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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.
I forgot the sugar. Will it be ok?
This is my only white bread maker recipe. Perfect every time. Sifting the flour is a great tip. Ŵ
Made a loaf yesterday for our beef stew dinner, to watch the Seahawks beat the Pats. (Go Hawks!) Stew was very good, bread was great! Nice texture, best crust I have ever achieved in my bread maker, not too hard, but good crust. Used ghee instead of oil, half the sugar. Wonderful flavor! Really good recipe. Thanks.
Loved this recipe! I didn't have bread flour so I used all-purpose and it turned out great anyway. I did use your tip on sifting the flour before measuring and I think that was a great tip. Thank you for sharing and I'm saving the recipe
Hi Julia thank you for your bread machine recipe all the other bread machine recipes I've tried say to warm up the water yours doesn't
Can I ask you why it won't make a difference if I warm up the water or if I don't warm up the water?
I just don't want to waste all that flour thank you
I tried many recipes, just loved it! Also, My 11 years daughter and my husband loved too. Delicious, easy. I am adding some seeds
I’ve made this several times now and we love it. I’ve been subbing flaxseed meal (6 tbsp) for the oil and coconut sugar,
Came out great just as you stated, I now use this a Base Recipe to experiment with, but never deviating too far from the original, I've made garlic bread, cinnamon raisin bread and a few others...
I just finished a Hawaiian King bread version (that I made up) using pineapple juice instead of water and 3 Tbsp of honey instead of sugar, taking advantage of the acidity I used 1/3 tsp baking soda for extra lift, it came out Good, but I'm still working on it, thanks you got me back into this!
Thank you for this recipe! It's the only one I use now! We love it! I have also used it for cinnamon rolls dough. I think I can use it for doughnuts too whenever I make them. I also use this recipe for pizza dough!
Hi Julia. This bread recipe is fantastic! The texture and density of this loaf pleasantly surprised me. I have made many,many recipes but this one is my new go-to. Thanks so much.
Since i didn't have bread flour, I aerated the AP flour and. Added 2 Tablespoon of vital wheat gluten. The loaf rose to the lid and was the best loaf I've ever made. It's so good I'm making another loaf today!
!
I made bread exactly according to your recipe. But the bread did not rise as much needed. It was half the height. Don’t know what went wrong. Do I have to keep yest out or in refrigerator. I took out of refrigerator & straight pour on the flour.Any special brand of flour to use. Thanks
Best bread recipe yet. However, the smallest loaf my breadmaker makes is 750gm and yours is 1.5lb (680 gms). By how much of each do I increase the ingredients to make a larger loaf?
Oh my goodness, your recipe is absolutely perfect. This makes a wonderful loaf of bread. Thank you so much Julia! Do you have other bread recipes!