My Favorite White Bread Recipe
This is a classic white bread recipe, and so easy! The loaves bake up incredibly tall, soft and fluffy… the perfect white bread!
Are you a bread fanatic? Isn’t there something fantastic about a great piece of bread? Whether you’re making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, grilled cheese, a big sandwich piled high with fixings, or simply slathering a piece with butter… I’ve always found it to be great comfort food.
While I’ve made quite a bit of homemade bread in the past, we’ve really cut back on carbs significantly, and have pretty much nixed sandwiches from our diet, so I haven’t been buying or making any for the last six months or so. However, Joseph would eat grilled cheese and some other things with bread (depending on the day – we’ve hit the picky toddler stage!), but once we found out about his allergies, anything store-bought was pretty much out of the question (why does bread need soybean oil?!). Luckily, he was cleared of his wheat allergy, but we’re avoiding soy, so homemade it was! I had a previous favorite white bread recipe, but had this recipe bookmarked for AGES, so I decided to finally try it. I’m so glad that I did because…
Best. Bread. Ever.
Watch How to Make My Favorite White Bread Recipe!
There are so many reasons you need to hurry up and make this bread immediately:
- It comes together incredibly quickly for a yeast recipe requiring two rises. In about 2 hours you’ll be smelling fresh bread wafting from your oven.
- These are the largest loaves of a simple white bread I’ve ever seen! I’ve made too many disappointing loaves of bread that have turned out short and squat, especially those made in a 9-inch pan. However, these are incredibly tall, full loaves – beauties!
- I was surprised at how incredibly light, fluffy and soft this bread was given that there isn’t any milk in the recipe, just water (thanks butter!). It’s honestly the perfect texture.
I was honestly blown away when I made it, my husband was as equally thrilled, and much to my delight, Joseph was a huge fan too! This makes phenomenal peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, awesome grilled cheese, and I have eaten way more than I should just slathered with butter.
I should have known how good this would be since it came from someone’s grandma… those are always the BEST recipes!
I’ve made this three times now, and I love that it makes two loaves… I immediately slice and freeze one and leave the other one out for us to eat throughout the week.
The frozen slices reheat exceptionally well – just 20 seconds in the microwave is all they need.
You only need one great white bread recipe and this is it!
Grab that yeast and get baking!
Three years ago: Kentucky Derby Pie Cupcakes
Four years ago: Chile con Queso
My Favorite White Bread Recipe
I’ve made a lot of bread recipes and this one has become my absolute favorite! I make a batch every couple of weeks!
Ingredients:
- 4½ teaspoons instant yeast (two 0.25-ounce packets)
- ¾ cup + 2⅔ cups warm water, divided
- ¼ cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 3 (43 grams) tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature
- 9 (1.3 kg) to 10 (1.4 kg) cups all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, for brushing
Directions:
- In the bowl of a mixer, stir to dissolve the yeast in ¾ cup of the warm water, and let sit for 5 minutes. Add the remaining 2⅔ cups water, sugar, salt, room temperature butter, and 5 cups of the flour and stir to combine.
- Using a dough hook, mix on low speed and gradually add the remaining flour until the dough is soft and tacky, but not sticky (you may not need to use all of the flour). Continue to knead until a soft ball of dough forms and clears the sides of the bowl, about 7 to 10 minutes.
- Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl and turn it over so it is completely coated. Cover with plastic wrap and set in a draft-free place to rise until doubled in size, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.
- Turn the dough out onto a clean, lightly floured surface. Gently press it all over to remove any air pockets. Divide the dough in two and, working with one piece at a time, gently pat it into a 9×12-inch rectangle. Roll up the rectangle, starting on the short end, into a very tight cylinder. Pinch to seal the seams and the ends, tuck the ends of the roll until the bread, and place into greased 9-inch loaf pans. Cover the loaves loosely and place in a draft-free area until doubled in size, 30 to 45 minutes.
- Position an oven rack on the lowest setting and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Brush the loaves with some of the melted butter. Bake the loaves for 30 to 35 minutes, rotating halfway through, until golden brown (an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read 195 degrees F).
- Remove from the oven and immediately brush with more of the melted butter. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the pans and cool completely before slicing. The bread can be stored in an airtight bread bag or wrapped tightly in plastic wrap at room temperature for up to 4 days. It can also be frozen for up to 1 month.
Recipe Notes:
Note #1: This recipe can be halved to make only one loaf.
Note #2: You can substitute active dry yeast for the instant yeast. Ensure that it is indeed activated in step #1 before continuing, and note that the rise times will be slightly longer.
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
(Recipe from The Curvy Carrot)
All images and text ©
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/387661480404599736/
Here is a link to Lion House Rolls on Pinterest I made these a while back and they are huge and delicious. Give them a try, they would be amazing at one of your Sunday dinners.
Hi Barbara, Thanks for sharing, I haven’t made rolls in ages, would love to try them!
I will be trying this recipe this week! Looks great.
What bread pans are you using?
Hi Amy, I use the Williams-Sonoma Goldtouch Loaf Pans! (I use the 1.5 lb pan for this recipe)
Nine-ten cups of flour quite a bit for a standard mixer, isn’t it?
And most of the bread recipes I use call for 3-1/2 cups per loaf, so 9-10 for two would be too many?
Hi Joe, I have a 6-quart KitchenAid and it did just fine with the flour, but if you have a smaller mixer and are concerned about how it will handle the dough, you may want to knead by hand. Keep in mind that you may not use all of that flour, as well, as I noted in the recipe.
I have/had an older sunbeam mixer and I only used 7.5 cups of flour and it killed my mixer . 2 expensive loaves of bread , it better taste good .
Yes I also think the 9 cups flour seems alot…most recipes I see says at the most 6 cups
I don’t think I can fit baking bread into my day today (like I did the stovetop mac & cheese), but this will be tried in the next several days for sure! I love the process of baking bread and the smell of it baking. Kneading yeast dough and getting your hands “in” the dough adds to the anticipation of the finished baked loaves :) (which is why a failed loaf is so much the disappointment for me). We’ve drastically cut back on carbs too, so I haven’t baked bread in some time. For this recipe, though, I will sacrifice :)) Here’s are questions: would the 4 1/2 teaspoons of yeast be 2 packets? with 9 c of flour maybe it’s 3 packets? and what do you think about rapid rise vs regular active dry yeast for this recipe? which do you use and recommend? Thanks, Michelle!
It’s a hockey night! Go PENS! :)
Hi Michelle! Yes, 4 ½ teaspoons is two packets (I just updated the recipe to reflect this). I like rapid rise because it makes for quick rise time. After reading a ton about active dry vs instant on the KAF website, it seems that for most recipes not using a bread machine the two are interchangeable, just that it takes active dry yeast a longer time to get started, so the rise times are a bit longer. If you want to use active dry, just make sure it’s activated in step #1 before continuing, and know that the rising may take a little longer than the times listed above. Enjoy! And GO PENS! (What a crazy game on Saturday night!)
i measured out the packages of yeast I use. They are around 4 teaspoon a package. I suppose it depends where you are buying your yeast. I use hydronated water in my yeast, it seems to make the yeast work better
I can’t believe there’s no milk in this bread! And all things considered, very little butter given it makes 2 huge loaves! Wow, this is the best looking white bread I have ever seen! Truly gorgeous, Michelle!
