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.
Grace Roughton
Can I use honey instead of sugar and if I do will the bread still come out light?
Lee
I made this today when I saw the recipe.
Followed directions as shown, bread tasted absolutely delicious, also looked the season as your pic. The crust was a little crisper then I prefer but tasted awesome. Will be making this again and again. Lol
Julia
So glad you enjoyed this bread! Thank you for stopping by and sharing such a positive comment.
Sue
My bread machine will be delivered today...I am a complete novice. I notice you didn’t use “bread machine yeast”. So the regular yeast can be used in a bread machine without mixing it first with water? This yeast thins is confusing. :/
Julia
I just used regular active dry yeast.
Andrea
Thanks for this!
Can you use less sugar or will it mess with the recipe?
Julia
You can use less sugar - it won't mess up the recipe.
Pete
Excellent bread LOVE IT Can you use same recipe with whole wheat flour
Jennie
Sorry I forgot to add rating! Definitely 5 stars!
Jennie
Love love this bread! Thank you for sharing! Do you happen to have the ratios to make a 2.0 lb loaf?
Anna
Made this bread yesterday for my daughter she loved it.
ThankYou.
Julia
Anna, you are very welcome! I am glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Jerry
I’d love to give it a try. Do you know the weight of the flour is in the way you sift it?
Matt Smith
Can you please give me ingredient measurements for 1kg loaf?
Jane Walker
Shocked by the amount of sugar. 2 tablespoons? Doesn’t it make the bread really sweet. I put in a teaspoon and that’s fine.
Julia
Not at all. The sugar just gives a nice flavor to the bread.
Rubsters
making it for the 3rd time - it always comes out delicious - Thank you for posting this recipe
Julia
You are very welcome! I am glad you found this recipe useful.
Daylene
this has become my go to bread recope .
Julia
Happy to hear that! 🙂
Beverly L Eaton
Can I use rapid acting dry yeast in this recipe?
Angie
Best bread...finally got it right after many recepies....thank you so much!
Julia
So glad to hear that! Thank you for the comment!