Mise en PlaceEverything you need to get started!:

• Three durable 9×5 loaf pans or reliable Stainless steel bread pans for consistent baking.
• Parchment paper (an excellent alternative if you prefer not to grease your pans).
• A sturdy, Heavy Duty Electric Stand Mixer for efficient dough kneading.
• A comprehensive set of measuring cups and spoons for precise ingredient measurements.
• An Electric Bread Knife for perfectly smooth slices.
• A dependable Wire whisk for blending ingredients thoroughly.

Essential Ingredients for Your Mennonite Sandwich Bread:

• Dough Sponge: This crucial pre-fermented starter is a mixture of yeast, warm water, and a portion of the total flour. It serves a dual purpose: ensuring your yeast is active and robust, and significantly enhancing the dough’s structure and flavor. While it only ferments for about 20 minutes, this brief step contributes immensely to a better-tasting and more stable bread.
• Instant Potato Flakes: The secret ingredient! These flakes are the key to achieving that signature super light, incredibly soft, and wonderfully fluffy texture. They also play a role in extending the bread’s shelf life as a natural preservative.
• Bread Flour: For this recipe, I highly recommend King Arthur Patent flour, which is a high-gluten flour specifically designed for bread making. Its high protein content contributes to a strong dough and excellent rise. I often purchase it in large 50-pound bags from a restaurant supply store for convenience and value.
• Oil: I consistently use sunflower oil in the majority of my baked goods, including this bread. It’s a neutral-flavored oil that doesn’t overpower the delicate taste of the bread, and its properties work exceptionally well in doughs.
• Salt: When not using my preferred Real Salt, I opt to grind coarse sea salt, which we acquire in bulk. The quality of your salt can make a noticeable difference in the final flavor of your bread, so choose a high-quality option.
• Sugar: My preference for sweetness in this recipe is Organic Cane Sugar. It provides the perfect touch of sweetness and helps activate the yeast, contributing to the bread’s golden crust.
• Egg: Adding an egg to the dough serves to enrich it, contributing to a more airy, light, and incredibly fluffy texture that defines this sandwich bread.

From-Scratch Baking Hack: Grinding Coarse Salt

Ever wondered how to seamlessly incorporate coarse salt into your baking, ensuring even distribution and flavor? My personal trick is to grind coarse salt in a small, dedicated coffee grinder. This transforms it into a finer powder, perfect for blending into doughs and batters. Once ground, I store it in an airtight Glass Weck Jar to maintain its freshness and prevent clumping. A word of caution: Celtic sea salt is generally not recommended for grinding into a fine powder due to its higher moisture content, which can clog your grinder. Always remember to thoroughly wipe your grinder clean after each use to prevent any residue buildup and protect it from rust.

How To Bake The Best Sandwich Bread From Scratch

1. Prepare the Dough Sponge: Begin by creating a flavorful dough sponge. In the bowl of your stand mixer, whisk together the dry active yeast, warm water (ensure it’s between 85-98°F to activate the yeast properly), instant potato flakes, and the initial portion of bread flour. This pre-fermentation step builds flavor and structure. Cover the bowl and allow the sponge to ferment and activate for 20 minutes.
2. Combine Remaining Ingredients: After the sponge has risen and become foamy, indicating active yeast, add the remaining dough ingredients to the mixer: sunflower oil, salt, organic cane sugar, and the egg. Mix until thoroughly combined. Then, gradually add the rest of the bread flour.
3. Knead and First Rise: Knead the dough using your heavy-duty electric mixer at a low speed for precisely 9 minutes. The dough will be slightly tacky but should come together. Once kneaded, gather the dough into a ball, lightly oil the top surface, and the inside of the bowl. Cover the bowl securely and let the dough rise in a warm place for about 35 minutes, or until noticeably expanded.
4. Shape the Loaves: Gently transfer the risen dough onto a lightly floured surface, such as a pastry silicone mat. Divide the dough evenly into three equal pieces. For each piece, pat and flatten it into a rectangular shape. Then, roll the rectangle up tightly, jelly-roll style, from one of the longer sides. Pinch and seal the seams securely at the bottom to create a smooth loaf.
5. Prepare for Second Rise: Carefully place each shaped dough loaf, seam-side down, into your lightly greased bread pans (or pans lined with parchment paper). To prevent large air pockets and ensure a uniform crumb, use a fork to prick the dough all over the top surface. This traditional Mennonite technique helps release trapped air bubbles.
6. Second Rise and Bake: Allow the shaped bread to undergo its second rise for another 20-25 minutes, or until it has risen beautifully in the pans. While the bread is rising, preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C) about 5 minutes before you plan to bake. Bake the loaves for 25-30 minutes, or until the internal temperature, checked with a kitchen thermometer, reaches 190°F (88°C).
7. Butter and Cool: As soon as the golden-brown loaves emerge from the oven, immediately brush their tops generously with cold butter. This creates an even softer, more flavorful, and lustrous crust. Allow the bread to cool in the pans for precisely 10 minutes. Then, promptly remove them from the pans and transfer them onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely. This crucial step prevents the bottom crust from becoming soggy due to trapped steam. Ensure the bread is fully cooled before slicing or storing to maintain its optimal texture.

