There are many bread machine recipes out there, but if you're looking for just basic and simple homemade white bread - this is the perfect recipe for you!
This is my reliable, "boring", proven recipe for a basic white bread. And, I also provide tips on how to make a homemade white bread less dense in a bread maker. In this recipe, all you do is spend 5 minutes to add ingredients to the bread pan and the bread machine does all the work, on an automatic cycle that is already programmed. That's the whole purpose of the bread maker, right? The end result is a tasty loaf of white bread just of the right density.
I do believe that the day will come when I will use a bread machine for something more sophisticated, but for once this week I am sharing the recipe that doesn't require too much thinking or meddling. Sometimes it's just nice to make certain foods almost on auto-pilot, especially for basic stuff, like white bread.
In the last 3 months I hardly bought any store-made bread, baking about a loaf every week at home, using bread machine recipes. And, I've noticed a couple of trends/issues when making bread: sometimes the bread comes out way too dense, or the loaf does not rise enough and, as a result, comes out even denser. So, here I will describe the homemade bread recipe that works for me to produce a less dense bread in a bread maker, using a basic cycle.
While making bread in a bread machine, make sure to consider these points:
- When you measure flour using cups, make sure not to pack flour too dense in a measuring cup, otherwise you will end up with much more flour than you need, and, therefore, the bread will come out denser. Measuring flour correctly will solve a lot of "dense" issues. The trick that works for me is that I use ⅓ measuring cup to carefully scoop all flour I need into the bread machine (usually about 3 cups), without over-packing it. Another way would be to weigh flour, which I don't do, but it's a solution.
- Use bread flour, not regular all-purpose flour for all bread machine recipes. Bread flour contains a higher percentage of gluten than regular all-purpose flour. Using bread flour will produce taller, less dense loaves. If you use all-purpose flour (which has smaller percentage of gluten than bread flour), your loaves will be flatter and denser.
- When adding yeast, make sure you add it last, and add it on top of dry ingredients (flour). Make sure the yeast does not reach wet ingredients. Basically, make a small indentation on top of flour and add the yeast to the indentation, just like this:
And here is the simple white bread recipe. I started with the recipe that came in a little booklet together with my Williams-Sonoma bread machine, and I tweaked the ingredient measurements based on my preferences. It takes 10 minutes to prepare all ingredients together, and then it takes 3 hours and 15 minutes to bake the bread in a bread machine.
Bread Machine Recipe: How to make homemade white bread less dense
Ingredients
- 1 cup and 3 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 3 ¼ cups white bread flour
- 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
Instructions
Important note about properly measuring flour using measuring cups:
- The proper way to measure flour using measuring cups is to aerate it first. This is done either by sifting flour, or aerating it by fluffing it up and whisking it well, then spooning it into the measuring cup, then carefully removing any excess flour with a knife. If you just stick that measuring cup in the bag of flour and scoop some out, you will get a lot more flour than what the recipe calls for. Do aerate the flour, or you will end up with dry dough!
How to make bread in a bread machine:
- Add water and oil into the bread pan. Add salt, sugar. Add flour.
- Make a small indentation on top of flour and make sure it does not reach wet ingredients. Add the yeast to the indentation.
- Keep yeast away from the salt.
- Insert the bread pan into the bread machine, press it down to snap. Close the lid.
- Use Basic bread, 1.5 lb loaf, medium crust cycle (3 hrs 15 minutes)
- When bread is done, remove the bread pan using oven mitts. Turn over the bread pan and shake it to release the loaf. Let the loaf cool on a wire rack for about 30 minutes.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Cups are so many different sizes…. So for 3and half cups flour, how can I be more exact?
Hi Ann! There are 2 links below the ingredients list: US Customary and Metric. If you click on Metric, it should convert the cups to grams.
I’ve never left a review on a recipe before but I had to for this one. ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE RECIPE!! Such amazing, fluffy, delicious bread. Thank you thank you for posting this!!
That’s wonderful, Esther! So glad you loved it. 🙂
Girl this bread is so good!!!! Thank you, I make this weekly.
Thank you, Jessy!! SO happy you love it and make it every week—that’s the best compliment ever! ❤️
Excellent recipe! Turned out perfect, golden crust, light and fluffy and tasty
I’m so glad to hear that, Greg. Thank you for the wonderful feedback. 🙂
Hello, do you know if I can substitute melted butter for the vegetable oil?
Yes. I add the butter to the water and heat for about 30 seconds in microwave.
Thanks for chiming in, Grace! 🙂
Hi Jill! Yes, you can substitute the vegetable oil with the same amount of unsalted butter. Just melt the butter gently in the microwave—start with about 30 seconds, or until it’s mostly melted but not hot. Stir it into the water called for in the recipe so the mixture is smooth and at room temperature. If needed, microwave it again in short bursts (10–15 seconds) until fully combined and no longer warm.
Just make sure the liquid mixture isn’t hot when added, or it could affect the yeast.
Bread turned out amazing but it was far too big for my bread maker lol. It went all the way to the top against the maker and left some raw batter cause it was so poofed up. Any suggestion? I followed the recipe to a tee, I have a cuisinart auto bread maker.
