Amish Baking
Amish women are well-known for their delicious baked goods. And in this post, I have put together a collection of some of the finest Amish baked good recipes.
You will find many of these homemade goodies when you visit Amish bakeries in PA Dutch country. But you can also easily make them at home with these Amish recipes that include detailed instructions.
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What Are Amish-style Baked Goods?
Amish baked goods are recipes specifically from Pennsylvania Dutch culture that have been passed down through multiple generations.
And the Amish lifestyle has been centered around farming, so it's only natural that a lot of their recipes include dairy and eggs.
You probably won’t find substitutes like margarine or artificial sweetener used in Amish baking. Instead, you’ll find that their baking recipes just use the basics like white sugar, brown sugar, and flour.
They also make some desserts with lard, which is animal fat typically taken from a pig. Like butter, lard is a great binding agent, and it adds moisture as well as a rich taste to baked treats.
Molasses is another indispensable staple in most Amish kitchens. This sweetener can be used to add some jazz to cookies, cakes, and more. And it seems to be a common ingredient in Amish recipes.
The main principle behind their baking is to use simple ingredients that are already in the pantry. And the best way to make anything is from scratch.
Buying in bulk is also a common practice in Amish country, as it’s a thrifty way to stock your pantry with brown sugar, flour, and other essential dry ingredients.
Pennsylvania Dutch Baked Goods
There are several specific baked goods that I would expect to find in most Amish bakeries in Lancaster County, PA, and I'm listing some of them here.
• Shoofly Pie is one of the items at the top of the list that I would expect to find.
This is a delicious breakfast pie that is very popular in Lancaster County. It has a gooey molasses layer at the bottom, a cake-like center, and is topped with a delicious layer of crumbs.
As Amish kids, we used to eat shoofly pie for breakfast with milk. But now, I enjoy it with a cup of coffee.
• Homemade Amish White Bread would be another item that I would expect to find at an Amish bakery.
And tell me, who doesn't love a piece of fresh homemade bread? It's amazing! But even better than the loaf that you buy at the bakery, is the smell and taste of fresh bread hot out of your oven. And honestly, it's not that hard to make (especially if you have a stand mixer that can handle the kneading.)
• Amish Apple Dumplings is another popular PA Dutch baked good.
This Amish dessert consists of apples baked inside of a crust and covered in a sweet caramel sauce. They are quite delightful, especially when served warm with a scoop of ice cream.
• Apple Schnitz Pie is a pie that is often served with a Lancaster County Amish church meal and is also commonly found in bakeries in that area.
Traditional Schnitz pies are made with dried apple slices that have been cooked and mashed, with added sugar and spices. However, sometimes bakers take the easy route and make them with apple butter and applesauce.
• Oatmeal Whoopie Pies are the last item on my list of baked goods that you will most likely find in an Amish bakery in Lancaster County, PA. Whoopie pies are two cookies with a light and delicious frosting sandwiched between them.
Chocolate whoopie pies may be the most popular flavor of whoopies that are commonly found. But I have not managed to get any chocolate recipe on my site yet.
However, I have a pumpkin whoopie pie recipe and oatmeal.
More Amish Baked Goods
• Amish Apple Bread is a sweet quick bread that is super moist and full of flavor from the apples, cinnamon, and pecans! You can serve apple bread for breakfast, a snack, or dessert.
• Zucchini Bread with Pineapple is another moist and delicious quick bread and is a great way to use up an over-abundance of summer zucchini. Slather cream cheese frosting between two slices, and you have a tasty dessert.
• Amish Applesauce Cake is delightfully moist and full of warm and cozy flavors. With every delicious bite, you get the taste of apples and spices along with the crunchy texture of the nuts. And it's also very easy and quick to make!
• Moist Amish Chocolate Cake is one of the best cakes in the world, at least if you're a chocolate lover like me! It's so delicious topped with my chocolate buttercream.
Amish Breakfast Baked Goods
• Pennsylvania Dutch Shoofly Cake is a molasses cake that is similar to shoofly pie without the crust. It's very quick and easy to make.
• Amish Homemade Donuts are so good when they're freshly glazed and still warm.
• Amish Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Streusel is a moist and delicious cake that goes perfectly with a morning cup of coffee! Although, you can also serve this coffee cake for dessert at any time of the day.
• Banana Bread Muffins are a great way to use up overripe bananas. These muffins are so moist and full of flavor!
Amish Pie Recipes
Pies of every kind are often found on the dessert table at Amish gatherings. And I must say, pie is one of my favorite desserts. There are so many delicious flavors, and honestly, I've never tasted a pie that I didn't like.
One of my kids asked me the other day what my favorite kind of pie is. I don't think I have one absolute favorite. But I have many favorites!
• Creamy Pecan Pie is definitely among my favorite kinds of pie. I'm a little picky with pecan pie though, and sometimes they're almost too sweet for my taste. This Amish recipe, however, is amazing!
• Pumpkin Custard Pie is another one of my favorites, and I make it numerous times in the fall as well as any other time of the year. This creamy, spicy, custard pie is also a favorite with all four of my kids!
• Peanut Butter Cream Pie starts with a regular baked pie crust that's filled with a smooth and creamy home-cooked pudding, peanut butter crumbles, and topped with whipped cream.
This pie is also at the top of the list with my kids, and I think it's safe to say that this is my husband's favorite kind of pie.
• Dutch Apple Pie with Crumb Topping is a classic apple pie with a buttery crumble topping which adds an amazing texture and flavor.
• Amish Lemon Sponge Pie is an easy-to-make Amish pie recipe with a refreshing lemon flavor and a light, airy texture. It has a luscious creamy lemon layer that magically transitions up into a light sponge-like topping. It's a very refreshing dessert!
All of these Amish pies are quite delicious, and I would have a hard time turning down a piece of any one of them.
Amish Cookies
We baked a lot of cookies at our house when I was growing up. And typically, we made a huge batch so that we'd have enough to put one or two tubs of cookies in the freezer for later use.
• Oatmeal Raisin Pecan Cookies are the best cookies ever! They're so soft and chewy with fun flavors and textures!
• Amish Monster Cookies were my dad's favorite cookie. They are naturally gluten-free, soft, and chewy oatmeal cookies that are loaded with peanut butter, chocolate chips, and M&M’s. They are absolutely amazing!
• Amish Chocolate Chip Cookies are possibly one of the most common and well-loved-by-all cookies ever. And this is just a basic, delicious, chewy chocolate chip recipe.
But you can easily customize chocolate chip cookies by adding different flavored chips, nuts, etc. My Amish mom loved mint flavoring, and she often added some mint extract to her chocolate chip cookies for an added flavor.
• Soft and Chewy Gingersnap Cookies were a pretty common cookie to find on the trays with our Sunday church dinner. Made with molasses and spices, they have an amazing depth of flavor.
Amish Baking Recipes
I have many more Amish baking recipes, but these are some of my favorites!
My sister-in-law has two more of my favorite Amish baked goods recipes on her website. And those are Homemade Cinnamon Rolls and Sweet Buttery Dinner Rolls.
I hope you get to try some of these delicious Amish baking recipes. Most of them are not hard at all to make and the rewards are great! 🙂 Because there's nothing quite like the taste of made-from-scratch, fresh, warm baked goods.
Let me know, in a comment below, which one is your favorite Amish baked good recipe.
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