You may have heard this called milk bread. Make this by hand or in a bread machine - both instructions are included. It freezes well, too!
Be sure to read to the end where I'll be sharing my best tips for getting yeast dough to rise! More Bread Recipes here.
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Ingredients
If you are looking for the homemade equivalent of Wonder Bread you'll definitely want to try this classic Amish white bread! It is somewhat sweet — and when I say somewhat I mean like those fabulous, hot dinner rolls they have at Logan's Roadhouse or Hawaiian rolls.
If you want a real treat try it with a spoonful of this apricot pineapple jam!
- whole milk
- sugar
- yeast
- salt
- light vegetable oil or coconut oil (or melted butter)
- bread flour ( or all-purpose)
- butter
- two 9 by 5 inch loaf pans (measured from outside edge to outside edge. 1- ½ quart)
- instant read thermometer.
You can find a list of tools and helpful information on the Essentials page.
Instructions
Note: This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the green recipe card below.
- Mix the yeast, sugar, and warm water.
- Let it get foamy.
- Mix in the flour and knead until it is soft and elastic - it will feel like your earlobe when you squeeze a bit between your thumb and forefinger. Weird but true.
- Place in an oiled bowl and cover.
- Let rise until doubled.
- Check by pushing your finger in. If the indent stays it has doubled.
- Punch down.
- Shape and place in greased loaf pan - let rise.
- Bake.
Bread flour or all-purpose
This recipe works best with bread flour but you can also use all-purpose if you like. Just be aware that the texture may be a little more dense and your loaf will not rise as high.
If you are using all-purpose flour and you happen to have some wheat gluten around you can replace 1 tablespoon of flour with 1 tablespoon of gluten for every cup.
That will give it the rise and fluffiness you're looking for in this sweet white bread.
Storage
Let the finished bread cool completely then wrap in plastic wrap, use an airtight container, or use a bread bag. Homemade bread gets stale more quickly than commercial breads so plan on eating or freezing within 2 days.
To freeze just wrap in plastic wrap, then aluminum foil and freeze for up to 3 months.
I like to slice the bread before freezing and place parchment paper between the slices so I can thaw just one or two pieces at a time.
Tips
If you've had trouble with homemade bread recipes before be sure to read these posts on troubleshooting and tips:
- If you want something less sweet you can cut the sugar in half. It will change the texture a bit but will still be great.
- This is one recipe I don't often use butter in. I use organic extra-virgin coconut oil because it adds just a little flavor to the bread. A light vegetable oil will work, too. Try it with coconut oil, light vegetable oil, or melted butter and just see what you like best. Make sure whatever you use is melted and cooled to 100F before adding.
Leftover angel chicken warmed up and served over a thick slice of this homemade bread is one of my favorite quick and easy meals. Try it!
Variations
Amish white bread is a basic loaf with lots of different possible variations. Here are some of my favorite variations.
- Dinner rolls
- Cinnamon rolls
- Sweet rolls
- Hamburger buns
- Cinnamon swirl loaf
- Add 2 cups raisins
- Add 2 cups chocolate chips
- Add 2 cups chopped nuts
Since this recipe freezes so well you can make several batches to have on hand when you need them.
Amish white bread is one of the main breads on my list of homemade pantry staples because it's so easy!
Equipment
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I use a Bosch to make bread with. I love my Kitchenaid but it just doesn't handle heavy doughs as well as I'd like. If you plan on making bread often I'd recommend saving up for a Bosch. It lasts forever. You won't regret it.
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Help it rise!
There are definitely a lot of ways to get yeast doughs to rise - such as keeping it in the oven with the light on, etc.
My favorite is to use a natural dough enhancer like one of these-
- Ground ginger helps to activate the yeast and really get it going.
- Potato water strengthens the structure of the dough allowing it to rise higher.
Click through to 5 Ingredients to Help Your Bread Rise (updated for 2020) to find more great ideas including a recipe for a natural dough enhancer -
Many people have asked me if you "have" to use bread flour. The bread will rise higher and lighter if you do but you can substitute all-purpose flour .
Amish White Bread
Print Pin Recipe SaveEquipment Needed
Ingredients
- 1 cup water, 110F
- 1 cup milk, 110F
- ⅔ cup sugar, (you can use less)
- 1 ½ tablespoons active dry yeast
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- ¼ cup vegetable oil, -- coconut oil works really well here (melt it first and let it cool to 100F)! OR use melted butter
- 5-½ cups bread flour, you may need a little more or a little less
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
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Instructions
Conventional method
- Dissolve the sugar in the warm water and milk in a large bowl.
- Whisk in the yeast.
- Set aside for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the yeast mixture gets foamy.
- Stir in 1 cup of the flour.
- Whisk in the salt and oil.
- With the mixer running add the remaining flour, one cup at a time, until the dough pulls away from the bowl.
- Knead by machine about 5 minutes.