I very rarely eat bread anymore and when I do it has to be homemade. This looks flawless! After trying it, I don’t think anyone could go back to store bought.
Can this be made with Whole Wheat Flour instead of AP Flour?
Hi Patricia, No, I would not recommend using whole wheat flour in place of AP flour. At the most you would want to substitute only 25%, but I have a great whole wheat sandwich bread recipe that I highly recommend!
https://www.browneyedbaker.com/whole-wheat-sandwich-bread-recipe/
Looks awesome! I´m quite afraid (yeast dought is not my friend), but I have to try it :-).
Hi Michelle, This is a great recipe for the yeast-averse. I feel like it’s pretty much fail-proof. One of the times I made it, both rises went wayyyyyy past doubled due to toddler naps and bedtimes and I was afraid the dough was going to collapse on itself and be a disaster. Nope! It still baked up perfectly!
That looks so soft! I mostly stick to sourdough, but I want to try a sandwich bread one of these days ?
Hi.
Any chance that this can be made at high altitude? I live at 8,000 feet and have only perfected one bread recipe.
Thanks so much.
Hi Tammi, I don’t live at high altitude, but here are some tips from King Arthur Flour (they are my go-to resource with everything bread!) – http://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html (the section on yeast baking is the whole way at the bottom)
Have used other White American Sandwich recipes before with great success. Can’t wait to try this one. Have you tried this with a preferment? Some experts say it is a waste of time with soft white breads and was wondering what your opinion was.
Hi John, I have not tried this with a preferment, and I honestly don’t think it’s necessary for a recipe like this.
YUM! This looks amazing! You can’t go wrong with a fluffy white bread—especially one that’s easy to make! I know my family would love this. Esp for grilled cheese sandwiches! Thanks for sharing.
Will I ruin it if I use margarine instead of real butter?
Hi Elines, I don’t think so, but I’ll add the disclaimer that I haven’t tried it.
Just FYI for those who have a 5 qt Artisan mixer, 9 cups of flour was DEFINITELY too much for my mixer. I ended up having to knead the last cup of flour by hand. My loaves just came out of the oven and (sadly) aren’t as pretty as yours, but hopefully they taste great! My go-to bread is actually the one from the recipe book that came with my mixer, it’s yet to fail me!
Hi Camille, Thanks so much for sharing your feedback using a 5 quart mixer! I hope you love the bread!
I am going to make this TODAY. Question though…I broke the dough hook on my kitchen aid eons ago. Since then I’ve taken to using my bread machine to mix and knead the dough and then I take it out and let it rise per recipe instructions. Do you think this would work ok? My bread machine calls for wet ingredients first then dry and then mixes them. I’m not very experienced with bread so want to make sure this process won’t change the outcome of this beautiful recipe of yours? Also, is it possible to make this into more of a baguette by shaping the dough out onto a cookie sheet? Thank you!
Hi Juli, I’ve never used a bread machine, so I can’t give you a 100% guarantee, but I think it should work. This recipe uses instant (i.e. bread machine) yeast, so there shouldn’t be a problem. As for shaping it into a baguette, I honestly don’t know if that would work, as this is definitely formulated to rise high and be a very soft, light bread. I’m not sure it would hold its shape in a free-form loaf.
Do you think I’d be okay using a 4 1/2 by 8 1/2 pan?
Hi Lisa, I would not recommend it… it’s a lot of dough and this makes huge loaves, even in the bigger loaf pans. I’m always hesitant to use the larger loaf pan because I’ve been scarred by short, squat loaves, but was pleasantly surprised with this recipe!
For a 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf, just divide this dough into 3 pieces instead of 2, and proceed to shape and bake as normal :)
I was just thinking that I will try three smaller loaves next time. I had a hard time figuring out how to store the two I baked today—they were huge! (Haven’t actually tried them yet, either, but they smelled good!)
I have 2 loaves in the oven now -they look beautiful and smell divine! The kids will be home from school soon, and I bet they’ll be devoured!
Fresh milled wheat is best. My kids could not have the preservative calcium propionate which is in bread products. Using commercial white flour (and wheat) is like eating elmers glue to your colon. So many vitamins in wheat leach out after 72 hours of being milled. Mill your own flour, if you’re going to make you’re own bread. Then you can add beans and lentils for added protein!! Make Ezekiel Bread! Best grilled cheese ever!!
I never thought of slicing the bread before you freeze it. What a great idea. That way you only use what you need!
This white bread is seriously perfect! Love the photos.
Michelle do you think this recipe will work for making cinnamon raisin bread?
Hi Tracey, Sure, I don’t see why not! Just spread the filling on after you shape it into a rectangle, then roll it up and proceed as directed.
I just finished making cinnamon buns with this dough, perfect! This recipe made 3, 9″ cake pans of buns and one 8″ round loaf for dinner tonight.
I’d love to start making my own bread. I enjoy it so much more than the store bought stuff!
Kari
http://www.sweetteasweetie.com
I made this today, and it was great! By far the prettiest loaf of white bread to ever come out of my oven! Just wanted to thank you.
Wow. Fantastic. I have been buying white bread from local store all my life. After reading the article, feels like I should give this a try and if successful, stop buying from outside. BTW, very lovely snaps. Thanks.
I’ve tried making this recipe several times and follow the directions perfectly. But my bread always comes out very dense inside
I just made this bread, it is amazing looking, very big loaves. I normally just make the beginners white bread on the Fleischmans website and they were never very big loaves. Cannot wait to taste it Thank you for a great recipe!
Saw this recipe and just had to make it. It was incredibly easy and the results were amazing. Hugh loaves of fluffy, soft bread. Excellent just slathered with butter and would go excellent with a hearty stew or soup. I plan to add cinnamon and raisins to my next loaf in hopes of turning it into an awesome raisin bread. Yum!
I’ve made a number of bread recipes over the last little while, even Amish bread that was okay but took forever to complete. THIS is now my favourite bread recipe. I’ve made it yesterday and today! Quick rise times and big beautiful loaves! I have the 5 quart professional (lift) kitchen aid and have no trouble with the volume in the mixer (I use 8.5 cups). Thank you for sharing, my flour supply will be taking a beating!
I made this bread for a family dinner last week. It turned out perfectly, and was so good served with a choice of honey butter or homemade jam!!!! Thank you for sharing, I am looking forward to baking many more loaves. Oh and I used a little over 9 cups of flour to get my dough to a non-sticky texture – I do live in WA so maybe humidity?
This recipe turned out perfect! I halved it and the loaf rose tall and fluffy, fully baked at 30 mins! Thank you for a marvellous recipe. I will use it again and again!
Eating a sandwich on this bread while my baby naps and i binge watch tv – this bread is delicious and I’m loving life – perfect recipe – the bread isn’t too dense for sandwiches and it’s so tasty!
