Amish White Bread

The Amish and Mennonite communities of Lancaster County have been baking this bread for centuries. It predates sliced bread by a hundred years, yet remains the ideal vehicle for it. Two ingredients distinguish this loaf from ordinary white bread: whole milk for tenderness and a touch of sugar for that faint sweetness that makes it irresistible warm from the oven.

This is not artisan bread. It makes no pretense of crusty exteriors or open crumb. What it offers instead is honest utility: a loaf that holds together for sandwiches, absorbs soup without disintegrating, and transforms into the finest French toast you've ever tasted. The Pennsylvania Dutch understood something essential about bread. It should serve the meal, not demand attention.

I've watched Amish bakers work this dough by feel, never measuring, adjusting flour by the handful until it feels right. You'll develop that instinct too. For now, I've given you weights alongside volumes. The weights are more reliable. Use them until your hands know what properly hydrated dough should feel like: smooth, slightly tacky, and alive with the energy of working yeast.