This bread is better than the recipe I'd been using. Definitley a keeper. -
Really great recipe for really great bread. Just like my Mom made when I was a little girl. <br/>Delicious, homey, comforting and easy! Thank you for sharing it.<br/><br/>Thick slices of toast, french toast, sandwiches, dinner bread, etc etc etc just soooo good.<br/><br/>note*<br/>I set dough on top of oven to rise while keeping oven turned on to "warm". Same thing for second rising in loaf pans. Each time took only 1 hour to double size of dough. I also used only butter instead of using any shortening. -
I've made this several times and realized I didn't leave a review. This is really good bread, although I used a little less sugar. With a 1/3 cup sugar, it would be awesome for cinnamon raisin bread, however, we don't like our white bread to be too sweet. I do add 2 tablespoons of wheat gluten (makes bread stay fresher longer, plus helps it to raise. I also used 2 1/4 teaspoons of yeast - I don't know how much 1/4 oz is, as I use bulk yeast. Anyway now that I've written a book, I'd like to say this is our new favorite white bread recipe. Thanks bunches Karen -
My first try at making bread and it is delicious. Mine was a little dense though. Excellent for dipping. I let it rise for 2 hours both times.
see 123 more reviews
Tweaks
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Really great starter recipe! I gave it only 4 stars because I felt it needed a bit more richness. The lack of fat (2.5 TBS shortening isn't enough) doesn't give the bread a silky richness. I replaced the shortening with butter and increased it to 5 TBS butter. In addition, I replaced the water with whole milk - you can also use half water/half milk or even buttermilk. Those two small changes made a wonderful difference in the second loaves that I baked. I have been baking bread for 25 years and there is nothing quite as nice as a wonderful white bread that comes together easy and is nearly fool proof. These days I only use Instant Yeast, but I still put it in the 1/2 cup warm water to soften it and I mixed the sugar into the water too. If you have Vital Wheat Gluten, a couple of tablespoons to this recipe will give you a softer texture and help your bread last longer before going stale. Finally, I only needed 5 1/2 cups of flour - 7 would have been WAY too much. The dough should be sticky and while it is mixing in the Kitchenaid, the bottom should stick to the bowl while the sides are clean. I kneaded on medium speed for about 8 minutes, which I found to be ideal. Thanks for the recipe.. lovely loaf! -
I mill my own wheat and have been hard-pressed to find a recipe that I can get a good rise out of. I HAVE FOUND IT! I have now made 6 loaves over the past two weeks and each one has been perfect. I vary the recipe just slightly in that I use 6 cups of freshly milled wheat, 1 cup of bread flour and substitute the water for whole milk. Perfection! I have also found that I only let it have a final rise of about 20 minutes and then it finishes rising in the oven while baking. This has been a great sandwich bread and basic bread recipe. Thank you Karen!
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Great loaf, followed some other reviews and substituted the water for milk. As well as letting the kitchenaid do all the kneading (10 minutes). Used it as a dinner bread as a side for clam chowder.. delish
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I wish I could give these more than 5 stars! These are absolutely amazing! I did follow the advice of one reviewer and used milk in place of the 2 cups of water (1%, what I had in the fridge) and I made buns. I got about 25 and they filled a 9x13 pan, baked for about 24 min. My kids are eating them for dessert they're so good! -
Great Recipe... Easy to make and came out beautiful!! I made one reg white loaf and made 1 cinnamon rasin swirl loaf! ill never buy cinnamon rasin bread again!! makes great sandwich bread also. next time I make it ill make it using buttermilk or whole milk instead of water... just to make it richer.. thanks for the amazing recipe...
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
Karen=^..^=
Sharon Hill, 0
<p>I live in Pa (outside of Philadelphia) and cooking, baking, cross-stitching and reading are my hobbies. <br /> <br />I collect cookbooks and cookie stamps/cutters and have a pretty big collection of both. I am also a fan of all things Amish, so I have quite a collection of things picked up in Reading, Lancaster and surrounding areas here in Pennsylvania. <br /> <br />I have 4 kids, who are the loves of my life and cooking for them and my husband keeps me on my toes! ;) <br /> <br />We bought an ice cream parlor in March 04 and it's been quite an experience! <br /> <br />Note: I love getting feedback on my recipes; all I ask is that you actually *make* them before reviewing them. <br /> <br />Also, if you make changes or substitutions, I'd love to see your suggestions and/or comments, but I'd appreciate no rating at all if it's not made as posted. Too many recipe reviews state margarine subbed for butter (if I list butter, it's REAL butter), different spices, low-fat ingredients, whole wheat flour instead of white, etc. The recipes will not work/taste as intended, so it's really not fair to rate them as such. <br /> <br />I'd also really appreciate it if you refrain from rating a recipe if you overcook or overbake it or it you don't refrigerate or store as listed. <br /> <br />I, of course, will adhere to the above when rating recipes, too! <br /> <br />Thanks and have a great day! <br /> <br />My Rating System: <br /> <br />***** A delicious recipe that was thoroughly enjoyed. It has excellent, detailed directions and is perfect as is. If a dish is especially easy, and I'm on the fence, I will give it 5* for ease even if it's very good instead of great. Something I will definitely make again. <br /> <br />**** Excellent recipe but confusing directions that I will make again in my own less confusing way OR Very good recipe that I'll probably make again if I find the time! <br /> <br />*** Good/OK recipe but probably not something I would make again OR Very Good recipe that doesn't have clear, detailed directions. <br /> <br />** Recipe was edible but not really enjoyed and will not be made again. Work involved not a good trade-off for the end result. <br /> <br />* Not edible and probably an error in the recipe. I feel that I pick recipes with ingredients our family likes, so in my opinion, there's an error somewhere. If there's a chance I made the error, I won't rate the recipe. ;) <br /> <br /><img src=http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y164/lauralie41/swapbanner.jpg border=0 alt=Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket /> <br /> <br /><a href=http://s224.photobucket.com/albums/dd235/MidwestMaven/?action=view&current=cookieswapparticip.jpg target=_blank><img src=http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd235/MidwestMaven/cookieswapparticip.jpg border=0 alt=Photobucket /></a> <br /> <br /><img src=http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/permanent%20collection/honey-pot-print-c10069558.jpg border=0 alt=Photobucket /> <br /> <br /><a href=http://s224.photobucket.com/albums/dd235/MidwestMaven/?action=view&current=09holidayparticipationbanner.jpg target=_blank><img src=http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd235/MidwestMaven/09holidayparticipationbanner.jpg border=0 alt=Photobucket /></a></p>
