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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
- The recipe is adapted from Williams-Sonoma bread machine booklet.
- I have recently tweaked this recipe and made a delicious rustic Bread Machine Garlic & Herb Bread (with fresh rosemary and thyme) - worth checking out!
My Other Bread Recipes
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.
Thank you thank you !!!
I have had a bread maker for a month. Made lots of bread, some turning out ok but not superb. I just used your recipe but I only had all purpose flour and not bread flour. It turned out totally amazing.
I can eat over a loaf of bread a day just myself I love bread so much. I put everything on bread as sandwiches and now I can make the perfect white bread practically for free now and it's also a bread my kids will eat too.
Thank you, Paul, for your sweet comment! I am glad the recipe worked with all-purpose flour, too. I must admit, I also often use all-purpose flour for bread making with good results, even though bread flour does produce better results. I like fresh-baked bread that I make myself much better than the ones I can buy in the store. And, it disappears much faster in my house than store-bought bread, because it tastes so much better! 🙂
I agree about it disappearing faster. Partly because when I cut it myself it ends up thicker. The top of my loaf is always messed up though. It has a weird shape because of the breadmaker
You're so right - when I cut it myself, I also usually cut larger slices. Sometimes the top of the loaf gets messed up too in my breadmaker.
I have a mystery I hope you can help me with. My bread from the Kenwood bread maker is not soft, and becomes worse the next day. I have tried everything. I measure the flour and wet ingredients, I use boiled water (thus less chlorine), I separate the yeast from the salt and sugar, I tried using less water, I tried adding more yeast, I tried adding less flour. But all still turn out dense.
The only time I accidentally found out how to make the bread soft is when I add chia seeds. But I don't always want chia seeds in my bread.
Therefore what could be wrong... because it seems that the bread maker is capable of soft bread, as long as I figure out the secret how to do it...
Thanks in advanced,
Desperately Scratching My Head
Did you follow the above recipe perfectly. My bread has never came out soft and today for the first time I got desperate and resorted to Google and found this recipe. I followed it to the letter. I used normal cold tap water though. It was perfect, my first ever perfect bread. The only thing I can think is the machine I'm using is different to yours. I am using a twin rotor Black and Decker really big thing that does up to 4lb
Thank you, Paul, for your tips! I am glad the bread came out perfectly for you!
Lulu, I am thinking the culprit could be any of those things:
1) Do you sift or otherwise aerate your flour? Usually the main reason for dense bread is overpacking the flour while using cups as measurements. See the updated note on the recipe above.
2) Are you using all-purpose or bread flour? Bread flour works better for bread machine recipes.
3) Are you using active dry yeast or some sort of different kind of yeast? What about its expiration date? This recipe is meant for "active dry yeast" within its expiration date.
put your yeast , water and sugar in the pan and let sit for 10 mins before adding the rest of the ingrediants, yeast feeds on sugar.
Hello Julia
I made your fluffy white bread on Sunday and by Thursday it was still soft and fluffy.
Very impressed, so much so I am going to make your banana,pumpkin, apple loaf.
Sue, you are so sweet! Thank you for such a kind comment!
I always use a tablespoon of honey in place of sugar , and I always give the water a good stirring after the oil,honey , and salt are added .
My 2 pound recipe: 1.5 cups warm tap water , 2 tbls.canola oil ,1 tbls+ of honey (liquid or solid), 1.5 tsp.salt, stir all well , add 4 cups flour ( unbleached and/or whole wheat) , 1 tsp. dry yeast (Flieshmans bread machine yeast). Use whole wheat cycle , medium crust. Works every time. Take the hot bread out of the pan ASAP after baked.
I like your idea of adding honey instead of sugar. And, it's long overdue for me to bake whole wheat bread! Lots of good ideas in your comment!
I stumbled across your site and I am so excited to try out my bread maker. I got a Williams-Sonoma one from a friend but she lost the manual. Knowing your recipe is for the same bread maker makes me confident my bread will come out great. Does the manual have a contact number or website I can go to to order a new booklet?
