Amish White Bread - Tutorial

This bread is some of the most amazing bread I have ever eaten!!  My boys, friends, and family all agree.  Actually, my family and some friends around the corner from me have regular standing "orders" for this bread.  The family around the corner will actually cut off chunks of the bread to hide from each other, hoping that they end up with the larger majority of it!  To me, that's a pretty big testimony of it's greatness.  I have now taken to making them each their own loaf :-) . 

Your ingredients: Bread Flour, Sugar, Yeast, Salt, and Vegetable Oil.  Pretty simple so far!

For this first part, you will take 2/3 cup sugar and dissolve it in 2 cups WARM water. Add in 1 1/2 TBSP yeast after the sugar is dissolved. Let it set until the yeast creates a micro foam. See how the yeast is starting to foam? Not done yet.

Ah! The yeast is all foamy and ready for the other ingredients.

To the foamy mixture, add 1 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/4 cup oil. Mix with a spoon and then attach your bowl to your mixer 'cause it's time to get doughy.  If you're mixing this by hand, stretch your arms out first.  You will get all the upper body workout that you will need for the day.

Add in 3 cups of bread flour and mix. You will be using your dough hook with the mixer set on 2. Don't forget to lock your stand in the down position or it will start bucking like a bronco later. Sadly, yes, I speak from experience LOL. After the first 3 cups are mixed in, add one cup of flour at a time for a total of 6 cups of flour in your dough. If you are mixing by hand, skip the next few steps and just add one cup of flour at a time (6 cups total).

This is what will happen during cup 5 of adding flour to the dough lol.

This is what mine looked like after my 6th cup was mixed in. Still very sticky and clingy, which is not what you want. The cause?? Remember that last pic of the flour on the counter after cup 5? I needed to replace that flour in the dough. So, I added a 1/2 cup of flour and it was perfect!

See how it's no longer sticky and clinging to the dough hook? That extra 1/2 cup to replace what flew out on cup 5 was just what I needed. Time for it to rise!

Your well oiled bowl for letting the dough rise in (different from the bowl you mix the dough in).

Place the dough in the well oiled bowl. Turn the dough in order to coat the ball in the oil (lightly coated).

Take a CLEAN dish towel, wet it down, ring it out and place it over the top of your dough bowl. Let this rise for one hour.  I'm trying to get the bread to absorb a bit of Faith, Hope, and Love with my towel ;-)

This is what your dough will look like after it has risen for an hour. Yay!! Almost done. Just a few more steps. This is the point where my father in law likes to come in and make mention of the house smelling like a brewery. One of his favorite scents lol. He's a good ole' Irish man that used to brew his own beer.

You know all of that frustration you've been building up about...well, whatever it is? Time to take it out on the dough. Go boxing champ on that risen dough and beat it down with your fists!!

Now, knead it with your knuckles (kinda like giving it a lift and tuck massage) for about one minute.

Split the dough into two equally sized balls.

Shape each ball into a loaf. Best way to do this is to go back to your Pre-School days and roll it like a snake the way you would with your PlayDough. Take it between your hands and roll it back and forth, letting the weight of the dough pull it down and stretch it out. Place those loafs into two, well oiled loaf pans. Set your oven to pre-heat to 350 F while your let the dough do it's 2nd rise.  **NOTE:  Make sure you set yours smoother than my loaf on the right, it was having issues lol.

Let the dough rise in the loaf pans for 30 minutes. When that time is up, put it in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.

Final product!! Mmmmm mmmm mmmm  Makes you want to stuff your face with carbs huh?  Don't worry, what I can't see, I can't speak about.