Baking with yeast scares me. In my mind ,I have elevated the fear to such heights that it’s now on par with a towering Goliath that can be conquered only through divine intervention. Whenever I chance upon a beautiful photograph of a golden crusted bread loaf or a soft cinnamon roll, I sigh and move on. If only….
I had never heard of the Amish community, let alone Amish bread. They strongly resemble the self -contained community that I had come across in the excellent novel Acts of Faith, by Erich Segal. Google tells me there’s actually no proof to connect this bread with the Amish community, even though it’s named after it. The original recipe involves keeping sufficient bread starter for yourself, and then passing on the rest to others, who will do the same with theirs , and this will go on like a chain letter. You need to play with the dough everyday for ten days before you can bake the bread. Talk about patience !!
These Amish bread muffins are easy to make, doesn’t rely on yeast and it’s got a lovely cinnamon crust which I totally loved. They aren’t too sweet; I would say they have the perfect sweetness for a bread. In fact you could even make it as two loaves, instead of muffins. To get six muffins, I used just two tablespoons of butter, which worked great for my conscience. These have the perfect crumb, a cinnamon filling plus a crunchy cinnamon topping too. Also, I feel they are best served warm, even though they are pretty ok at room temperature but loses their fluffiness a bit.
If you are somebody like me having a yeast phobia or if you simply don’t have the time to fuss with a bread dough, do try these bread muffins. They make morning breakfast preps a breeze.
Amish Bread Muffins
Makes 24 muffins or 2 loaves of bread
Ingredients
1 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 cups buttermilk
4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
Cinnamon Sugar Mix
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Method
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease or line with paper cups ,two muffin tins.
2. In a bowl, beat together butter , sugar and eggs.
3. Add in buttermilk, flour and baking soda and mix until fully incorporated.
4. Mix together the cinnamon and sugar in a bowl.
5. Fill about 1/4th of each muffin cup with a spoonful of batter.
5. Using approximately half the cinnamon sugar mix, sprinkle over the batter in each muffin cup
6. Fill each muffin cup with the remaining batter, filling the muffin tins 2/3rd full.
7. Sprinkle remaining cinnamon sugar mixture over top of each muffin.
8. Using a knife, swirl each muffin tin so that the cinnamon sugar mixture will be throughout each muffin.
9. Bake for 20- 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
10. After cooling them in the pan for around 5-10 minutes,run a butter knife around the edge of each muffin, and remove them. Place on a cooling rack to cool them completely.
Recipe adapted from Macaroni and Cheesecake
Ms. Di and her Oven 