This may sound silly, but when rolling the dough into a cylinder I have a fear that it will come out looking like a cinnamon roll! This bread looks wonderful and I want to try it first thing tomorrow…but was curious why you roll it like that?
Hi Lexi, Not at all, as you can see! Just roll it up nice and tight… it’s the method I see most often for shaping loaves of bread dough!
Hi, im very much intrested in baking bread but my 2 attempts were failed. Plz help me with lesser measurements for beginners. shall I used hand blender to mix the dough.im using dry yeast. Can you guide activating it also
Hi Nandhu, You can halve the recipe to only make one loaf (just cut the ingredient amounts in half). I would not use a hand mixer for this… instead, I would stir with a wooden spoon and then knead by hand. If you use active dry yeast instead of instant yeast, dissolve it in the warm water and allow it to sit for 5 to 10 minutes until dissolved and a little bubbly. In addition, your rise times will be longer than those given above for the instant yeast.
Hi can u help me with ingredients lesser in quantity for beginners.I tried making bread twice but failed in my attempt.can v use dry yeast? Can v use hand blender???
Just tasted my first bite of this bread. It’s perfect! Lightly crisp crust and soft and tender on the inside. I halved the recipe. I needed an extra quarter-ish cup of flour more than the recipe called for, but I think that had to do with the weather (it rained last night, so there was probably a lot of moisture in the air). It may also be my measuring method varies from yours, I suppose. Either way, it turned out great. Thanks for the recipe.
I have made dozens of bread recipes and yes some were from this site. I just want to say I find this bread to be Amazing!!! It indeed does raise very high, the texture is soft, it is easy to cut without falling apart and last but not least the taste is so so good. I have spoiled myself by baking bread, I can no longer make toast using store bought bread..to me it tastes disgusting.
This is my new go to recipe that I will use as a constant. I even made a sandwich with it and didn’t have to rinse it down with a fluid. The texture is wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing!!
I made this bread, and I really liked it, especially the soft texture, and how high it was! We ate one loaf fresh, and the other is in the freezer, and it makes very yummy toast! Thank you for sharing this recipe!
I find us having more bread now that we have a little one. I am still seeking out the best homemade white bread. Will have to try this one ASAP. Thanks for sharing!
I made bread for the first time and I am proud it turn out great. My son loved it. The buttry hard top taste great with the soft inside. Definitely going to make more.
I made this yesterday and it was absolutely delicious! Thank you for a great recipe!
Made this bread and it is amazing, good, rises high. I used best for bread flour and added 1/4 cup mashed potatoes, made 3 bread, well they overflowed pans. Next time will make 4 breads. They tasted awsome but a mess to clean overflow. Made then second time with all purpose flour and were amazing and rose high in 3 pans with AP flour worked great.
I made this today as my first trial with bread making and it could not have been easier or come out better! It was light and fluffy and delicious! I am never buying store bread again! My only question is have you ever tried adding wheat gluten to the recipe? I’ve heard good things about wheat gluten but like I said I’m new at this and I don’t want to ruin this awesome recipe! Thank you so much for posting this recipe!
Wheat flour (aka all-purpose flour) contains a lot of gluten, so in my opinion there’s no need to add more. And truthfully speaking, I do not think there is such a product as pure gluten in stores to buy and actually add to anything. More people tend to avoid gluten owing to various food allergies than increase its quantity. :)
Hi Kyli, I’ve never used wheat gluten, so I’m not sure what it would do to the recipe. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help!
Absolutely not needed in this bread, and actually not needed in any bread. Wheat gluten is mostly just for the convenience of commercial bakers to shorten their kneading/proofing times and adds nothing to a good homemade bread.
I used unbleached bread flour (13% protein) when I made these loaves and their crumb & texture were terrific.
This bread tuned out great. Thank you very much. I’ve added 3 tablespoons of 12% cream to make it “milkier” and whiter. That’s the best sandwich bread ever :)
Hi Michelle,
Really looking fwd to baking this awesome bread !!
Could I cut the recipe in half though ?
Hi Maya, Yes, I mentioned that in Note #1 in the recipe.
Love, love, LOVE this recipe!! I have been trying for ages to find the perfect white bread recipe that wouldn’t give me short, dense loaves and your recipe did not disappoint! It’s by far the best I have made and I can tell you now that my search for the elusive white bread recipe is now over…sigh of relief :) I used active yeast and found that I didn’t need to let it rise any longer than you noted and my loaves were HUGE! I found it easier to cut them upside down – go figure!
Thanks again for sharing so many wonderful recipes!
I made a half recipe. It was delicious. How did you get your bread so white? Is it the brand of flour or something else? Also how do you get those beautiful thin slices in the picture please? Are you using a bread slicer? Thanks for your help.
Hi Kat, I’m so happy you liked the bread! As for white, I didn’t do anything? I use King Arthur Flour unbleached all-purpose flour. I don’t have a bread slicer, I just used my 10-inch Wusthof bread knife. I’m notoriously awful as slicing bread, so it was a miracle that they look halfway decent!
Made two of these loaves yesterday and yes, they are about the best white sandwich bread anyone could want. I made two changes worth sharing: subbed 4T honey for the sugar (it improves the keeping quality of the bread), and after greasing the loaf pans I coated them heavily with untoasted raw sesame seeds. Then mopped the uncooked loaves with egg wash and coated the tops heavily with more seeds. If you have sesame lovers like mine in your house, these will make the best toast you can imagine. The baking and proofing times were spot-on for my loaves. Thanks Michelle, this recipe’s a real keeper.
Hi. You said you never use the bread maker before but do you think that it could handle it all in one (kneading, proofing and baking) if I halved the recipe to fit?
Hi Sara, I’m not sure what the size restriction is for bread machines. I would assume that it could handle at least one loaf, though!
Sara, did you try it in the bread machine? I just got one and wanting to try this recipe in it. Want a light, soft, sandwich bread.
Hi there,
Just made 1/2 of this recipe in my Sunbeam 2-lb max bread machine and it came out perfectly! HUGE loaf and SO tastey!
This bread looks amazing! Do you think it would be okay to split it into small rolls?
Hi Katy, Yes, I think that this recipe would work just fine for rolls. It’s a super forgiving recipe!
Came acrossed this recipe n wanted you to know its awesome best recipe I have ever found for bread n I have been baking all my life I am 54 yrs old n it’s wonderful for dinner rolls too thank you for posting this n GOD Bless you
The most amazing white bread recipe ever!!! Quick question, if I use one of the loaves for rolls what would be the baking time and temperature? Thanks again.
Tonight is the second time in a week I have made this. We use one loaf a day. It is very good. My family likes and prefers this over store bought any day.
Love it.It is the best bread ever !!!Thank you!Thank you!!!Thank you!!!
This is my no-fail go-to recipe for white bread. I’ve tried others but have been disappointed, unlike with this one. I never need the full amount of flour, eight cups usually does it, and I have a five quart kitchen aid mixer. I do mine in the two balls per pan version instead of the single rolled tube. Love this classic, thank you!
