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Amish White: New Approach

And better, I think. See if you agree. Looking back, I don't see that I've ever posted Leslie Bilderback's "Amish White Bread" recipe. Assuming I haven't, here it is, then (unless she tells me to please take it down):

Amish White Bread

  • 1 cup warm water
  • ⅓ cup sugar
  • 1¾ teaspoons (1 packet) active dry yeast
  • 1 cup flour
  • 2 tablespoons oil (I usually use olive oil for flavor)
  • ¾ teaspoon salt
  • 2 more cups flour

So start off by dissolving the sugar in the warm water (as always, not much warmer than body temperature) and adding the yeast. Stir until the yeast is all mixed in and go read a book or something for ten minutes. When the yeast is all foamed up on the top, add the oil, and then stir in the first cup of flour. When this is well mixed, add the salt, and then the other two cups of flour. Flour your surface, and empty the bowl out. You should have a soft, but fairly cohesive, dough.

Knead this for eight or nine minutes. It's apparently quite difficult to over-knead the bread by hand, but I never go over ten minutes anyway. If you feel damp spots in the dough, get a tiny bit of flour in your hand and brush it over the damp spot—just enough to dry it out. After eight or nine minutes, put it back in the bowl to rise. I brushed the top of mine with oil to make it quite soft, then covered it with a cloth and let it stand at room temperature for just an hour.

Re-flour your counter if necessary, and set the risen dough on it. Punch it down (to get rid of the really big gas bubbles), and roll it out into a rectangle. The rectangle should be about 8 or 9 inches wide, and probably twice that long - maybe half an inch thick. Starting from the narrow end, roll it up tightly. When done, pinch the sides together well, and then the end seam.

I haven't quite got to the end seam yet.

Set the bread in a greased 9" by 5" loaf pan, end seam down (actually, in one corner of the pan). Preheat the oven to 325 °F (160 °C; Gas Mark 3). NOTE: This differs from Leslie Bilderback's version in the Everything Bread Cookbook; I was experimenting and I like my version better. Let the bread "proof" (just sit there over the heat) for an hour. (Again, this differs from the Bilderback recipe, and from most recipes. Most recipes tell you to let the loaf proof for half an hour. I would have, too, if I hadn't gotten a bit preoccupied with a sudoku I was trying to solve. Didn't seem to hurt the bread.)

Bake the bread for 20 minutes at 325 °F, then raise the oven to 350 °F (175 °C; Gas Mark 4) for another 15 to 20 minutes. It should be golden brown (that's from caramelizing all that sugar you added) and if you knock on it, other than burning your knuckles you should hear it sound "hollow". (From the steam that's evaporated from the hollows of the bread.)

Let it cool in the pan for five minutes or so, then set it on a cooling rack or something similar to finish cooling. If you've done it right (or, maybe, if I did it right and this wasn't just a lucky accident), it might look like this:

Perfect!

Nancie made this into a lovely chicken sandwich for my lunch. Thanks love! It was delicious.

Just cut or pull the chicken into chunks, and add just enough mayonnaise to keep it together. That's it!

Enjoy—and remember, All sorrows are less with bread.

EDIT: Much as I sometimes wish there were an ingredient to get the cat off the desk while I'm typing, I don't think that's something you need to put in your bread. *grin*

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