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
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.
Nathan
This recipe is quite good. The only change I recommend is using half (or slightly less) of the sugar. The original is too sweet for my family's tastes.
Julia
Nathan, that's a great tip on how to reduce the sweetness of the bread!
Valerie
I just purchased a bread machine. Must I use bread machine yeast or dry active yeast?
Janice
I use regular yeast. I also fill 6 jars at a time with the ingredients, for a fast start. This saves hauling everything out each time to make your loaf of bread.
Tabitha
So I tried this recipe followed everything you said and yes that bread is very good however on one side of my loaf was a big caking of flour a 1/4 of my loaf is inedible do you know what went wrong why it did this
Kevin
No matter what bread I'm making in my bread maker, I take a small silicone spatula and scrape lose any missed flour/dough stuck to the sides of the pan after the first mix/knead cycle. I just put it on the dough ball or let it drop to the bottom of the pan to be picked up by the ball when the 2nd knead cycle begins.
Don't know if that will help you, personally, but a tip nevertheless.
Julia
Kevin, that's a nice tip - thank you!
Barbara
Thank you Julia.
I tried the breadmaker instructions and got a dried up sunken brick which wasn’t fit to eat. I followed your instructions and I now have something that not only looks and smells good but tastes good too!
Julia
Barbara, what a great and sweet comment! Thank you for taking the time to share this wonderful feedback - I appreciate it! 🙂
GG
I noticed your recipe has no eggs. What would happen if I added eggs? Does the water need to be a certain temperature? Thanks, getting ready to make your recipe.
Jenna Nelson
I just was gifted a bread maker and the recipe book that came with it didn’t have a simple white bread recipe. This one is so easy and limited ingredients which I love! I followed all the tips and it came out fluffy and delicious.
Julia
Jenna, I am so happy you found this simple recipe helpful! I really appreciate it when people take the time to share their feedback on recipes - thank you for this! 🙂
Linda
Made this bread as recipe said my husband and daughter thought was great. Ty so much for taking the time to explain everything. Very nice website.
Julia
Linda, I am so glad you found this recipe helpful. Thank you for your thoughtful comment! 🙂
CJ
Best basic bread recipe I’ve tried in my bread machine. Never knew about
Aerating flour. It made a big difference in quality of the bread. I’ll be using this recipe from now on.
Julia
I am so glad to hear you found those simple tips useful! Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback and the 5-star review! I appreciate it!
peary perry
have been using bread mixes in our machine..tried this over the weekend ...perfect....thanks so much
Julia
Glad the recipe worked for you! Thanks for the 5-star review! 🙂
Thelma
Well , I just read your recipe and it makes total sense you said about the flour.I use my machine all the time for buns but I do not like the heavy bread ….i’m going to the kitchen now to try this and I’ll let you know how it turns out
Julia
Thelma, I am glad you found those recipe tips helpful!
Diane haluwa
I have just used this recipe after many fails with othe recipes I must say this will be the only recipe I will be using from now on many thanks to you
Breanne Clarke
Can I substitute honey for sugar? I don’t have enough sugar ♀️
Tony
Of course you can! Sugar is sugar. But I would go by gram measurements. 2 tablespoons of sugar is 25gr. Vs 2 tablespoons of honey weighs 42gr. That's too much! So use about 1 and 1/4 tablespoons of honey (26gr) instead.
Professional bakers use weigh (gram) measure. Volume is inaccurate.
E.g. 3 1/2 cups of flour pack can weigh 50% more than 3 1/2 cups of sifted flour.
Julia
Diane, your comment made my day! 🙂 Glad this recipe worked for you!
Tracy
Thank-you! This recipe made superb white bread. Perfect. I live in a dry climate so I needed 1 extra tbls of water. I used light olive oil because that’s what I had. Just perfect.
Julia
Tracy, thank you for sharing your changes - very helpful to me and other readers. Glad you gave this recipe a try and enjoyed it! 🙂
Pat
I've been looking for good bread machine recipes and this is by far the best I have tried. now I need to fine a good wheat bread one. Thanks.
Julia
Pat, thank you for such a wonderful comment - I appreciate it!
Karen
My loaf came out perfect on first try. Sifted the flour and spooned into cup then leveled with a knife. Experimented by just scooping amount of flour from container and then sifted and remeasured. I noted how much less flour was used after sifting. I can see why it makes a difference.
The loaf was tall and airy !
Julia
Karen, I am glad you found this recipe helpful. Thank you for sharing such a detailed and helpful comment!
Jeff
Made it using canola oil and we loved it.
Julia
Jeff, thank you for the feedback about using canola oil.
Temi
Did this yesterdayfamily liked it, making another one today highly recommended!
Julia
Thank you for the recommendation and the 5-star review! 🙂