Hi Carissa, so glad you loved the bread! 🙂 Sounds like your bread dough rose more than your machine could handle! 🙂 It could be due to:
1) Too much yeast causes extra rise.
2) The dough was warmer or more active than expected speeding up rising.
3) The machine’s pan size or settings don’t match the recipe’s volume. So, the recipe makes more dough than the machine’s capacity.
If you adjust the recipe size or reduce the yeast amount that should fix it!
Great recipe. Thank you. Sliced it up this am & had a great piece of toast.
I am so happy to hear that, Gene! 🙂
Thank you I was looking for a different recipe because as you noted, mine was coming out a bit dense. Even though I would put it on ligh also , the outside crust is always done more than I like. I tried yours tonight. It smells really good, but the middle sunk. I used all purpose, unbleached flour. I was careful how I measured. But I guess it was too wet.. I’ll cut into it in the morning with a cup of tea & some toast.
Hi Gene! When the middle of bread machine bread sinks, it's usually due to these reasons, I think in your case it was mostly due to using all-purpose flour:
➡️ Weak flour (for example, all-purpose insteaed of bread flour) → Using low-protein flour (like all-purpose) weakens structure so the bread doesn't hold the shape.
➡️ Too much yeast or liquid → Excess yeast or liquid can cause the dough to rise too quickly and collapse.
➡️ Too little salt → yeast overworks, weakening structure while too little salt allows the yeast to overwork. So, make sure to not over-measure the yeast and DO use salt!
This is amazing. I did exactly what she said to do, except I subbed out 1 tbsp vegetable oil for avocado oil and it’s great. I didn’t cook it as long but my bread maker seems to cook faster than others. Amazing recipe. Thank you so much!
Jessica, I’m so glad you loved it—thanks for the kind words! 🙂 Great call on the avocado oil swap! Thanks for sharing your tweaks!
LOVE this recipe for white bread!! I used this recipe...added 5 cloves of grated garlic to the water...then added 2 cups of shredded cheddar on the 1st add buzzer and it came out phenomenal!!
I love your tweaks - thank you for sharing! I am a huge garlic fan so 5 cloves of grated garlic are right up my alley! 🙂 🙂
April 5, 2025
I used your recipe for making my first ever loaf of bread in a bread machine that friends recently gave to me. It came out perfectly and it tastes delicious. Thank you !
I followed every detail of your directions like measuring my air infused flour, putting the salt in first, using the flour to make a barrier from the salt, and then making a little well in the top of my flour to use that spot to place my yeast. One thing I did that is a tip from me is to use water that has sat overnight so that various things like fluoride in my water will evaporate. I water my plants with that kind of water so I always have some on hand. Yeast doesn't like those kinds of things(like salt).
That's amazing, Monique! I'm so excited to hear your first loaf turned out perfectly! Enjoy your bread-making adventures, and thank you for sharing your success with me! 🙂
Scientist here. Fluoride does not evaporate from water. Fluoride is a stable compound and remains unaffected by boiling or letting water sit out. Boiling water can even increase the concentration of fluoride as the water evaporates.
I am not a scientist but just came on here to mention that as well! I saw on another website to just use bottled water, I don't think that has flouride in at all, though it never hurts to check the label. Some come with sodium, etc, from minerals in the water.
*6 Ingredients
*Easy straight forward
instructions
*Works everytime
Thanks, Nicola, you summarized this recipe perfectly! 🙂
I decided to get the old bread machine out of the cupboard and try to make bread like my dad did. Found this recipe - set it up to be done at 7AM. The smell woke me up before the alarm did. May be a very simple recipe, but then it's a classic and I was successful! I usually am known to bake bricks, BBQ charcoal, quicksand coffee, etc. Thank you for giving me confidence!
I love this! There’s nothing better than waking up to the smell of freshly baked bread. I’m so glad you gave it a try and had success—sounds like you’re breaking free from your ‘baking bricks’ reputation! 🙂
What temperature is the water? I’ve noticed that many bread machine recipes never mention the temperature of the liquids and I was always under the impression that the liquid had to be a certain temperature for the yeast to activate. Can’t wait to try this. Thanks!
Hi Jane! It's room-temperature water (not refrigerator-cold). Enjoy the recipe and let me know how it turns out! 🙂
I developed a soy allergy and was finding it very difficult to find bread without soy. So, I bought a brand new bread maker last night. I just put in your recipe: room temp water, liquids, salt and sugar in first, then bread flour and yeast in an indent on top. I was surprised that the machine made a noise while mixing. That noise has stopped and I think bread is rising. I am so excited. If this works out….I have you to thank. No recipe came with my machine. It is Good Friday and it seems like the perfect day to start on this journey.
Hi Judi! Sorry to hear about your soy allergy, but how exciting that you have a brand new bread machine now! It sounds like you're on the right track - let me know how it turns out – I’d love to hear how your first loaf comes out. Enjoy the process! 🙂
Hello.
Can I substitute for olive oil?
Hi Sylvia, Yes, you can use the same amount of the unsalted butter instead. Heat it for about 30 seconds in microwave oven until just softened and just melted to room temperature, mix with water amount in the recipe until smooth and room temperature. If needed, reheat in a microwave for 20 more seconds more until smooth and room temperature.