Fresh from the oven…it smells amazing 🍞🍞

As a working mom, I have been making the same quick and easy bread recipe for over twenty years….

When Ben (my husband) and I first were married, a very strange feeling struck me. I knew about my mom’s bread recipe (which I will share because it’s fantastic) and I knew about my grandmother’s bread recipe, which I wasn’t really a fan of at the time.

Both women, although extremely influential in my life, were both stay-at-home housewives. The majority of my memories of both of them revolve around them having time to do many different things at home because they weren’t working outside of it. They had developed a system of recipes that worked for them in their kitchen and household rhythm.

Most of her food was very simple, revolving around whole foods and zero sugar and additives, and was always tasty and filling. She taught all four of us girls how to do the basics: stews, soups, casseroles, breakfast, etc. Not much was learned in the way of breads or desserts because it really wasn’t a part of our daily diet and in small amounts during the holidays.

The Search for Simplicity

When I set out to find a bread recipe that became my stand-by recipe, it needed to check a few boxes.

Why was this so important to me and to you, as a working mom? I was looking for a bread recipe that would be easy to keep the ingredients on hand all the time; I also knew that those said ingredients had to be inexpensive and easy to find. I mean, come on…POV – I’m a 19 year old kid, looking to make homemade bread, work a full-time job and somehow be a productive wife while being pregnant for the first time with our honeymoon baby.

Simplicity was not just a key factor, it was the deciding factor. I truly did not have time to sort out 10-15 ingredients, mix forty-seven different stages, as well as to carve time out to flip and knead loaves multiple times daily. I needed something that took fifteen minutes putting 5-6 ingredients together, kneading, letting it rise a couple times, then bake it, ideally on an afternoon when I wasn’t working.

Affordability

When Ben and I first were married, we lived on about $1500 for the whole month. We had a baby on the way, vehicle and house repairs to consider, as well as day-to-day expenses that somehow magically happen when the funding is the lowest. Thankfully, we did not have a house payment or rent, and we had no vehicle payments but life is expensive for two people just starting out. I look back now at the ingredients I bought to make my bread and I just cringe. I am thoroughly ashamed to say I bought enriched bleached flour, white sugar, and canola oils or margarines. It was what we could afford at the time and frankly, I didn’t know any better. Things have since changed drastically.

Beginner’s Bread Recipe

I briefly touched on that we did not do much in the way of yeast or sourdough baking when I was at home, growing up. My mom had a gluten intolerance so she avoided it religiously. Because of that, we did too. Setting that factor aside, I absolutely LOVE bread in any form. Given the chance, as a child/teenager, I would just eat stupid amounts of bread simply because I loved it, craved it even. There is no greater comfort food or a better way to say “I love you” than a slice of warm fresh bread with some butter, jam or honey on it. As much as I loved and do love bread, I knew absolutely tiddlywinks about making it, so I needed a recipe that was very easy to read, follow and execute.

The Final Contestant

These self-made requirements brought me to find the recipe that I have been using for the past twenty years. It’s a very simple recipe that I found in an All-Recipes magazine called Amish White Bread; I don’t even remember where I found the magazine, but I remember finding that recipe. I remember standing at the kitchen counter, getting increasingly more frustrated that I couldn’t find a decent bread recipe that wouldn’t take a whole day to do. I picked up the magazine, started leafing and lo and behold! there was a bread recipe that looked fantastic, had only six ingredients and was ready to bake inside of two hours. I was so excited to find that and still am. It changed everything for me in the baking department.

Importance of Quality Ingredients

Even though the recipe itself is quite simple, the caliber of the bread is greatly affected by the quality, either poor or excellent, of the ingredients used to make the bread. When I first started making the bread, I didn’t know about the digestive danger of commercial white flour, white sugar and processed oils, so those were the ingredients that I used, resulting in a tasty but nutrition-lacking bread that left my tastebuds and system wanting. Here’s my thoughts and favorites for the individual ingredients.

Water:

Doesn’t get much simpler, right? Wrong. I grew up with well water and have always used well water, so I have little experience with using a city-sourced water supply. Please don’t. City water is so full of things that are harmful to our systems, it’s not hard at all to see why it can be harmful to a little microbiome system like yeast. If you don’t have access to well water (I’m sorry), use as natural of a source as you can: purified, filtered, distilled, etc. Just don’t use unaltered city water from the tap.

Yeast:

A few different types of yeast are available. You can also delve in the fantastic world of sourdough, if you want, but that’s another day. The main types of yeast that I notice are readily available here in the States are regular or slow-rise yeast, quick rise yeast, and bread machine yeast. Many different brands are available: I prefer Red Star Active Dry Yeast It’s been the most reliable yeast that I’ve used so far and I’ve been using it for twenty years with no issues. As the quality of this yeast determines how well the bread does or doesn’t rise, reliable yeast is incredibly important, especially when you’re working on a time table.

Sugar/Sweetener

Talk about a controversial topic. Mentioning in some circles that you used white sugar in the past can be cause for a very strong response. Let’s be honest here. I am addressing working parents who don’t always know the difference between the sweeteners and can’t always afford something of a higher quality. Here’s the basics of what I have learned. I usually prefer to use the sucanat or honey in my bread-making.

Honey: *my favorite kind of honey to buy over the counter is found HERE*. That lovely thick golden substance that drove Winnie the Pooh Bear into complete distraction. Honey is known as one of Nature’s super foods, loaded with healthy naturally occurring gut bacteria, among many other benefits. Honey is best sourced raw, unpasteurized and locally, if possible, as all the natural pollens are present. It is fantastic for making bread and baked goods as a natural sweetener, as well as tasty as a topping after the baked goods are done. Honey does sweeten but has a more subtle profile than a sugar like Sucanat, so use it to your personal taste. Honey also does tend to (I find) make the final bread product just a touch heavier in texture, so be aware of that.

Flour

I’m pretty sure I can fill Noah’s Ark with all the different possibilities available in flour choices. The easiest solution is to find an unbleached organic bread flour or unbleached organic all-purpose flour that also fits into your budget. The links shown here are to the King Arthur line of flours, as I can vouch for the products’ quality and consistency after using them for almost 15 years. I’ve used them for quick baking, yeast-rise baking, sourdough baking and confectionaries; the products are consistently good across the board.

homemade bread, urban homesteading, modern homesteading

Print Recipe

Easy Amish White Bread

Prep Time20

Cook Time30

Rise Time2

Total Time2 50

Course: Bread

Keyword: homemade bread, modern homesteading, simple dinner recipe, urban homesteading

Servings: 24 servings

Author: Elizabeth

Equipment

2 4"x8" bread loaf pans

Ingredients

2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
⅔ cup sugar or sucanat
2 Tbsp active dry yeast (or 2 packets – not quick-rise yeast)
1/4 cup olive oil or melted butter
1½ tsp salt
6 cups bread flour, unbleached (all natural or organic)

Get Recipe Ingredients

Instructions

Gather all ingredients.
Dissolve sugar in warm water in a large bowl, and then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam, 5 to 10 minutes.
Mix oil and salt into the yeast. Mix in flour one cup at a time.
Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth (About 5-10 minutes). You can also use the dough hook on a stand mix to do the kneading, if you so choose.
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 until dough has topped the pans by one inch, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Bake the risen loaves in the preheated oven until golden brown for 30 minutes.

Notes

Photos courtesy of Allrecipes.com

Making delicious homemade bread does not have to be a complicated project, nor does it have to be time-consuming. If you check out my other blog post below about delicious bean soup, this bread recipe is a great option to the cornbread.