About a year ago I made the decision to cut out store-bought bread products from our home. Initially, this was not because I enjoyed making everything myself, but because of all the harmful ingredients. Y’all…have you looked at all the crap in a loaf of bread?! As time went on, I learned to enjoy the process of bread making, and I love the smell of my home on bake day. This Amish White Bread recipe is one of the only bread recipes that I make using regular yeast rather than my sourdough starter, and it’s mainly because my kids prefer the taste for their sandwiches. I also love that this recipe yields two loaves, so I pop the extra loaf in the freezer for when we need it. Here is the recipe and I’m anxious to hear how y’all love it!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup water (110 degrees)
• 1 cup milk (I use plant milk because I’m dairy free) (110 degrees)
• 2/3 cup sugar (I use cane sugar or coconut palm sugar)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of dry active yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 cup of oil (I use avocado oil because of its neutral flavor)
• 5 1/2 cups bread flour
• 2 tablespoons of melted butter (I use plant butter…again because I’m dairy free)

INSTRUCTIONS

• Pre-measure out your flour so you don’t lose count while adding it to the liquid ingredients. I learned the hard way.

• Add warm water and milk to the large bowl of a stand mixer, then whisk in sugar until dissolved.
• Whisk in yeast and set aside for 5-10 minutes until foamy. It will look like this:

• Once foamy, stir in 1 cup of flour, the oil and then the salt.
• Add bowl to stand mixer, then while running, add remaining flour 1 cup at a time.
• Once all flour is incorporated, knead for 5 minutes.

• Oil a large bowl, then after 5 minutes of kneading, add the dough to the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise until it doubles (1-2 hours).
• Once dough has doubled, punch it down and knead by hand for 3 minutes, then divide the dough in half.

• Let rest for 5 minutes, then shape into loaves and place into 2 9×5 loaf pans.

• Brush top with melted butter and let rise until the dough has come up 1 inch above the pans (about 1 hour).
• Put loaves in oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
• Viola!

To me, this bread tastes like those Hawaiian rolls that everyone loves so much, but you be the judge. Let me know what you think!