Hand kneading
- If you are hand kneading mix in the flour until you have a sticky dough, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic - adding flour as needed.
Rising and shaping
- Oil a large bowl and place the ball of dough in it.
- Oil the top of the dough and then cover with a damp cloth.
- Allow it to rise until it has doubled in bulk. This will take about an hour.
- Punch the dough down.
- Knead for three minutes or so and divide in half.
- Let rest for five minutes.
- Shape into loaves and then place in greased 9x5-inch loaf pans.
- Brush the tops with the melted butter.
- Let rise for 30 minutes, or until the dough has risen an inch or so above the pans.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes, or until loaves sound hollow when tapped.
For a soft crust
- For a soft crust butter the tops and place a clean tea towel over the baked loaves as soon as you take them out of the oven. Let them cool for about 5 minutes and then take them out of the pans to finish cooling, covering them back up with the tea towel.
Bread machine instructions
- Add ingredients to your bread machine in the order the manufacturer recommends.
- Select white bread cycle.
- Press "start".
- When the dough has risen once and second cycle of kneading begins, turn the machine off. Press "start" again to reset the machine.
- The dough will rise a second time before it bakes.
Notes
- If you want something less sweet you can cut the sugar in half. It will change the texture a bit but will still be great.
- This is one recipe I don't often use butter in. I use organic extra-virgin coconut oil because it adds just a little flavor to the bread. A light vegetable oil will work, too. Try it with coconut oil, light vegetable oil, or melted butter and just see what you like best. Make sure whatever you use is melted and cooled to 100F before adding.
- Ground ginger helps to activate the yeast and really get it going.
- Potato water strengthens the structure of the dough allowing it to rise higher.
- Click through to 5 Ingredients to Help Your Bread Rise (updated for 2020) to find more great ideas including a recipe for a natural dough enhancer -
Nutrition Facts
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Michele
Does this work with rice flour?
Michele
Marye
No Michele, it needs the gluten to rise.
Kathy
Made this today. So good. A little too good. I can’t stay out of it. My husband loves it too. Thanks for the recipe. Will be making this again and again.
TJ
This is a great recipe; it provides consistently good results for me. This is the third or fourth time for me. I made it today and tried two cups of whole wheat flour to replace two cups of the bread flour. It turned out really great. I typically make two loaves at a time. If you are on the fence, I say go for it.
Kitty
Can you make this in a bread maker?
Marye
I don't have a bread maker and I prefer not to make recommendations.
Donna
So you're saying let it rise in the bowl, punch it down, let it rise again, punch it down, then put it in the loaf pan for it's final rise before baking??
Elaine Pennoyer
I can’t wait to try this
Carla
I like be making this bread it always turns out great!!!
Johanna
Soooo good!! How do you thaw from frozen?
Marye
Just remove from the freezer and thaw on the counter at room temperature if it's baked. If unbaked thaw overnight in the fridge.
Sarah
Love how this bread turned out! I saw you said it can be used to make hamburger buns also, how long should those bake for?
Marye
about 15 minutes.
Jessie
In the blog post, after punching down, it skips the kneading step, but in the recipe steps, it says to knead about 3 minutes after punching down. I did the 3 minute knead and my second rise didn't go well, so I am going to try again without kneading after the first rise. I thought it was odd to knead after punching down. Should have gone with my gut.
Marye
Hmmm. - Well it's how I've been doing it for 40 years - sorry it didn't work for you.
Jeanne
This was delicious. I made one with a sourdough yeast and ions with regular yeast. Both were great!
Lanie N Howie
I substituted the oil and sugar for honey and butter and it turned out really good.
judith a judge
after you remove bread from pans and cover again how long do you leave the towel on
Marye
I leave it on until they've cooled but you could probably take it off before that.
Drew
Instead of using sugar can I use honey?
Marye
If you want to use honey make the honey buttermilk bread - it's formulated for it. https://www.restlesschipotle.com/buttermilk-bread/
Richane
How much ginger do you add and when do you add it?
Marye
Just a pinch.
Marti
This is great. It made perfect loaves that were easy to slice and it tasted delicious too.
Sarah
The recipe is good and easy to follow but way too sweet.
Marye
you can cut the sugar in half or even a little more if you want to.
Bob
Just pulled it out of the oven and couldn't wait to slice it up.
The anticipation was definitely warranted. Tried a different recipe prior to this but will be putting this at the top of the list. 👍👍
Shirley
Can you use all purpose flour. I don’t won’t to buy bread flour cause I won’t use it much
Marye
Yes. It may not rise quite as much but it will still be delicious.
Jessica Gunn
I use all purpose and it works just fine!
Micaele
Sooo excited to try this! The recipe calls for oil but I can’t find if you put it in the dough or just use it to coat the bowl and dough for when it’s rising.
Marye
Instruction #5 in the recipe card at the bottom of the page - whisk in the oil. 🙂