The most important ingredient in homemade bread: patience. The hardest part of making bread: patience. Really. And with patience comes great reward.

I found a recipe for amish white bread on allrecipes.com a couple years ago. This recipe had over 2,000 reviews with a 5 star rating–I knew it had to be a good one. I’ve made it many times since then and have tweaked a few things here and there along the way (I say this not to sound like an expert in the art of breadmaking, but to prove that this recipe is pretty flexible).

This recipe makes two loaves, so you’ll need to oil two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans.

Ingredients:

2 cups warm water (around 110 degrees)

scant 1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 tablespoon active dry yeast

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup oil

6 cups flour

Begin by dissolving the sugar in the warm water.

Pour the sugar water into a mixing bowl, then stir in yeast. Allow the yeast to proof until it resembles a creamy foam. This is the first test of patience. I find that if I just walk away for 15 minutes, I won’t jump the gun and ruin the whole thing. This is a good time to put the baby toys away, fold a load of laundry, or help a child with math homework.

Once it’s nice and foamy, add the salt

and oil

and mix it up. I have a stand mixer, so I use a dough hook throughout the process. This recipe is totally doable without a mixer, though. It would be a good way to strengthen your hand muscles.

Now it’s time to mix in the flour. Technically, you’re supposed to mix in one cup at a time. I did that once and quickly lost count of how many cups I had put in, so now I just dump all six cups in at once and mix.

Once the dough no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl, it’s time to let it rise. Remove the dough ball, oil the bowl, put the dough back in and cover with a clean towel.

This is an important thing to remember with yeast: it must remain warm in order to do its thing. Since I often make this bread to go with a soup dinner, I put the bowl near the crockpot while the soup is cooking. Otherwise, I turn the oven on “warm” and put the bowl on top of the stove.

Let it sit for at least an hour, until the dough has doubled in bulk.

Punch down the dough and knead for a few minutes.

Then divide in half, shape into loaves, and place in oiled loaf pans.

Allow to rise until dough has risen about 1 inch above the pans. This takes anywhere from 30-45 minutes.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, let cool, then slice and eat.

This is seriously easy to make. Plus, it’s a great way to fill your family with calories when the cupboards are nearly bare.