Just search for your missing Manuel online By typing in a take the machine you have and manual you can find almost any manual for almost any appliance by just searching online and sometimes it take you to a website in the last for more information so you get the right one it’s very easy to her usually PDF files to download to your computer
Hi thankyou for this recipe it worked perfectly. I love it toasted and my children keep going mad for it so its definitely a winner 😀
Gary, thank you for stopping by and letting me know that you and your kids loved the recipe - so glad! 🙂
Tried this last night. It rocked! The texture, flavor, and density were perfect.
So glad you liked it! 🙂
When I make bread I like to make the dough in my bread machine and then bake it in the oven, my question is should I just be forming the dough to fit in my pan when it comes out of the machine, is no kneading needed? I have had bread come out with the center less dense and a tendency to fall apart with the outsides of the bread very dense. Any help in this area?
I am pretty sure that you can use your bread machine to mix and knead the dough (or even let it rise there). Then, AFTER the kneading and/or bread rising is done in the bread machine, you can remove the dough, shape it and bake it in the oven.
My machine calls for bread machine yeast. Which do you recommend regular or bread machine yeast?
Terri, I did a little research and you can use either active dry yeast or bread machine yeast. I found this very useful article that describes differences between different kinds of yeast: types of yeast. What I usually buy at the store, such as Walmart, is active dry yeast, that is dry and granular, with the consistency of cornmeal - that's what I used in this recipe. Either type of yeast that you're mentioning can be used here.
Do you have a recipe for a 2 or 3 lb loaf? 1.5. Doesn't last too long.
That's the only loaf pan that I have - I think it only produces the loaf of this size and weight - I need to check my bread machine manual.
The bread maker we have came with very strict and specific recipes. Made a loaf today for the first time ("sandwich" bread" which was too dense and too sweet & the only recipe on the manual with common ingredients) and I thought screw the manufacturer recipes, It's google time!
I will be making this very soon. Thank you for the recipe, I will bookmark this page for sure. 🙂
Ha-ha. 🙂 I love my Google time, too. 🙂 With bread recipes, I found that measuring flour correctly is really important, because you can easily overpack too much flour into a single measuring cup, resulting in much more flour than the recipe calls for. So, you either have to weigh the flour, sift it, or use the method I am describing above of "fluffing it up". 🙂
Finally an awesome loaf. Thanks so much. I sub canola for veg oil and works great.
You're very welcome! 🙂
My bread was dry also could I add more Butter and sugar I love real butter......
Used your bread machine recipe for white bread & was still too heavy & dense
Lovely, easily read website. I did notice a mistake; thought you might want to be corrected. All-purpose flour does contain gluten, all wheat flour does, but bread flour is formulated especially for bread so contains the type of wheat that has the MOST gluten. Flours with less gluten make better muffins, cakes, pie crust, etc.
Thanks for the great site.
Thank you for this correction! 🙂 You're right, all-purpose flour does contain gluten, just not a huge amount. I will correct my statement above. 🙂 Thank you for visiting and for your compliments!
Hi Julia, another tip is where recipes place the noun/verb makes a difference, for example: 1 cup sifted flour = soft first, then measure. Or: 1 cup flour, sifted = measure, then sift. Same with nuts chopped, butter melted and so on. Knowing this changes the measure and can save a recipe! 🙂 I was grateful to learn it!
I've been debating on purchasing a bread machine but I am going to share this recipe with a friend who has one!
This one is a very basic recipe, but very practical for busy days and just a simple loaf of bread. My husband loves to eat a toasted slice of this bread for breakfast.
I've had a bread machine for years use mainly for dough to make cinnamon rolls but here in lousinna it's not as easy with the moisture in the air have to watch as it is kneading to make sure not to sticky
I always had mixed results when using my bread machine, so I stopped making bread that way. I may need to give it another try - it is so easy to just dump everything in and walk away : )
I have kept my bread machine on a shelve for years, and only now I am rediscovering what a practical kitchen appliance it is!