I was looking around for a good bread recipe and came across several Amish White Bread videos. They all seemed to be pretty much the same and the bread looked great. However I thought they would be far too sweet for my taste, since each had lots of sugar. But I did find a recipe, on Feastandfarm, which I thought would suit my purpose. I wanted a loaf that was great for sandwiches and that recipe seemed to fit the bill.
However the loaf pan used in the recipe was smaller than the one I intended using. So I had to scale up the recipe, using baker’s percentage to do so. Let me explain further. The pan in the recipe had external dimensions of 9×5 inches where mine was 9.6×5.6 inches. That meant, of course, that the internal dimensions where different too. To convert, using baker’s percentage, I used the weight of flour in the original recipe as 100% and calculated all the other ingredients as a percentage of that.
I then calculated the difference in size between my pan and the one used in the original recipe. From that I was able to calculate the weight of flour needed in my recipe, and then apply the percentages for the other ingredients.
The only other thing to consider was baking time, since I was making a larger loaf. I decided to start with the original timings. Then I tested the temperature of the bread. When the internal temperature reached 95C/205F I had a fully cooked loaf.
Simplicity
This is a very simple recipe. I didn’t need to use my stand mixer. I simple mixed the ingredients to form a shaggy dough. That was then left to proof until it doubled in size. Then I kneaded the dough for about 6 minutes. That was until it was springy and stretchy. After leaving it to rest for 5 minutes I shaped the dough for the loaf pan. Then I didn another proofing, until the dough rose above the rim of the pan.
Although my recipe is for my larger pan, I will also include the measurements for the slightly smaller pan too.
My bake
My loaf baked very well indeed. However it did have a split on one side. That meant that I should have left it to rise just a little longer in the pan. It had risen well and I thought it was enough, but a further ten minutes of proofing would have been perfect.
As soon as the bread was out of the oven I rubbed some butter on the top. That was to soften the crust a little, for a perfect sandwich loaf.
Once cooled I sliced the bread, to expose the soft and fluffy interior. I must admit that tasted very good indeed.
Another great bread recipe is: English Muffin Toasting Bread.
Soft White Sandwich Bread
Course: BreadDifficulty: Medium8
servings2
hours30
minutes35
minutesIngredients
- Large loaf pan (internal dimensions 9x5x2.75 inches)
265ml(1 cup+1tbsp+2 tsp) lukewarm water (40C/104F)
550g(3 2/3 cups, based on scooping packed flour into a 250ml cup) bread flour
7g(one packet) active dried yeast
38g(3 tbsp) sugar
23g( about 2 1/2 tbsp) oil
4g(3/4 tsp) salt
1 medium egg(large in USA)
- 2lb Loaf Pan (internal dimensions 8.5 x 4.5 x 2.75 inches)
216g(1 cup minus 1 tbsp, minus 2 tsp) lukewarm water (40C/104F)
470g(3 cups _ 2 tbsp, based on scooping packed flour into a 250ml cup)bread flour
7g(one packet) active dried yeast
32g(2 1/2 tbsp) sugar
20g(2 tbsp) oil
4g salt
1 medium egg(large in USA)
Directions
- Place a teaspoon of sugar into the water and stir.
- Add the yeast and give a gentle stir, then leave for the yeast to activate, for about 10 minutes.
- When the yeast has become frothy it is active. Place it into a large bowl and add the egg, oil and sugar, and whisk to combine.
- Add the salt and most of the flour(keep a little back to add later as needed).
- Mix everything together until a shaggy dough clumps around the stirring implement. Add more flour if needed. The dough should still be tacky.
- Use a hand to gently mix the dough, scraping around the sides to gather everything together.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the dough to proof, in a warm place, until it has doubled in size. Mine took an hour.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and sprinkle a little more flour over the top.
- Knead the dough until it becomes stretchy and springs back, about 5 to 6 minutes.
- Tear of a piece of dough and gently stretch it out until you can almost see through it(window pane test). If the dough tears knead a little longer.
- Flatten the dough into a rectangle and cover, then leave to rest of 5 minutes.
- Stretch the rectangle until the width is about the length of your pan.
- Roll the dough up and seal the underside edge, and the side edges.
- Place the rolled dough into the loaf pan.
- Cover the loaf pan with lightly greased plastic wrap and leave to proof until the dough has risen about the rim of the pan by at least one inch, maybe a little more.
- Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/400F.
- Place the pan into the oven and bake for between 25 and 35 minutes, until it has risen and browned. The internal temperature should be at least 88C/190F. The underside should sound hollow when tapped.
- Remove from the oven and immediately brush a little butter over the top to soften the crust.
- Allow the bread to cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.
I have a 10 x 5 bread pan. How much more is needed to make a loaf for this pan????
HI Amber, The recipe will work quite well in that sized pan. However if you wish to scale up the recipe to take account of the increased size of your pan you might check out this very good explanation on how to do that, using baker’s percentage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhZPylfoIvc&ab_channel=sensitiveskinlifestyle . For information my pan in this recipe had external dimensions of 9.6inches x 5.6 inches x 2.75 inches. The internal dimensions were 9 x 5 x 2.75 inches.