A Loaf of Hahn Bread

In the communal era of the Amana Colonies, there were bakeries in each village to supply the communal kitchens for the many meals they served to the villagers and workers. 

One such bakery was The Hahn bakery that still exists today since 1927, with much of the same equipment such as the brick hearth oven.

Hahn bread is popular in the colonies and with the tourists. 140 loaves are turned out for the day beginning at midnight when the oven is heated for two hours. In the meantime, the dough is prepared, once done by hand, now by machine.

The brick hearth oven is also modernized run with propane gas instead of wood fire.  After two hours the heat is turned off, leaving heat from the hot bricks to bake the bread.  The dough which was once from large West and Amana grist mills is now made of flour from Wisconsin and has no preservatives. The 30 pounds of dough made for the day is for white, wheat, and rye bread. A sweet dough is made for coffee cakes (filled or unfilled) and cinnamon rolls. All dough is cut and mixed (until 1961) by hand after it rises an hour. Five batches are made on Friday nights for Saturday morning. Success in the dough comes from the lukewarm milk to keep the yeast alive. These original German recipes and techniques are still used as in 1927 bakery in the 1864 house. My friend and I had a great experience with Jack Hahn filling pans with dough, preparing for a busy Oktoberfest weekend in the 70's.  The raspberry, apricot and cinnamon coffee cakes, white and rye bread were favorites of many that must be bought early before it sells out!