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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 love cooking but I found bugging all the recipes in cups and tablespoon. I think will be an important improvement used both sistem metrical (grams and milliliters) and the American sistem
How do you make it last? You say you make this bread once a week, but I find mine is completely hard or dried out and stale within 2 days. Is there a secret way to store it?
I use this bread within 5 days. I usually store the bread in a sealed plastic bag in the refrigerator.
Hi, Julia.
I've had a bread-making machine for about a month and have yet to produce a decent loaf! I followed your recipe to the letter and got quite enthusiastic when the machine worked through its three "rising" and two "mixing" stages successfully. Just before the actual baking stage, the uncooked, bubble-filled dough filled the tin and looked amazing.
As the machine switched to baking mode, the dough almost instantaneously collapsed in the middle and sunk to about 2/3 of the original height. When it had finished baking I was left with high, crusty "walls" around a sunken middle.
Throughout the process, I had carefully resisted the temptation to open the machine for fear of collapsing the mixture, but to no avail - it collapsed anyway.
The loaf looks great if you turn it upside down - which I did in an attempt to convince my kids that Dad is, after all, a Master Baker. They're too smart for that 🙁
What do you think went wrong?
Help would be appreciated to avoid even more ridicule from my family.
Thanks.
PS: I have a photo if you want to share my misery.
Terence, your comment is so funny because you so humorously described how your bread turned out. I was laughing so hard just reading through it and picturing your bread with high walls around a sunken middle with your kids witnessing the glorious collapse. 🙂
I would suggest using less yeast to avoid the bread rising too high and then collapsing. Try using 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of active dry yeast instead of 2 teaspoons. Make sure you close the lid of the bread machine properly and don't open it until the bread is done.
I actually don't think that's funny. The exact same thing just happened to me, as I am staying up late trying out your recipe. Mine sunk as well, and I followed your recipe to the tee!!!
Stacy, did you use bread flour or regular all-purpose flour? There is a special type of flour that works better with bread machines. Make sure you use bread flour and not all-purpose flour that you would use for regular baking. Also, do try using less yeast. This might help avoid the bread rising too high and then collapsing. So, do the following:
1) Make sure to use bread flour, not all-purpose flour
2) Use less yeast. Instead of using 2 teaspoons of active dry yeast, try using 1 and 1/2 teaspoons.
3) Make sure yeast does not reach wet ingredients
4) When you bake the bread in the bread machine, make sure you close the lid properly, and do not open it until the bread is completely baked.
Absolute genius. I had rather given up on my breadmaker and not used it in eons - it was never an expensive one and I got fed up with the unappetising bricks it chucked out. This recipe has changed all that - I have tried it three times, once adding herbs and chopped sundried tomatoes and parmesan - all three have been light, cut well, kept well and been a success. Brilliant!
Justine, so glad to hear that my tips were useful to you! The bread with chopped sun-dried tomatoes sounds so delicious!
Perfect! Just perfect! I woke up to fresh baked bread. The aroma was amazing. The crust is to die for. Thanks! My new go to.
Thank you! So happy to hear that!
Just tried the recipe but the bread is so dense and is not really edible. Don't know where went wrong as I followed the direction exactly.
Prepared exactly as directed, then used the delay on the bread machine. The bread was fantastic!! The crumb was perfect, the crust was beautiful and the aroma was heavenly. It tasted great plain, and with butter, and with butter and sweet strawberry jelly, It only took an hour for half the loaf to disappear. Thank you for a great recipe!
This is the recipe I use but, after trial and error, I reduced the amount of water to 1 cup+1 tablespoon. I also add about three teaspoons of Active Wheat Gluten, which makes it rise higher and become fluffier. Bread turns out better with each loaf! There are six of us who love this bread so I make it almost every day. Even my 8 year old grand daughter can make it. I do, however, use the dough setting and take it out, shape it, let it rise (only needs to rise for about half an hour), then bake at 375 for 25 minutes. Perfection! It makes great toast but I can't wait that long...
Great tips, Marlene! There is nothing better than a fresh made loaf of bread! Looks like you are baking it in the oven - I bet it makes the bread even better and the crust crunchier!
Hi! This is my favorite recipe ever. I keep the ingredients on a list, stuck to the fridge with a magnet. I make this bread every Sunday for my work week. I slice it up and freeze it and eat a slice every morning before I go to work with homemade jam or an egg. I love it because the texture is so perfect and I am a huge cheapo.
Thank you so much for this recipe. Oh yeah, and I got my bread machine for free from my brother. Double bonus.
xoxo thanks again.
Thank you, Mary! So glad you've been enjoying this recipe! Nothing beats the homemade bread! 🙂 🙂 🙂
The best white bread recipe for my Oster Expressbake bread machine hands down. I sift the flour before measuring as recommended and add a teaspoon of vital wheat gluten. Rises beautifully and has a fluffy, soft texture. I use the basic setting and the dark crust setting, since I like a crispier crust. Thank you so much for sharing.
Hi Julia,
Have you tried this recipe with no oil or butter? I'm trying to get like a french bread recipe.....crusty on the outside and soft but not too soft on the inside....would not using the oil or butter but still use this recipe work like that?
Also thanks for the tip on the flour!!!! I had no idea I needed to use "best for bread" flour. When I first got my breadmaker my loaves came out beautiful!! But then my son said he used just regular flour and his came out fine. So I switched and my bread has not been rising and very dense. He said it was the salt coming in contact with the yeast too soon and after trying every which way I had given up hope.....until I came here!!!
Thanks again!!!
Thank you, Christina, - I am glad this recipe was useful for you! 🙂 I have not tried making this bread without using oil, but the oil definitely helps keep the bread soft longer, and the bread will dry out faster if no oil is used.
Being a guy, I am not good in the kitchen, so I decided to weigh the flour rather than fuss with trying to fluff up the flour with a sifter. It turns out that weighing the flour is actually pretty easy.
- Get a digital kitchen scale.
- Determine what the grams per cup is for YOUR flour (King Authur bread flour is 120g/cup).
- Calculate how many grams you need. Example 360 grams for 3 cups.
- Put a bowl on the scale, and zero the scale.
- Add flour to the bowl and keep an eye on the scale, and stop when you reach the desired weight.
The good thing is that by using weight, it is very consistent. So loaf to loaf, you are getting the same amount of flour.
Yes, weighing the flour is way better than sifting it or fluffing it up as far as precise measuring is concerned: easier and more consistent. But, I don't think most people have the kitchen scales at home. So, the next best solution for most people is sifting or fluffing up the flour. Sifted flour is also lighter, and it combines better and more evenly with other ingredients - which is another good reason to sift it or to fluff it up.
Hi Julia
Can you give me a recipe for gluten free bread that is light and fluffy with a crunchy crust
Thank you
Christopher
That's on my eventual to-do list!
Followed the recipes exactly and it turned out 1/4 the size it should be with a white top and a hard crust bottom. I have never had such a failure. Checked the yeast and it was fine. No idea what went wrong. Flour was measured by weight as I never go by cups. Such a waste.
I had just got a bread machine and was givving up on making that perfect bread. I just made a loaf with your recipie and tips for measuring and the dough concistancy and hey presto i can now make that elusive light fluffy eat a whole loaf in one sitting bread
Thank you, I am glad my recipe was helpful. 🙂