(24 votes, average: 3.29 out of 5)
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In Pennsylvania, the Amish and Mennonite communities are famous for their pillowy, sweet sandwich bread. This loaf, which has been adapted from a local Amish friend’s recipe, is perfect for taking on long hikes through the woods, or for piling high with deli-thin lunch meat and cheese.
The addition of honey as a sweetener helps keep the loaf fresh and adds a subtle, soft texture often lacking in homemade white breads. This is also – by far – one of the easiest breads to make and can be incorporated into any after-dinner kitchen activity in order to provide the ultimate in soft, fresh bread everyday.
6 cups Better Batter Gluten Free Flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 cup whole milk or milk substitute
1 packet active dry yeast
2/3 c honey
4 Tbsp butter or df margarine
Optional: one egg white, 1/4 c water, and sesame seeds
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour two 9×5 inch loaf pans; 10 mini pie tins; or 2 hamburger bun molds.
In a large mixing bowl combine the Better Batter flour and salt and set aside.
In a large saucepan or microwave safe container, combine the milk, butter, and honey. Heat until the butter just begins to melt (about 5 minutes on the stove on low heat, or about 1 1/2 minutes in the microwave). Do not let the mixture get hot! Allow to cool for a few minutes, or until lukewarm.
Stir and add the packet of yeast. Stir again and let sit for 5 minutes.
Add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture and stir with your hand vigorously, until the mixture is thick and looks like chocolate chip cookie dough, abotu 10 minutes. Alternately mix on high speed of stand mixer for 4 minutes.
Spoon into the loaf pan or tins. Wet hands and smooth surface of dough. Take a wet finger and run it around the edge of the pans to make a small indentation/groove. this will allow your bread to rise in an even dome.
If desired beat the egg white and water together. Brush lightly over the dough and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Let rise 40-50 minutes and bake:
For loaf bread bake for 45-55 minutes
For mini tins bake 20-30 minutes
For hamburger tins, bake 15-25 minutess
The crust should be golden brown but not hard.
Let cool for ten minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack ,and cover with a tea towel – this will keep the crust soft!
Let cool completely before slicing or serving.
I have read that GF Bread Recipes should always use eggs, I just wondered why the Amish Loaf Bread does not have any eggs in the recipe?…thank you………….
most people who claim that gluten free bread needs eggs are using old methods or are using flour mixes that don’t have enough protein or binding power in and of themselves. With Better Batter flour, you can use a recipe as written without worrying about adjusting to make special exceptions or methods. This is why Better Batter can safely be used by those with egg allergies or vegans!
This recipe requires no egg – but adding an egg or two won’t hurt it at all
The original recipe was an Amish recipe given to me by a local friend. I did the liquid adjustment we call for for yeast breads and changed nothing else –
Thanks so much! This has become our go to recipe! I’ve been asked to make it weekly for my daughter to have sandwich bread to pack in her lunch! I make half in a loaf and the other half I use my muffin top pan to make buns.
This week I tried buttermilk and we liked that too. I have had to lower the temperature for my oven or the crust gets too dark before the bread is cooked through. Such a great product!!
That’s awesome to hear!! Noted that the buttermilk makes the bread brown more (so good to know!)
I just tried making this bread – my first attempt at yeast bread ever – and I must’ve done something wrong. When I started mixing the dough in my Kitchenaid, it formed a thick ball of dough very quickly, looked like regular bread dough, not cookie dough – it was so thick I thought it was gonna burn the mixer out so I only mixed it for probably a minute and there was no way I could stir by hand. I let it rise and that went fine, baked it for 45 min – it smelled good, and when I took it out it looked good, though the crust was pretty hard. I let it cool under the towel and when I went to cut it, it was as heavy as a brick! The inside looked very dense and the bottom almost looked gummy, though the bread looks cooked on the outside. Sorry for the long-winded post, just hoping you can give me a pointer or two, since this used a LOT of flour! It tastes ok – really sweet to me (can the honey be cut down?), but the texture is definitely not light and pillowy as you describe. Would love some help!! I am an avid baker, though have only been GF for the last month and a half since being diagnosed with Celiac. Your brownie mix is the best I’ve ever had, GF or not!!
