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 â…“ 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.
Rob
OK, I've finally tweaked this completely to my satisfaction, consistently good results with no collapsing.
230 g warm water
1 1/2 tsp dry active yeast
Soak yeast in water in pan while measuring out everything else (yes, even if the breadmaker calls for yeast on top. For breadmachine yeast, you probably want to stick with the on top)
400 g sifted AP flour (I've done this, and 375 g AP flour / 25 g gluten and haven't noticed much difference). I just zero with the bowl and the sifter and measure directly into the sifter.
Remaining ingredients unchanged (2 tbs oil, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tbs sugar)
If you want sandwich bread, select light crust so it's not as chewy.
Jenn
Finally!! Thank you! Bread machine bread that isn’t incredibly dense. I even used regular flour, because that is all I have. Delicious! First time we actually ate it, and didn’t end up wasting it.
Vivian Baker
I want to make the larger loaf. Can you give the recipe?
Barbara J Rodgers
Water must be 110F, put dry yeast and sugar in it and wait until it foams.Tthen pour on top all ingredients to your flour mixture that you have placed in the bread maker.
E. Brown
I received my new Hamilton Beach bread machine a couple of weeks ago. I’ve made 4 different loaves of bread, and I wasn’t please with outcomes. Today, I made a 1 1/2 lb. loaf with your recipe. It was exactly what I wanted. Light, crunchy, with a light airy texture on the inside. Not dense and crumbly like the others. Thank you so much for sharing. I wish that I could have given you 10 stars.
Jean Smith
At last bread I can eat and enjoy. After trying several times to make a decent loaf of bread and failing I put my machine in the attic and there it stayed for over three years till I found this recipe. I have now made bread for all my neighbours and some friends and they all love it so thank you very much for sharing this with us Julia I am so grateful.
Lydia Lim
Just made this today.. DELICIOUS..
Misti
I tried this recipe and it was perfect. What are the measurements to make a 2.5 lb loaf? Thank you!
Sabrina Hingston
I just made this today. Any way it can be made without the crust being so crunchy and chewy? It hurt my mouth and my son can't eat crust due to braces. Any way it can be a bit fluffier and taller? I find the 1.5lb small and still a bit heavy. Can I just convert it to be the 2lb on the bread machine or?
BJ Rodgers
Butter the top and sides ask soon as it comes out, that will help.
Lorelle Ekert
Good Afternoon
Please add my email address to your mailing list
Thank you
Lorelle
Ruth Leung
Hi,
Thanks for your sharing. May I ask if you can convert your receipt/ingredients into 1kg weightage. My bread machine is Kenwood BM450, it doesn’t have 1.5lb selection but only 1kg, 750g and 500g. Please help because I’m a beginner of bakery. Thanks so much.
Peter Warbrick
Should the water just be cold?
Beverly Baggett
Wno it should be warm..
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Tania
I made this bread for the first time in my brand new bread maker. It was perfect. I did use instant dry yeast, but I used 25percent less. It was perfect.
Thank you for recipe.
Teresa Halpin
OMG this recipe is wonderful!!! I just got my breadmaker and have thrown away so many "bricks"of bread....thank you for perfecting the recipe and telling about the differences in flour and the "too much" flour issues.!!
Do you have any Keto Bread recipes??
Johanna
Tried this recipe last night in the bread maker and had for breakfast this morning, it was delicious. Although I had to make three substitutions, bread flour to plain flour and dry active yeast to easy bake yeast and fine grain salt with chunky granuals of pink himalayan salt (due to current situation just what I had at home) the recipe worked really well. The loaf was light and fluffy inside and rose more than the description would have expected for making the substitutions. It rose a bit higher than the 1 1/2 lb loaf tin bread maker would have liked so it was a bit of a challenge to get the loaf out of the tin while hot so I left it a while to cool, which meant the loaf was a bit soggy on the outside but a short stint in the oven it crisped up and made a great breakfast!!!