Chef Baking Tip: The type of bread pan you use significantly impacts your crust. Using a light-colored bread pan promotes a paler, more tender, and delicate crust. I’ve personally observed that when I bake in my darker gauge steel pans, the crust tends to emerge with a more intense, darker hue. This is because darker pans absorb and retain more heat, causing food to cook faster and brown more aggressively. If darker pans are your only option, mitigate this effect by lining your pans with parchment paper to achieve a gentler bake.

Crucial Homemade Bread Hack: How to Check for Doneness

One of the most common questions in bread baking is knowing when your loaf is perfectly cooked. For basic white sandwich bread, the definitive indicator of doneness is its internal temperature, which should ideally reach 190°F (88°C). The most accurate and reliable way to check this is by inserting a high-quality kitchen thermometer into the very center of the loaf. If you’re baking with a portion of whole wheat flour, aim for an internal temperature of 200°F (93°C) for optimal results. Relying on temperature ensures a consistently baked loaf every time, preventing both undercooked dough and overbaked dryness.

My Tried-and-True Tips & Tricks For Failproof Bread

• Pan Size Matters: For the loaves pictured in this blog post, I used slightly smaller 8×4 inch pans. Be aware that using smaller bread pans will result in taller, more dramatically risen loaves. While visually impressive, they might be slightly harder to slice for standard sandwiches.
• Recommended Loaf Size: The universally recommended size for classic homemade sandwich bread is a 9×5 inch loaf pan. This size yields a perfectly proportioned 1.5-pound loaf, ideal for slicing and versatile use.
• Greasing Alternatives: If you don’t have cooking spray or prefer an alternative for greasing your bread pans, simply line each pan with parchment paper. This ensures an easy release and simplifies cleanup.
• Potato Flake Choice: I frequently purchase instant mashed potato flakes in bulk for my baking needs. My preferred brand for consistent results and excellent texture is the Idahoan Premium Mashed Potato Flakes.
• Choose Unbleached Flour: Opt for unbleached bread flour whenever possible. Its stronger gluten structure results in a more robust dough, which in turn contributes to a softer, chewier crumb and superior rise compared to bleached varieties.
• Egg Substitute: If you need an egg substitute for dietary reasons, use 1 tablespoon of sunflower lecithin. Lecithin acts as an excellent emulsifier, helping to bind the dough more effectively and significantly improving the overall texture of the final bread.
• Embrace the Sponge Method: Do not skip the dough sponge step! This is a time-honored technique used by Mennonite bakers to achieve their signature fluffy bread, and it genuinely makes a difference in flavor and texture development.
• Yeast Versatility: Both dry active yeast and instant yeast can be successfully used for preparing the dough sponge. Choose whichever you have on hand.
• Immediate Buttering: For an irresistibly soft and flavorful crust, generously butter the tops of the loaves as soon as they are removed from the oven. I find simply rubbing a cold stick of butter all over the hot surfaces works wonders.
• Mennonite Air Bubble Trick: After the dough has been shaped and placed into the bread pan for its final rise, take a fork and gently prick the dough all over. This simple, traditional tip, learned directly from my Mennonite friends, helps release any trapped air bubbles, ensuring a more uniform and tender crumb.

An Important Homemade Bread Cooling Tip

The cooling process for your freshly baked loaves is just as important as the baking itself. It’s crucial to allow your bread to cool in their pans for a short period of 10 minutes. This initial rest helps the loaves firm up and makes them easier to handle. Immediately after these 10 minutes, promptly remove the loaves from their pans and transfer them onto a wire cooling rack. If you leave the bread in the pans for too long, trapped steam will cause the bottoms to “sweat” and become unpleasantly soggy, ruining that perfect crust. A wire rack allows air to circulate around all sides of the loaf, ensuring a crisp crust and ideal texture throughout.

Have you ever encountered Occident flour? This particular unbleached patent flour is highly regarded and often found in many Amish and Mennonite markets. It’s milled from hard red wheat, making it exceptionally high in protein, which is ideal for a wide range of breads, especially those requiring a strong gluten structure. I’ve personally used Occident flour before for recipes like these delightful Squash Dinner Rolls, a recommendation I received directly from experienced Mennonite cooks. Its properties make it particularly well-suited for achieving the perfect texture in sandwich bread.

More Favorite Bread Recipes from Our Farmhouse Kitchen:

As a dedicated from-scratch cook, baking fresh bread is a cherished priority here at our farmhouse. There’s nothing quite like the aroma and taste of homemade loaves. For fellow home bakers, here are some more of my beloved bread recipes that I think you’ll enjoy just as much as we do.

Join My Weekly Newsletter

Get new recipes, homesteading tips, family life updates, what we eat in a week, and hospitality secrets delivered straight to your inbox.