# German Sweet Bread



## Barry

The one thing I did growing up was to spend time in the kitchen with my mom learning how to make breads. I love yeast, must be why I also like brewing beer. When I was in junior high school we lived next door to a widowed German lady in her 80's. So when she made these for us one year, I asked her for the recipe. I remember going over to her house and her looking in an old recipe book written in German.

These breads/rolls are not overly sweet, but sweet enough, with a good yeasty flavor.

German Sweet Bread (Mrs. Zimmerman, from the old country)

1/2 lb. butter
1 1/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 pkgs yeast in 1/2 cup water with a T. of sugar
2 cups warm milk
1 t. lemon juice
pinch of salt
8 cups flour

Cream butter, sugar and eggs.
Add yeast mixture and warm milk.
Add lemon juice, salt and flour.

Dough will be quite loose so use lots of flour to form ball before putting into bowl for rising.

Let rise, punch down, shape, let rise again.

Brush with egg. Bake 15-20 minutes in 350 degree oven.


You can see in the picture I added how each individual loaf shape is to look. I roll them out about 1/2" thick, football shape, and then pinch the ends into round balls. I take a knife and cut the dough about a 1/2" in from both edges, the length of the roll.


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## jim lyon

....and here I thought Barry was letting me in on a secret when he gave me the recipe. This is great bread but you better have a mixer with some "kahunas" to mix this dough up. It stalled out my Kitchen-Aid artisan and I had to mix it up the old fashioned way......maybe that's why it tasted so good.


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## Barry

I was, Jim! This is the first time I've done this. Got to thinking today as I was making this bread again, why keep it to myself? If my neighbor had kept it to herself, I'd never have it, so decided to spread the love.  Was going to shape them your way, but habit took over and did the same as the last batch.


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## gfbees13

Looks yummy! I'll try the recipe out. Thanks for sharing!


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## jim lyon

The first batch I made I reluctantly used margarine cause it's what I had. The second batch I used butter. Seemed like it didn't make much difference in how they turned out. Of course as long as you are going for authentic German probably better go with real butter.
So you gonna share the snicker doodles recipe too Barry?


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## TalonRedding

The secret is out....2.6 billion people around the world with Internet access can now make German sweet bread. Barry, what does it feel like to wield such power?
I think I'll make some today.


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## Barry

jim lyon said:


> So you gonna share the snicker doodles recipe too Barry?


Oh sure. I have several old family recipes I'll post here. By today's standards, they're very unhealthy, but the funny thing is, these came from my grandmother and aunt and they all lived well into their 90's! Crisco was a staple, as was bacon drippings.

Here's how I get the shape for the bread.









I get the bread dough about an 1-1/2" thick. Then I slice off a piece in a triangular shape.









I set the piece up on edge so it looks like a pyramid and then flatten it with a roller so it looks like this.









Pinch the ends, cut around the edge with a butter knife and let them rise.


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## Barry

jim lyon said:


> you better have a mixer with some "kahunas" to mix this dough up. It stalled out my Kitchen-Aid artisan


Since I just mixed up two batches and came back here for the recipe , I noticed what you said here.

Not sure how you got it so stiff in the mixer. I use the same mixer. When I'm ready to dump the dough out, it's still quite runny and requires about another 1/2 - 3/4 cup of flour on the counter just to be able to pick it up and put in a bowl. I use the flat beater. You've got 2-1/2 cups of liquid plus eggs and lemon juice.


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## jim lyon

Ahhhh. I was trying to get the dough mixed to the point where it begins to pull off the sides of the bowl. No can do. Next time I'll just dump it a little earlier. Nice instructional pics. I'm not very artistic, I just tag off to my wife and tell her to shape it into something.


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