This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.
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.
How would you alter this recipe's measurements for a machine that bakes a one pound loaf?
Thank you for all of the effort it took to create a perfect recipe. The bread was delicious thanks to you!
Thorn, I am so glad you found this recipe helpful! Thank you for sharing such a positive comment and a 5-star review! 🙂
I just wanted to say that this is THE breadmaker bread recipe. I was skeptical cause my breadmaker bread is usually super dense but the trick of aerating the flour makes sooo much sense! I subbed out the sugar for 1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons of honey without issue because thats what I had in the cupboard. The bread was so fluffy and soft but the crust was crisp and delicious, my family loved it!
Jess, I am so glad you found this recipe useful. Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing such positive feedback - I really appreciate it!!
My go-to bread recipe! Sometimes I add a tablespoon of Italian season to the dry ingredients to mix it up a bit.
I am so happy you enjoyed this recipe. Love the addition of the Italian seasoning! Such a simple but delicious change!
Can this recipe be doubled, I have a 3# bread machine. Thanks Sue
The number of carbs, 54, is for one slice of bread? That is a whopping too many carbs for one slice. Maybe for the whole loaf?
The nutrition information is per 1 serving, and there is a total of 6 servings for this loaf of bread.
Hello,
My basic setting is only 3:00 hrs. If you listed the times for each step, I can enter the times and it won’t be lacking 15 minutes.
Thank you.
Great recipe thanks you.
Came put just as you said.
A tablespoon full of sugar helped it ruse better as well.
For all change,, try adding 6 rashers of cooked chopped bacon 4 cooked chopped sausages and 2 eggs when it is half way through kneading the dough. (It you put them in at the beginning you won't see the bits. )
English breakfast loaf.
Great recipe perfectly little and airy on my first attempt. Going to try an overnight delay to have ready in the morning
Roger, glad you liked this recipe! Thanks for the comment!
I'm not sure what I did wrong, but my bread started baking and freaking cratered. I followed all the instructions, measurements, and all the tips and tricks I've found in the booklet that came with my machine and online. We're honestly just getting frustrated in our house that all the loaves come out wet and dense and now this one has a big hole in the middle.
Maybe it's the machine or something, I just don't know.
Hi Sarah. Try reducing one ingredient at a time. For example, reduce the amount of water but keep all the other ingredients the same. It may take a few tries but it's worth it to get a better loaf. If the dough is still sticky then next try add a little more flour etc but keep note of what you put in so when you do eventually bake a good loaf you remember the amounts. A collapsing loaf can be down to too much yeast, so try reducing your yeast by a 1/4 teaspoon and see if that helps. The booklets are good guides but it's really down to a lot of tweaking and cooking to find the right amount of ingredients for a good loaf. Once you find your perfect amount of water/flour and yeast (salt and sugar generally stay the same) then your flying and have a trusted recipe to go to every time. Hope this helps a little.
I used this recipe today and it worked perfectly. This was my very first time using a bead machine and bling bread. There were no issues at all. Thank you for this amazing recipe.
Andreea, you are very welcome! Thank you for such positive feedback!
Like others, I had stopped using my bread machine because I just wasn't getting good results - bread always was too dense. I tried this exactly as written except I had to use all-purpose flour since I was out of bread flour, I was amazed at the result - a perfect and VERY tasty loaf of bread! Time to stock up on the bread flour again - this is going to be a staple at our house!! Thank you for sharing.
Could I alter this for raisin bread?
Great recipe! Bread turned out soft enough fit my picky wonder bread-loving kids, and husband said it made delicious sandwiches. I accidentally used 1tbsp of olive oil, then realized my mistake and the 2nd one was vegetable. Turns out great without any strong olive flavor. 🙂 Thanks for the recipe!
Can I use less sugar as I don’t like sweet bread but bread baked in a store. Thank you.
A lot of my lives turn out very dense. Can I remove the paddles before it starts to bake?
Thank you
Clive
The sugar is needed to activate the yeast, but it won't make your bread taste "sweet." I almost always remove the paddle from my bread machine after it has gone through the second kneading and right before it begins to rise again and bake. Won't hurt a thing and you don't have that giant "paddle hole" in the bottom of your bread.