I got a new Kitchen Aid stand mixer for Christmas, so naturally I had to make bread (for the first time)! I made this recipe but since I only had an 8 x 4 loaf pan, I halved the recipe, then split the dough in two and baked separately since I only had one pan. The bread itself is DELICIOUS but it didn’t come out quite like I had planned. The loaves were not as big, tall and fluffy as I had anticipated, but then again my dough amounts weren’t very big since I halved the recipe then divided it by two to bake. The bread was a little on the short side, not rising above the edge of the pan. The texture was a bit dense. Once I took it out of the pan, I thought “This is a little heavy and feels a little dense…” And it was (but still so yummy). The outside of the bread was golden brown but a little more crispy than I thought it would be, but I love a good crusty bread with a soft inside so this didn’t bother me. I’m not sure if I used too much flour…? Since I halved the recipe, I measured up to 4.5 cups of flour and used all but around 3 T. The bread itself is so yummy but all in all, not what I had anticipated. Any feedback on how I can get those tall, beautiful, fluffy, sandwich loaves like you did? I’m planning on making this again (with full sized pans!) so I look forward to any feedback!
Hi Kirstie, If you halved the recipe, I probably would have baked just one loaf instead of two, even though you had an 8×4 loaf and not the 9×5. I’m guessing this is why your loaves were so squat and dense.
One of the reasons for using “instant yeast” is that you can skip the step of proofing the yeast in water…you just need to add the instant yeast in with the flour. If you are not sure if your yeast is “alive”, then you could certainly proof it. Also, if you are looking for that nice tall loaf of bread, adding a couple tablespoons of instant dried milk, and/or a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar will help. The vinegar or lemon juice, because they are acidic breaks down the sugar, making it more readily available as food for the yeast. You will not taste the vinegar.
General rule of thumb for using the smaller bread pan, 4 l/2 x 8 is recipe that calls for 3 cups of flour. If your recipe calls for more than 3 cups, use the larger size pan.
Many bakers don’t like using the spray type oil for greasing pans, because they contain so many chemicals. If you bake a lot of bread, you might want to try making your own. This is called “pan grease” To make your own, mix equal amounts of flour, oil and shortening. I put this in my Kitchen Aid, and using the paddle attachment, just beat for several minutes until smooth and well incorporated. It is not necessary to refrigerate this, as all of the ingredients do not require refrigeration.
Hope this information helps.
I received a gift of a Kitchenaid Pro stand mixer, and have been trying several recipes. I used this one, and thought there was an error in the amount of water, but followed directions exactly. I never got the dough to smooth and after adding several more cups of flour, managed to get the very very sticky dough into the bowl to rise. Getting it out of the bowl and onto the board required more flour on the board than I have ever used, and more flour on top of the super sticky dough. Finally got it shaped into loaves and into the oven. As the proof of the pudding is in the eating, I am very much concerned about final rise in the oven, texture and flavor of the loaves. Surely I read something wrong or there’s an error in the liquid measure?
Hi Mary, Oh no! It does sound like there was a mis-measurement, because this dough is in no way sticky. In most instances, I never use the full amount of flour.
I have to say this is a stand-out recipe. I halved it, made it completely by hand (no stand mixer), and the loaf came out exactly as pictured. It is dense enough to hold up to spreads but tender and light enough to eat completely plain. Given the fact that I’m an inexperienced bread maker, I’d say this is as close to fool-proof as you can get. This will be my new go-to, as I agree that many of the big brands from the store are full of all kinds of “ingredients” I don’t want. I’d love a whole wheat version, if you’re up to it. :)
Thank you so much!
Amazing ! I printed this 6 months ago. Finally made it today! Super happy with the recipe and the directions. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. Love that I didn’t have thave special bread flour. The butter brushed on it gave the crust amazing flavor, I don’t think anyone could turn their nose up at it. Happy New Year!
Today is the 3of January 2017 I use your recipe and my bread turn out very soft and light I have been looking for a bread recipe for some time thank you very much
I did a little change in my measurement i add 7cups of flour instead of 9to 10cups and it turn out beautiful sorry about that I love to bake so I will looking for other recipes thank you again
I forget to mention that I am living in Canada
I forget to wish you and your family Happy. New Year 2017. With. God blessing
This is my go to bread recipe now as it comes out great like every time I make it. However I’ve found that I can’t put it on the lowest rack because it burns the bottom of the loaf too quickly. I guess my oven is just different to yours, but adjusting for that it comes out great!
I just made this and it is incredible! As soon as I sliced into the still warm loaf, I was in heaven. Light, fluffy, just the right chewiness and not cakey at all (because of the omission of eggs, I suppose). It’s perfect! I’m thinking it would make a great sweet dough for cinnamon rolls or cinnamon swirl bread with the addition of a little more sugar. Have you experimented with either? I’ve been searching for the perfect cinnamon roll recipe for years- I prefer mine without eggs- and am hoping this could be the one!
Hi Melissa, Go awesome to hear you love the bread! I just made another batch yesterday :) I haven’t tried cinnamon rolls or cinnamon swirl bread, though both sound amazing! If you give it a try, let me know!
I love this bread recipe! I have made it several times now and it always turns out great! My hubby and I love to add roughly chopped up roasted garlic to the rectangle right before we roll it up! Awesome to go along with soup for dinner!
I have been trying different recipes for months (about 6/7) ever since I stopped buying bread and only making it. This is absolutely BY FAR the best recipe for a light fluffy perfect sandwich white bread. Thank you so much!!!! About to make another batch and I never leave comments, but I had to let you know and give you big props!!!!
I have been making this bread for about a month or so, about 2 ddozen loaves (and counting ). It is without a doubt the best white bread I have EVER tasted. Really simple, fun to make. Thanks soooo much for this!
Hi Michelle, I have two questions.
#1. Will you post the ingredient measurements to make one loaf?
(for one loaf, will I use one packet of yeast)
#2. I have bread flour, can I use that in the place of AP flour?
Hi Audrey, To answer your questions:
#1 – Simply divide the rest of the ingredients in half to make one loaf of bread using one packet of yeast.
#2 – While you could use bread flour, the resulting loaf will be heavier and dense. I think all-purpose is better for this type of sandwich bread.
That looks really amazing. Can’t wait to try it ?
Hi! I bought my friends Kitchenaid mixer a few months ago and I’m finally getting a chance to make some bread with it and I thought I would start here. I am totally not afraid of yeast! First of all the amount of dough was way too much for my mixer, maybe your mixer size should be noted in the recipe? My dough hook kept getting wrapped to the top. I ended up kneading it by hand for the last bit. Second, the bottom rack at 400 burned the bottom of the loaves a bit before they were completely done. Not sure if that’s just my oven or what. The bread taste really great though and it made SO MUCH; with a few tweaks I think it’ll be a go to! Oh and also I totally forgot we only have 1 loaf pan now so I ended up using a square cake pan with some rolls of foil in half haha, not super pretty but it helped!
Hi! I know this is an older post, but I just wanted to comment that I did sub about 25% of the AP flour for whole wheat (nothing like realizing you are short an ingredient halfway through!). I was expecting the texture to not be as good, but let me tell you, it was amazing! I can’t wait to try it with all AP flour. Thank you for sharing such a great recipe.
