Old-Fashioned Missouri Tomato Bread

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Tomatoes are a summer staple of Amish and Mennonite gardens. The plump ruby red orbs are probably the single most popular garden goodie to grow among the Plain people. They are easy to grow. And tomatoes can just be used in so, so many different ways. Tomatoes can be sliced into salads, beaten into salsa, pureed into jams, pounded into catchup, strained into sauce, sliced onto sandwiches and on and on...this Old-Fashioned Missouri Tomato Bread recipe is an example of how tomatoes can be made into a bread.

This recipe comes from the Mennonite settlement of Rich Hill, Missouri. Here is how Arlene Kopp, who I had exchange letters with for a book project, described life in Rich Hill:

Everyone in this community  raises produce. Our community started in November 1997 and at first we all lived in a large “hotel” as they called it until the houses were built. There were around 5 families living in it and of course the children had grand times but the parents were glad to have their own homes. Here in Missouri there are two districts (or communities). In Kentucky there are two, Ohio, 1, Indiana, 1 and in Belize, 2.  All raise produce.

I have actually not been to Rich Hill, Missouri, I would love to go someday. I have a whole list of Plain communities I’d love to visit someday, and probably will eventually. My parents took this photo of a horse and buggy in Rich Hill for me. They were traveling out that way, and I asked them if they would mind dropping into Rich Hill and trying to visit with Arlene Kopp.

They successfully did and had a nice visit. This is a very, very conservative Mennonite community with open buggies, no plumbing, and some Swiss-Amish language characteristics. Rich Hill this time of year, like many Midwestern Plain communities, are just awash in tomatoes. So many red, plump tomatoes, what to do with them?

This tomato bread is more like a loaf of Italian bread, note the oregano and basil, it’s sort of like one of those Italian breads that you find in Amish bakeries.

Old-Fashioned Missouri Tomato Bread has a lot of great, simple ingredients. Italian breads are popular among the Amish because they’re a great way to use tomatoes. Now, you may be thinking: where are the tomatoes? Keep in mind, that most Amish and Mennonites making this recipe would use homemade ketchup, which uses a lot of tomatoes. You can certainly make your own ketchup but, I suspect most of you don't want to go through all that, so for the purposes of this recipe you can use store-bought.

This isn’t to say some Amish don’t buy the bottled kind, but the vast majority, especially during tomato season, make their own ketchup. That’s true also for tomato sauce, which this recipe calls for, but you can use store-bought.

This is the step of stirring the tomato sauce and spices.

You can make this bread in loaf pans or do what we did and just shape into round artesian style loaves. Slice up and serve with butter, cream cheese, dip into soup, or use it for a sandwich infused with a tomatoy-basil flavor. Very good, easy bread!

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• 🍅 Old-Fashioned Missouri Tomato Bread Ingredients
• 📋 Instructions
• 🍅 More Amish Recipes With Tomatoes
• 🖨️ Full Recipe

🍅 Old-Fashioned Missouri Tomato Bread Ingredients

• 4 1 /2 cups tomato juice
• 4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 1 tablespoon ground oregano
• 1 tablespoon ground basil
• 1 /2 cup ketchup
• 3 tablespoons active dry yeast
• 12 cups all-purpose flour, approximately

📋 Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease 4 loaf pans and set aside.
2. Heat the tomato juice to lukewarm in a large saucepan.
3. Add the butter, sugar, salt, oregano, basil, ketchup, and yeast.
4.  Let the mixture set a few minutes to dissolve the yeast.
5. Stir in enough flour to form a soft dough, kneading when necessary.
6. Let the dough rise in a warm place for 20 minutes.
7. Punch down the dough.
8. Divide the dough among the prepared pans.
9.  Allow to rise for 20 minutes longer.
10. Bake for 1 hour.

🍅 More Amish Recipes With Tomatoes

Summer Tomato Pie - Delicious!

Simple Tomato Soup - Wow!

Green Tomato Pie - Use up your greens with this!

Tomato Soup Cake - This is like a spice cake, wow!

🖨️ Full Recipe