Amish Heritage

Best Amish White Bread Recipe

This Amish white bread recipe makes a slightly sweet, soft, and tender loaf. It is easy to make, with simple ingredients and detailed instructions so that even a beginner can make an amazing loaf of bread. And it tastes so much fresher and better than any bread that you buy at the store.

And let me say, there is nothing quite like a warm slice of fresh bread with butter melted into it. Drizzle it with honey, and it is simply divine.

If you’ve never had the privilege of tasting homemade Amish bread fresh out of the oven, you are missing out. Because it is heavenly! And there is no comparison between fresh homemade Amish white bread and store-bought commercial bread. So if you’ve never had any, do yourself a favor and make some. It’s not hard at all!

Making bread may seem intimidating to a beginner. But trust me, it’s not that difficult to master. It may take a few tries to get it perfect, but it will be so worth it.

This Amish white bread recipe is great for making with your KitchenAid mixer. It yields two loaves. So the dough will easily fit into your mixing bowl.

Old-Fashioned Bread Recipe

Bread is a staple in many Amish homes. My Amish mom baked bread every week. And sliced homemade bread, along with butter and jam, was on the table for practically every meal. We never bought bread. And once you get a taste of this amazing Amish bread, you’ll understand why and probably won’t want to go back to commercial bread either.

I have another Amish bread recipe on my blog that can be used to make white or wheat bread, (Find that recipe here.) but this is one we used at home, and it is still my favorite. I had to cut the recipe down to be able to mix it in my KitchenAid because originally it made five loaves. But my mixer is not big enough to handle that much.

How to Make Amish White Bread with a KitchenAid Mixer

You can make this recipe for Amish white bread without a KitchenAid mixer. We always made it by hand, as do most Amish women. A mixer just takes care of some of the physical work and makes it a bit easier. I use my dough hook and let my mixer do the kneading.

To make this bread, start by adding 1 Tbs. flour, 1 Tbs. sugar, and 2 Tbs. dry yeast to your KitchenAid mixing bowl. Mix and add 2 cups of warm water. (Cold water will not allow the yeast to rise, and hot water will kill the yeast. So make sure it is lukewarm.) Stir and let it rest for about 5 minutes. It should look foamy and bubbly.

Add sugar, oil, salt, mashed potatoes, and 4 cups of flour. Mix with the dough hook. With the mixer running at low speed, slowly keep adding the flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Knead on speed 2 for about 5 minutes. Sometimes the dough will pull away from the sides, but as you continue to knead you will need to keep adding flour. But after it has been kneading for 5 minutes, just add enough flour till the sides of the bowl are clean. It’s ok if it’s still sticking a little at the bottom of the bowl.

Pour a tiny bit of oil into the side of the bowl while it’s still mixing to grease the sides. Or transfer the dough to another greased bowl. Loosely cover the dough with plastic wrap or a dishtowel. And let it rest at room temperature for about an hour. It should have risen to be airy and puffy.

Kneading Bread Dough by Hand

A KitchenAid mixer helps to make it very easy to make bread. But it also is not hard to make it by hand. Follow the same instructions for mixing with a KitchenAid, except you will mix the dough with a large spoon. After mixing in the four cups of flour, place the dough onto your floured countertop. Knead with your hands as you keep adding flour.

I am adding a link here to show you how this is done. And I also created a video that is included in the recipe card, to show you how easy it is to make bread.

Forming Bread Loaves

Grease two bread pans with cooking spray. Divide the dough in half. Grease your hands with butter and knead the dough for a minute. Form a round disk, trying to get it nice and smooth on the top. And folding in the ends, form it into a loaf. Poke the bread several times with a fork to remove any air bubbles. Place it into a pan and repeat with the second half.

Loosely cover the loaves and set them aside to rise again. You want to let them rise till the center of the loaves is about one inch above the pan. It takes approximately 30 minutes. Make sure to preheat the oven before they are ready to bake. Bake your loaves for 30 – 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and let them rest in the pans for about 10 minutes. Brush the tops with butter.

Transfer the loaves onto a dishtowel or cooling rack. And carefully slice a piece or two for a delicious treat. (Or in my case, slice the whole loaf. Because if my family of six people is at home, the whole loaf disappears very quickly.) I lay my bread on its side and carefully cut it in a sawing motion to avoid squashing the warm soft loaf. Slather it with butter and honey and be prepared for a taste of heaven.

Storing Homemade Bread

Some people will tell you to completely cool your bread before bagging it. However, I do not wait until it is completely cool. I bag my bread when it’s still warm to keep in the moisture because I don’t like dry bread. And whatever you won’t get eaten within two or three days, place into the freezer.

Homemade bread is amazing when it is fresh. But it does tend to dry out and get moldy sooner than commercial bread because it doesn’t have all those preservatives. Freezing it, however, helps to keep it fresh. Just remove it from the freezer an hour or so before you want to slice it.

It might take a while to eat two loaves of bread if you’re living by yourself. You can slice the bread and wrap a few pieces in separate portions. Make sure though, that you wrap it tightly in freezer bags or containers. I find that it does freeze better as a whole loaf versus sliced. But if properly stored it will still be fine.

This Amish white bread makes the absolute best piece of toast!

More Amish Bread Recipes you may want to try…

Easy Moist Amish Cornbread Recipe

Amish Zucchini Bread Recipe with Pineapple

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