Do you have a recipe to make brownies with your flour that will come out like your mix? Thanks!
HI! Sounds like you have too much flour by weight – what you are describing is exactly what would happen if there’s too much flour. This often happens with scoop measuring. This is one of our most popular bread recipes, so pretty sure this is a user-error, not a recipe situation (sorry! :-/) You should measure 4oz per cup by weight to get the equivalent of regular flour.
You can reduce the honey to taste – make sure to use at least 2tsp for the sake of the yeast.
You may want to try our Brownie Master Mix – it’s not the same as our box brownie mix but it is awesome…
I just had the exact same experience…..it was so disappointing. Thanks for posting….have you tried making this bread again by weighing the flour? I have to order more flour before I can re-attempt this recipe. Thanks!
I make this recipe weekly, chandra, and never have an issue. I measure pretty accurately (according to my spot check on my scale) and it never fails me. Ever.
I am definitely going to try again. I have a scale so I will weigh out the flour. I know this was just a trial and error type thing….lol!
Thanks for the response. That is exactly what I was thinking – I guess I need to get my self a scale, because I was measuring by scoop (with my 5-year-old’s assistance – probably the culprit, ha!). For future reference, if this happens to a recipe, is there a way to rescue the batch by adding more liquid? I am determined to make my own bread and not spend $7/loaf!! I will try the brownie recipe, thanks! I tried your chocolate cake mix yesterday, YUM! Better Batter is the best! So glad I found your brand. I’d love to try making the cake with the all purpose flour as well.
haha! That’s hilARIous…!!! I get the same results when my little guys ‘help’ cook – ah well…. Most of the time a wee little bit more water will rescue the batch. I use a Hershey’s recipe (hot water chocolate cake) for my own family’s cake recipe – that’s what I grew up with and that’s what I prefer
naomi
I am confused with how much it makes. It says: Grease and flour two 9×5 inch loaf pans; 10 mini pie tins; or 2 hamburger bun molds. Is that one of those things or all of those things listed? Are you supposed to make 2 loaves and then have enough left for 10 mini pie tins or 2 hamburger buns? I would not think that all you would be able to make is 2 hamburger buns. I guess it is confusing with the semicolons. Thanks.
the choices are
2 9×5 inch loaf pans
OR
10 mini pie tins
OR 2 hamburger bun molds
hope this helps
Naomi, I don’t want to be a pest….but I need some advise on this recipe. I weighed the flour as you suggested in an earlier comment. It definitely made a difference in the dough…much easier to mix. When I took it out of the oven I was so excited because it looked beautiful! It smelled fantastic too! I let it cool for 10 minutes and went back to check it and my beautiful loaves of bread had not only deflated, but they had sunk down in the middle. I cut them open and they were not cooked on the inside…still very doughy. What did I do wrong? I am determined to have bread….so if you could help me I would so appreciate it. So far I have had great results with making chocolate chip cookies and pizza crust. Now if I could only make bread…lol!
chandra – is it possible that you overrose the dough? How long did you let it rise? My guess is either over-rise, or that you have a hot oven and the outside is cooking before the interior structure sets.
naomi – I let it rise for 40 minutes the first time. When I tried a new batch I thought maybe it wasn’t long enough so I tried 50 minutes. Same result both times. I’m thinking maybe I need to lower the temp on my oven. I originally wasn’t thinking that because it’s a brand new oven….but maybe it is baking too hot?? Should I reduce the temp by 25 degrees or more? Also, I have a convection oven….should I be using the regular bake setting like a normal oven or is it ok to use the convection bake? Not sure if this makes a difference or not. Thanks for your help!
I think you may be right – new ovens are actually the worst offenders as far as being uncalibrated goes. reduce the temp by 25 degrees. if using convenction, I would also shorten the bake time.