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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 havent used my bread machine in almost 20 years. found your recipe today and got brave enough to make this without a bread box mix.
thank you. the bread turned out fabulous.
Thank you! Coming back again to make this recipe a second time!
Made it for the family. Absolutely delicious, the only bread recipe I’ll use from now on.
Thanks it came out beautifully. First one i made for over 17 years that's ever worked. My husband us very impressed. Thanks again.
This is my go to bread machine recipe for the last dozen loaves, after 3 years with dozens of other recipes. My B&D doesn't have 1.5 setting so I use 2 with light crust. Love it. Made 1 for the family yesterday, 1 on now because I was asked to for work lunch tomorrow.
I found this recipe this week. I’ve played with some of the ingredients over the last few days and this is a really good basic white bread recipe as a base for other breads.
I’ve switched white flour with multigrain and it comes out beautiful as well for example.
I do add some butter in the corners and set it to a darker crust. Will be experimenting with different types of milk as well.
Thank you for sharing your recipe :).
Do u know if u can use instant yeast (Quick Rise) or does it need to be regular yeast?
Thanks for the tip on the flour..This bread turned out FANTASTIC..Much appreciated.
.I thought bread recipes all used some form of milk.
Tried recipe turned out great. Do you have any cheese bread or ciniminon raisin bread recipe.
Thank you for the helpful tips. The bread turned out perfectly!
When I make bread, I will scroll around google until I find this exact page. This recipe is absolutely perfect! I kinda want to try the deviations other people have done (adding 1 extra tbsp sugar, subbing no-salt and evoo for vegetable oil) but it’s so darn good exactly the way it is I always chicken out. Thanks for publishing this awesome recipe, you rock!
Kelly, is you sub no salt, be sure to reduce the yeast by at least half. I find that a 1.5 lb loaf usually takes 3/4 tsp. yeast.
Hello Julia, I tried your recipe today for the first time and it produced a small but tasty loaf but a little dense. My breadmaker's basic 700g loaf is timed for 2 hrs 53mins. Is there anything I can do to get round this ? Thanks Bob Ditchfield
Rapid Rise
I made this today and by far it's the best recipe I've found for white bread! It's so soft and yummy!
Can you use this recipe and change to whole
Wheat flour? Can I use artificial sugar?