I just made this bread and it is very good however the crust is very hard…came out golden brown though. Did I do something wrong?
Hi Jen, Hmmm it shouldn’t be very hard. Mine is firm when it first comes out of the oven, but once I brush it with butter and it cools, it softens up considerably.
Hi Ms. Michelle,Looking for White bread reciepe…
I saw this yesterday and i bake it today the Ingredients,timing are just good…its So Good my Employer and Kids are Love it????Thank you so much and Keep it Up God Bless..Jy Nette?
I have baked many loaves of bread in search for the perfect white bread. This recipe by far is the best I’ve ever made. It’s easy, pretty quick as baking bread goes and the texture and density of each loaf is light, fluffy and moist. This recipe WILL be going to the front of my recipe book. Thank you SO much! P.S. If I could give it more than 5 stars, I certainly wouldn’t hesitate.
This is definitely the best white bread recipe. I have personally only been baking for a couple years now and came across this recipe a couple months ago. I haven’t used a different recipe since. So tall, fluffy, and buttery. Every time it comes out great.
I made this recipe for the first time today! Came out delicious! My husband loves it! ???? I saw that everyone says that nine cups of flour is too much but I actually used them all! The breads came out fluffy and yummy! Thank you for sharing this recipe! ????
Thank you, thank you! This is just the ticket for my bread loving toddler. Simple and delicious. A new go to for sure!
Can you make this bread without a stand mixer?
Hi Lisa, Yes, you can, I’ve done so many times!
Is there a video on how to roll your white bread dough? Roll from small end?I’m confused, please help me. Thank you.
Hi Lisa, Unfortunately I don’t have a video on how to make this bread. When you roll it out it will be a rectangle… you want to roll from the end that is shorter so you don’t end up with a ridiculously long roll of dough. I hope that makes sense!
Made this today. Halved the recipe as I didn’t have that much flour. Just finished baking and now it’s cooling down. It looks and smells amazing! Looking forward to tasting the finished product. Only the second time making bread. Will come back and review once tasted.
OMG…. this is the best white bread recipe I have ever made!!!! Kudos to finding it!!! It was so awesome I have tried your wheat bread and one of your brownie recipes… Home run again!!!!! Thank you so much!!!!!!! You are the bomb!!!
I am in the process of making this and my hopes for a successful outcome are slim. I followed the recipe exactly and what I have is a big sticky mess. I added more flour against my better judgement and cannot seem to get to a dough that forms a ball and is ready for rising. I’ve given up and put it into an oiled bowl..guess I’ll just have to wait and see.
How long dose the bread last once u have done some bread
Hi Jackie, As mentioned at the end of the recipe above, you can keep it at room temperature for up to 4 days, or freeze it for up to 1 month.
I am on my second Bosch mixer, so I have been baking for a long time. My favorite is to make bread. I grew up with my mother filling an oblong porcelain dish pan (used only for bread making) with several cups of white flour, making a well in the center and adding all the ingredients to be stirred and eventually incorporated into the flour, through vigorous kneading, turning, flipping and forming. Out of the coal stove oven came beautiful loafs of bread, ready for butter. If mom had sweet cream available, a slice of warm bread with cream and sugar was a treat to die for… or so we thought.I saw this recipe and I loved the fact it calls for butter instead of oil. I made it yesterday and it was wonderful. The texture is very nice, and brushing the loaf with butter before baking seemed to give it a more uniformed beautifully browned crust. And of coarse, brushing with more butter after removing from the oven allows the crust to soften as it cools. The 400′ oven seems a bit warm, so be aware not to over bake as the crust might get too done. All in all, I have to give it a 5 star rating. The texture, flavor, color and taste deserves it. And by the way, it made wonderful toast this morning.
Hi Joanne, I’m so happy you enjoyed this bread; thank you for the review and sharing the lovely memories if your mom’s bread.
I actually signed up on here to leave a review. I NEVER leave reviews for recipes I’ve tried. But I made this bread and this was the first time I got bread RIGHT! The dough was stiff yet workable, it raised well and I actually got 4 loaves instead of just the 2! It tasted delicious and this is the recipe I’d pass down to my generation of family! It’s THAT amazing!
Aw, this is so awesome to hear, thank you for sharing! I just made another batch this week… I always keep at least one loaf sliced in the freezer!
Could I make 1 loaf by cutting the ingredients in half?
Hi Amanda, Yes, definitely, that will work just fine.
Hi ,Michelle can I have the recipe in half? Because I don’t know how to divide the ingredients. Thanks
This bread was SO good. My husband and I were just in Amsterdam and brought some delicious Dutch cheese home with us. I knew one of the cheeses would make the perfect grilled cheese sandwich, but store-bought bread just wasn’t going to cut it. I’m so glad a quick Google search led me to this recipe! The bread was fantastic, and I’ll definitely be making it again for everyday use. FYI for those like me who only have an 8.5 inch bread pan – I looked this up and an 8.5 inch pan has 15% less capacity than a 9 inch pan. So, I weighed my dough before rolling it out and removed 15% of the dough, rolling the leftover portion into a couple of rolls to bake along with the bread. The loaf itself turned out perfectly, and the rolls were a great treat straight out of the oven with butter slathered all over them :) Thanks again!
Can i use canola oil instead od butter?
I wouldn’t recommend it; I would stick with butter.
My daughter would like to make this in wheat bread. Suggestions?
Hi Walter, I’ve not tried to convert this to a wheat bread recipe. You could start with substituting just a little of the all-purpose flour, but I also have a very good whole wheat sandwich bread you might like: https://www.browneyedbaker.com/whole-wheat-sandwich-bread-recipe/
This is my go to white bread recipe…..always. It also is great as cinnamon bread.
Wonderful bread! How do you not eat the whole loaf yourself? I followed the recipe and it turned out perfect. Thank you for adding notes about storing/freezing. I use Red Star yeast and love it.
Can you DOUBLE this recipe ingredient for ingredient? Thanks
Hi Kathy, Yes, you can. Enjoy! :)
would the high sugar make the white sandwiches bread a bit sweet? Can I put less sugar to make it more salty and have the same result?
Hi Davina, This is not a sweet bread recipe, as you might think of something like brioche. You can reduce the sugar if you’d like, but I wouldn’t eliminate it entirely. It’s actually not a lot of sugar spread over two very large loaves.
I am new to the baking world. But I do bake. I want to make sure i am using the right materials. Is that 1.5 at 10x 5 x 3 loaf pan from William Sonoma that you are using? Do you use any particular brand of bread flour?
If I use the same pan, how tall the dough has to rise before i put it in the oven.
Thanks
Hi Davina, Yes, I use the Williams Sonoma Goldtouch loaf pans that are 10 x 5 x 3 for this recipe. I use King Arthur bread flour, but you should not use bread flour for this recipe – it calls for all-purpose flour. I typically let the dough rise about an inch above the lip of the pan before baking.
Can this dough also be used to make pizza dough? Also, this tuned out great!!! The whole family loves it!!
