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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 thank you! The only times I have successfully made bread machine bread!
Made this today and my family absolutely loved it! It came out perfect.
So fluffy and yummy! Perfect white bread recipe.
The recipe worked great. You forgot to mention the water need to be at least 90 degrees.
OMG! i made this and it was so good and tasty but i have a question i have a family of 8 people and when i made it it was pretty small how do i make a large bread or possibly x-large. i wen't to print and it said people i put 8 but it say the ingredients like 1.33 how much is that so many different number how can i make a big bread?
I made the recipe and it tasted great. Only problem it rose to almost touch the glass then it fell to the top of the bucket. Can you tell me why. No one touched the maker.
I used your recipe and the bread taste great. The bread rose to just under the glass but fell back to the top of the tub. Can you tell me why?
I just used this recipe and it taste great. The only problem was that it rose to the top and before I knew it had fallen. Any suggestions? No one bothered it to cause the fall.
Hey there,
thanks for sharing the recipe! One question, I followed the instructions, does the ingredients need to be kneaded in the bread machine before it sets off?
My bread machine seems to have just left the wet and dry separate on those settings.
Thanks!
Perfect! Finally a recipe that works for our machine!! I threw out so many bricks it was sad!! Now it’s being eaten in record time!
We love the recipe ! Thank you
We have been using this recipe through most of the pandemic, and were very conscious of aerating the flour so it was not too dense, while measuring. Still, we had mixed results - usually good, but not great. For Christmas, we got a kitchen scale, and the results have been amazing. Weighing the flour has given us consistently great results, ever since. I would highly recommend to anyone making bread to get a kitchen scale, they are pretty inexpensive, $10 or $12. Get one with a "tare" feature so you can put the container with other ingredients in it on the scale and then set it to zero and then measure out the amount you need. Trust me on this, you may think you are aerating the flour enough, but if your bread is still coming out a bit dense, you probably aren't.
This bread recipe is the best. The other recipes I’ve tried the bread is so dense. This is nice soft and delicious. I read other reviews. I think the key was weighing the flour as I live in Canada.
This bread came out crunchy on the outside and light and yummy on the inside. I just got a new bread machine and this recipe will be my (go to recipe) when I want basic white bread. Thank you so much for sharing.
Julia, I just wanted to give you a 5 star rating on your bread machine homemade white bread less dense recipe.
I just got a new bread machine and the bread came out crunchy on the outside but extra yummy on the inside. This recipe I feel is by far the best I have come across. Hopefully others will try this recipe if they are new at bread making. Thank you.