Amish White Bread

Yesterday while chatting with @gutimom on twitter, I happened to surf over to her blog, My Kinda Rain. While browsing around there I saw her recipe for Amish White Bread.  Thinking it was the Amish Friendship Bread that required a starter (the one you have to make a member of your family and feed for 10 days) and mentioned how I'd have to attempt that some day.  Then I actually read the recipe. Imagine my surprise when I could make the bread the same day as I mix the flour with other ingredients. :) So today I set out to play with my Kitchen Aid stand mixer and make her recipe for Amish White Bread.

This is the first time I have ever made bread without using my bread machine. I was a little nervous but it turned out fantastic.  This recipe makes 2 loaves of bread.  You could make 2 plain loaves and freeze one for later or you can do what I did.  I made one loaf plain and the second loaf I made into a cinnamon swirl bread.  Ok, so my swirl part needs a little work, but it tastes really good.  Once I flattened the loaf I covered it in a bit of soft butter, sprinkled with some brown sugar and cinnamon.  I didn't measure this - just put what I thought looked good.

Since I have never made bread without the help of my bread machine I didn't know how to shape a loaf for the pan. I found this site that gives a picture tutorial.  It's very easy.  While my loaves turned out great, I really like the rustic look to @gutimom's bread (How did you do that???).

This is my plain white loaf

This is the cinnamon (sorta) swirl loaf

Amish White Bread
Original recipe can be found here

2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2/3 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
6 cups bread flour

Instructions:
In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam. Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix in flour one cup at a time. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth (I let the kitchen aid knead the dough for about 11 minutes). Place in a well oiled bowl, and turn dough to coat. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. Shape into loaves, and place into two well oiled 9×5 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise for 30 minutes, or until dough has risen 1 inch above pans. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes.

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*****Edited 01/20 To Add******

I made this recipe again yesterday but this time I used 1/2 white flour and 1/2 whole wheat flour. This change was far superior.  We are used to eating whole wheat bread so we really enjoyed this adaptation much better.  The bread didn't rise as much on the second rise (that could have been my error, I wasn't able to get to the dough after the 1 hour rise time and it ended up being close to 2 hours). Regardless of that I'll be making it with half whole wheat flour from now on.

Amish White Bread