Hi Nicole, I’m sure you could but I’ve never tried it. So happy to hear you all love it!
Do you I could substitute the warm water for warm yogurt whey?
Hi Nicole, I’m not sure, as I’ve never baked with it. If you try it, report back!
I have just finished making it…. 5/5 is not enough to say. It’s crispy, soft just perfect. I have made some ‘errors’ like: adding less than 2 sachets of yeasts, putting whole 1,5 kg of white stong flour…. but depite that it went perfect. I was also using my hands only to combine all ingredients.
Thanks for your review, Kasia! I’m so glad you loved it!
Absolutely delicious and perfect. I did it entirely by hand and ended up with 3 loaves, the 3rd baked in a small iron skillet. I kneaded about 5 minutes. Thank you!
Hi Carolyn, Thanks so much for taking the time to write a review! I’m so glad you enjoyed the bread!
Hi Michelle! I’ve made this bread twice now and the flavour is just amazing, thank you so much! I live in India, where it’s usually hot and humid so I’ve had to make some adjustments to the water-flour quantities. My bread doesn’t appear quite as soft as yours though, I’m not sure whether it’s something to do with the weather, because I tried not to add too much flour. Also, the sides seem to ‘split’ as the bread proofs and then bakes, but not sure why this is happening either. Overall, my bread has turned out more ‘rustic’ though I honestly love it! Any light you could shed would be so great, thank you in advance!
Hi Gayatri! I’m so thrilled to hear you’ve enjoyed the bread. The differences you’re describing likely have to do with the adjustments you’ve needed to make. My sides also look a bit “stretched” after baking, so I think that’s normal?
not sure where this recipe came from but its worse than awful. save yourself the time and the mess and keep looking. very disappointing. water to flour ratio WAY off. i had to read twice to make aure i did not make the mistake. this is at least a double batch. if you love your stand mixer as much as i do find another recipe.
Hi Ray, I’m sorry to hear that you had issues with this recipe, however, I make it every two weeks, like clockwork, follow it exactly and have never had any problems. This is actually the first negative review the recipe has received (out of nearly 20); it’s actually a very forgiving recipe and can’t see how the ratio would give you problems? Can you explain what exactly happened?
I have to tell you I was truly amazed. I did use bread flour ( that might have been a mistake) because I could have made 4 loaves from this instead of two they did rise REALLY HIGH. I only had two pans. My husband does not like a hard crust and this bread was so GOOD. I have been looking for a recipe for a while and I finally found it. Thank you for the recipe I definitely will be making this again. The flavor was terrific.
Hi Laura, I’m so thrilled to hear that you and your husband enjoyed the bread! It’s a staple in our house!
And no you will not be able to fit this recipe into a standard Kitchen aid Mixer. I improvised. Half the recipe you will not be disappointed. Halving the recipe should make you two loaves. I was very impressed by the flavor.
Currently waiting for the bread to rise. I am low on white flour so I made do with 6 cups of sprouted spelt and 3 cups of king arthur all purpose white. It’s rising splendidly, so fingers crossed!
Are you sure the white bread recipe calls for nine cups of flour? My mixer almost ran hot!
Hi Kay, Yes, that’s the correct measurement. It does make a large amount of dough, as the loaves are very big!
Made this recipe yesterday. It is an absolute winner. It is a lot to put in the standing mixer, but I added the flour slowly and kept the speed low. It came together nicely even with a few “whoah mama!” moments. The bread rose beautifully and following the instructions to a t for shaping yielded a lovely couple of loaves. We enjoyed some grilled cheese for dinner tonight. I will be keeping this around. Next time I might just halve the recipe.
Hi Kylee, So thrilled that you loved the bread! Doesn’t it make fantastic grilled cheese? And yes, you can totally halve this recipe if you ever need to, works like a charm!
This was my first attempt at making bread. It came out very badly. I am not sure what I did, but the bread did not rise and was very dense, heavy and gummy on the inside. When cutting it open, the layers of rolling came apart. Any suggestions?
Hi Sylvia, Oh no, I’m so sorry to hear the bread didn’t quite turn out for you. Did you make any substitutions to the recipe? Did you use very hot water? It sounds like the crux of the problem is that it did not rise, as the texture and inability to stay together would be a direct result.
I am making this bread at this time. I used my kitchen aide and it mixed just fine in it. I will let you know how it turns out. I followed the recipe exact . Does sound like a lot of flour, I only had to use 9 cups so we will see. Thanks for sharing the recipe .
By far the best and most “no-fail” recipe for white bread I have found! Thank you. Gone are the days of my deflated loaves…. Additionally, pre-slicing and then freezing work like a charm for my Fam. Thank you again. My only question is whether any of the butter goes into the dough or if it is all specifically for basting the loaves…. for now, I have been putting two tablespoons into the mix and it seems to work great.
question- I get to approximately 6-7 cups flour and at that point the dough is no longer sticky and is coming away from the sides of the bowl- it also is quite dense. I’m afraid to add more flour as I think it would get too dense to the point of not being able to rise. Anyway- I have a pretty solid mixer and at 6-7 cups of flour the machine begins to struggle- ok, struggle isn’t the right word- but it definitely is having to work pretty hard. So far 6-7 cups still seems to work well….
Hi John, Definitely go by the state of your bread in terms on how much flour to add. There’s a definite difference for me in the winter vs the summer – I need to use more flour in the summer because the air is more humid, even though we have air conditioning.
Hi John, Thanks so much for the review! As for the butter, you’ll see in the recipe that 3 tablespoons are to be cubed and at room temperature and the instructions to add it are in step #1. The remaining butter is to be melted and is for brushing before and after baking.
I am a bread fiend!! I love making bread and I haven’t made loaf bread in years. I’ve been concentrating on sharing my other recipes with my readers. We make bread for our kids and grandkids. This would be a great bread for sandwiches. I know what I’ll be doing today — making bread!! Will let you know how it turns out.
Oh my goodness…this was absolutely awesome! I am not a very good bread baker, and I dislike most white bread recipes with milk..they never seemed to turn out right. This recipe was easy to follow and the bread..well…you’ll just have to make it for yourself. You’ll see. ;) Definitely a winner! Thank you!
Do u have a easy potato bread recipe!
Thank you Susan
Hi Susan, I haven’t made potato bread yet, but I will add it to my list!
I made this bread today, EXCELLENT! I have Multiple Sclerosis, and make bread alot so I know what’s in it. Lately, I can’t seem to get any of the recipes I have used in the past to work out. So when I came across this recipe, I thought I’d try it. I only made half the recipe and it turned out just like you described. The recipe was easy, the loaf rose high and was soft and delicious. Thanks for the great recipe.
Hi Tammy, You’re so welcome, I’m glad you enjoyed the bread!
Not everyone has a mixer with the kneading attachment – how would you change this to knead my hand?
Hi Robin, I knead this by hand often! You don’t need to change a thing, just do the initial mixing in a bowl with a wooden spoon and then switch to kneading by hand.
Have u ever tried this with wheat flour ?
Hi Jul, I have not.
