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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.
Can you use all purpose flour for this recipe?
not op but it said it'll be more dense and flatter.
i will try your recipe thank you
Thank you , I am going to try this recipe in my Hamilton beach bread making machine today because other ones I have tried did not make the grade. I will get back to you with the results
Best white bread ever! HHM, HHM, Good !!!
Cant wait to make this bread tonite ....let you know it went
THANK YOU! I have been looking for recipes online for just a simple soft loaf bread, and it fails or I fail, but this is the BEST, PERFECT RECIPE AND INSTRUCTION! ♥️
I have been using this recipe for a year now and its just great, committed it to memory and all, now to venture out and make some spicy fruit loaf
Great recipe
I substituted semolina flour for half the flour.
And I added a Tablespoon of sesame seeds. That added more flavor.
This bread recipe is fantastic, best ever made for my machine. Can you add one for buns and proper way to freez e the dough for later use. Thank you
FINALLY!!! This is THE recipe! I've searched for years, struggling with density issues. I tried simple recipes and complicated ones. Nothing worked. I just pulled this loaf out of my grandmother's bread machine (A Panasonic from the 80's) and I'm AMAZED at how soft it is! I even just double checked to make sure I wasn't imaging it, but IT'S SO FLUFFY!!!! I've gotten rise like never before. I think it's the trick with the 1/3 cup, keeping salt away from the yeast and making the indentation for the yeast. I have a little spot on top of my machine that drops the yeast in at a specific time, but I made the indentation below that spot so it would fall in where you said to put it. Thank you!! This is a game changer and now I'm looking forward to trying new recipes with these tricks instead of wishing I liked my bread machine. I've always wanted a "no more store bought bread" recipe, and this is it!
This is the 1st loaf I have been able to just leave to do and it turned out fabulous . I have even adjusted to use wholemeal flour and also turned out great x
I sifted the flour and added the dry ingredients. The bread came out perfectly! So soft on the inside sliced perfectly! Plan on using it to make French toast this week!
Hi thank you for this recipe its the best bread recipe I've ever tried and my loaf lasted for days, I have always had trouble with making bread in the breadmaker but its always been too dense too salty or too sweet. This recipe makes light bread that tastes great, so easy no fuss, cannot thank you enough.
I have used this recipe for months and love it. And to figure out the calories I add up the calories in all the ingredients and after I bake bread and let it cool I weigh the whole loaf in grams. Then divide the total calories by the weight of loaf and then you will get how many calories per gram your serving is. Weigh your serving and times by that number for total calories per serving. I also use monkfruitfor my sweetner and have substitutedoil with applesauce. It changed the texture somewhat but was still tasty.
Thanks for the recipe!
This is the best bread I have ever made in my machine! And I have tried many!! Easy instructions and no unusual ingredients or process.
The bread came out light and delicious-as close to a bakery bread as you can get. The one thing I may do next time is add a tad more oil.