Such an amazing recipe. And so easy to work with. Thank you
You’re welcome Cristina, so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for stopping back to leave a review!
This recipe is delicious. The inside of the bread is so soft and it tastes great!
I’m so thrilled you enjoyed the bread! Thanks for the review!
I made this without a mixer lol and it turned out great loved it and tastes great.
Imade this bread last night for breakfast today and it is athe most delicious bread ! It is easy to make and all ingredients you have at home!
It is soft, not dry and great, it taste like bread you eat at fancy restaurants!
Thank you for posting this recipe
All I can say is this bread is fabulous I have made no knead bread in the past but I will never do that again. I am a recent stroke patient and I am legally blind and the bread I made today turned out perfectly. My point is if I can do it anyone can do it. Brown eyed baker you rock !!
I’m so thrilled to hear you enjoyed this bread, Dave! I wish you a full recovery from your stroke.
During hurricane Harvey there was no bread to be had so I saw your recipe and decided to give it a try it was awesome so thank you so much
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Allen. All the best to you, and I hope you haven’t experienced any catastrophic flooding.
This is a fool proof bread recipe!! I look like a champ making your bread, light, fragrant, yummy!
I’m so glad you love it! Thanks so much for taking the time to stop back and leave a review!
This bread looks amazing! I have two new 12 x 4 1/2 long loaf pans that I would like to use — how would you suggest I alter this recipe to make 2 longer loafs? Thanks!
Hi Candace, I would roll it out to maybe 13×15, and then reduce the baking the time a little – maybe start checking around 20-25 minutes total to make sure it doesn’t over bake. Enjoy!
I’m very good. I’ve been watching the last words to do it. I love these things. Bread is the item I choose every day. Sorry this is my job.
I have been making my own bread for close to 60 years using a similar recipe. I
Have never owned a stand mixer and use the old kneading method. Works just fine.
I’ve been baking bread all my life, but have lately had a lot of failures. This recipe was excellent! I followed it exactly EXCEPT I replace about 3.5 cups of white flour with whole wheat. It turned out lovely, still rose well and is a nice soft consistency – not heavy at all. Thanks for helping me get my bread-baking groove back!
This recipe is amazingly user friendly! I mixed by hand and everything came together easily. I have the recipe first time round to make 1 loaf and it was so popular I made the full amount of dough second time round and made 1 loaf and some slider buns and everything was gone in a day. Definitely a winner!
*halved!
Bread came our excellent. Great flavor. Thank you for sharing!!
Can you substitute some wheat flour for some of the white flour?
Hi Phil, I haven’t done it, but I would start with a small percentage (25%) and then go from there based on your results.
OMG!!!! This bread was heavenly. Thank you for sharing the recipe
I made the bread.last noght.boy was it yummy.we had with .olive garden soup.zuppa.yum.yum.
This is the absolute best bread I’ve ever made! Fluffy, chewey, great crust, and flavor.
your recipe – My Favorite White Bread Recipe is wonderfully good!! Made it 3 days ago, froze one loaf and have been eating the other loaf. Very easy to make and just so light and tasty! I am going to make this again and again. Would like to try it with some whole wheat flour.
I’m so thrilled you’re enjoying it Carol, thanks so much for stopping back to leave a review!
I discovered that substituting three cups of unflavored mashed potato flakes gives this bread an even better taste and texture.
Thanks for the tip, Jason!
3 cups of potato flakes???
Hi Michelle. This bread looks fantastic, and would love to try and make it. Just a quick question – I’m in the UK, and when you say ‘all purpose flour’, is that plain flour (ie no raising agent) or bread flour? (called strong flour here). Would be grateful if you could advise further. Thanks!
Hi Ruth, All-purpose flour would be the same as plain flour. I hope you enjoy the bread!
Thank you very much your recipe come out just wonderful. I can believe how delicious and easy to prepare. Thank you.
OMG THIS CAME OUT SO GOOD!!! I have had so many troubles trying to bake a good loaf of bread. I’ve been through so many recipes only to have them all fall flat and hard like little bricks!
This is delicious. I used dairy free butter, (son has dairy allergy ) and it still came out great! 🎉 💃🏼 I am thrilled! 😁
What kind of dairy free butter did you use?
This recipe is amazing! I made a vegan version a few days ago and haven’t stopped snacking on it. Here is the post I wrote about it:https://panthersandpeonies.com/simple-white-sandwich-bread-vegan/Thank you so much for the recipe!
Hi Brittany, Thanks so much for stopping back to share a review and your link to the vegan version!
Hi!
I made the recipe today. Beautiful dough and gorgeous delicious tasting bread.
I did substitute two cups of spelt flour and used honey instead of sugar.
Love your recipes. This will be my go to white bread recipe.
Happy Fall Baking!!!
Rose 🌹
This is the best recipe I’ve found that I have been successful multiple times with. I have even made rolls with it and and ive also done 50/50 white and whole wheat flour and it comes out great every time.
i love the bread i put in soughdough and 1/4 cup of honey for my suger it was great ty
I made this bread and it was AWESOME. I’m going to try rolling cheese into one of the loaves this weekend and cinnamon/sugar/butter into the other :).
I’ve recently taken up bread baking in an effort to try to buy less store-bought foods for my family. I had found an “okay” recipe a couple weeks ago, but I found it very dense and was only really good straight out of the oven or toasted/warmed up. When my husband asked me to bake some bread to bring to the moose hunt this week, I knew I had to find a better recipe since I knew they wouldn’t be eating the loaf until a day or two after it was baked. Thank goodness I came across this recipe! It was incredibly easy to put together with my Kitchen Aid mixer, rise times were quick, and best of all…the bread is soooo fluffy and stays soft and fresh for a few days after it’s baked (if you can keep it from getting eaten before then!). Thanks so much for my new go-to bread recipe!! Can’t wait to try it with cinnamon/raisins or maybe even some cheese ;)
Yesterday my daugther-in-law and I made a batch of this bread. It is delicious fresh from the oven, we had toasted blt’s for lunch and enjoyed them and just grabbing a slice to munch on was scrumptous as well.
I’m making this for the second time, love the taste and structure.. But I’m just curious.. Are the measurements listed here correct? This time and last I’ve had to add way more flour.. If I had to guess, 1.5 – 2 cups extra… Just to get it to come together..
Hi Rose, I’ve never had to use that much more flour, but if you are in a particularly humid area it’s possible. Most important thing is to go by visual cues and touch!
Great bread recipie!
Love your art
I just made these and I love the taste and texture. So much better than the bread machine.
I do have a question, can you use bread flour in of AP?
Since it was my first time making it I followed your recipe
Hi Annette, Bread flour would make this bread considerably heavier and denser vs. light and fluffy. You can try it, but know the texture will be altered.
This is some of the best bread I’ve made in a long time! 9 cups of flour seemed like a lot ,but flour is so cheap I figured I’d take my chances (I only needed about 8 and then added it by the spoonful until it was the consistency described in the recipe,in all about 8.5 cups) and it was well worth it . Tall perfect loaves , and a simple to follow recipe with very few ingredients .
I can I use whole wheat flour instead of white flour? Also if I can use whole wheat flour, will it be the same amount to be used in the recipe?
Thanks, Carolyn
Hi Carolyn, I would start by substituting 1/4 of the all purpose flour with the whole wheat, and not go further than 50/50 to maintain the texture of the bread.
Love this recipe.
I ended up splitting the dough at the end into 3 instead of 2, and still made 3 very nicely sized loaves.
I gotta say, though, mixing all that by hand is a lot of work.
it looks like the recipe you wrote is very convincing and I need to try to follow it at home. thank you for writing this.
is it possible to replace water with white milk?
I think you could try the milk substitute.
Just made this. First time ever making bread. It came out amazing!
I have made this bread twice now. The instructions are easy to follow and the bread turns out divine. So good. Glad I stumbled on to this ! Thanks
I made This bread again today yard the loaves came out huge. Do you have any suggestions as to what might have gone wrong?
Hi Denice! It could have just been the amount of time left to rise; it can vary from day to day based on the temperature in my kitchen. Sometimes after 30 minutes they still have a ways to go, and other times they’re massive after the same amount of time. The recipe does yield fairly large loaves, though.
Can you make this bread not having a hook attachment on your mixer? If so, how please.
Hi Diane, Yes definitely! I’ve made it by hand many times. You can just stir it together using a wooden spoon, then turn it out and knead it by hand.
This bread is exquisite! Huge loaves. excellent taste. I can never remember baking anything that made my house smell so good – and it tastes as good as it smells. And, to top it all off, it is easy to make.. Thanks for such a great recipe.
So great to hear you enjoyed the bread Mary! :)
Amazing! Light and fluffy crumb. The crust of my bread began to burn pretty early, so next time I will lower to the next level down on my oven rack. I suspect this was due to the fact that I let it rise a bit too long, and the bread was pretty tall going in. The melted butter at the end helped soften it a bit. I sliced it and put it in my freezer for homemade bread all week long!
So happy to hear you loved the bread! As for the top burning, you’ll see in step #5 you should be using the lowest rack in your oven. That should help in the future!
This recipe is delicious and simple. My kids are begging me to make all my own bread now instead of buying it at the store. Texture, taste and look are all perfect.
Is it possible if I divide this recipe in half? Also, is it ok if I don’t use a machine to make this? Thanks!
Hi Katie, Yes to both! A half batch will work just fine, and I’ve made it by hand before. Enjoy! :)
I have been trying to bake bread for 20 years with very little success. I ran across this recipe and thought I would try it out. Of course I imagined it would fail like all my other attempts and the finished product could be used as a weapon for a cannon ball. I started early thinking it would take all day and half of next year for me to keep trying to get it right. Boy howdy was I mistaken! I didn’t only succeed, my family and my neighbor loved it. I will be making this bread every week possibly. Now I can feed my small army of 8 kids and my wife and not give them that store bought stuff they pass off as bread! Thank you for sharing this!
Ahhh this makes me so, so happy Larry!! So thrilled that this recipe worked for you the first time and your family loved it!
Hi, How do I print the recipe without the ad taking up space at the top of it? Thank you for your time
Hi Denise, I’m so sorry for that inconvenience, that shouldn’t be happening! I’ll work to get it fixed right away!
The kids and I love this recipe; thank you so much.
What do you mean by rotating them halfway through? And why does it matter?
Very excited to try this recipe! Thanks!
Hi Sarah, It means turning the pan around so the edge that was toward the front is now toward the back, and swapping the pans position. It helps to ensure they cook and brown evenly.
went browsing google tonight to make a simple yet delicious bread to go with a wonderful pot of home made beef stew. Bread bowls would have been nice I was thinking but I knew there wasn’t time for that. Thats when I came across this bread loaf recipe and I have to tell you that never ever have I seen thins kind of perfection in my breads. you know how you always follow the recipe to the letter and the instructions step by step and it just doesn’t look like you thought it should. Not with this pure joy making this one. Thank you so very much for this recipe. Truly amazing!!!
Aww that make me SO happy Cathy! I’m so glad you enjoyed the bread, and many thanks for taking the time to stop back and leave a review!
I don’t have unsalted butter; can salted butter be used? How would it affect the bread?
Hi Mary, Yes you can use salted, but you’ll just need to decrease the salt in the bread by a bit… I’d say cut it down to 2 teaspoons.
I just made this recipe and it is seriously amazing. I needed about 8 cups of flour and i split the dough into 3 loaves instead of 2. The loaves are tall and fluffy, the bread is buttery and soft and it is seriously delicious. I am making another batch (possibly 2 more, we shall see) and donating the loaves to a fundraising bake sale. They are going to be the star of the sale, i am sure.
What a fantastic idea to donate to a fundraising bake sale! So awesome to hear you loved the bread!
Easy to follow & makes a HUGE amount. My first from scratch bread and didn’t use a mixer, all by hand. It turned out delicious!! Thank you for sharing! I will make again soon.
Congratulations on your first bread from scratch!! So glad you enjoyed the bread :)
Hi Michelle, I made this three times so far in as many days. You were absolutely right. BEST BREAD EVER!!!!
Michelle, you have outdone yourself once again. This bread is the easiest and tastiest white sandwich bread ever! And you’re right – so forgiving. My yeast had expired several months ago, and it still worked. My husband and I can’t get over how good this is. Also, I’m not really a fan of toast, but I am of THIS toast. Thanks for yet another foolproof recipe that makes me shine in the kitchen! :-)
Update in the New Year: I’ve now made this bread several times using different flours. I’ve mixed all-purpose wheat with any combination of whole grain wheat, spelt, rye, etc. It turns out beautifully every time. We love this bread as is, as toast, and as a grilled cheese/ham&cheese/you-name-it-combo! Such an excellent recipe – thank you so much for all the work you put into your recipes and posts, Michelle. :-)
Hi Betti, Thanks so much for sharing this update! So awesome to hear you’ve been enjoying so many different variations of the bread, super helpful for others!
I am very excited about this recipe. The dough was very simple to make and what a lovely dough to work with! I made a loaf of bread and some cinnamon rolls with my first try and they turned out great! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
Thank you so much. I’m making bread for thanksgiving and they just came out of the oven. So beautiful and easy thank you again for this recipe is a keeper!
What happen to my bread if i change the unsalted butter to salted butter?
The bread will just be a bit saltier. You can always cut down on the salt in the recipe to account for that.
Made this in the afternoon and just finished eating this with leftover turkey. Made a killer sandwich. Easy recipe, very tasty, and very good toasted. Mine wasn’t as pretty as the pictures show, but it sure did taste good. Moved this to the top of my bookmarked bread recipes. Will definitely make again! Thanks Michelle!
Hi Christine, So thrilled to hear you loved the bread! Thanks so much for stopping back to share a review!
Simple ingredients with big taste! I’ve been scouring the web for an easy recipe and this is the best so far!!. The butter is the magic ingredient definitely. It gives a nice crisp on the outside without it falling apart as I had so often experienced with other recipes. I made a boo boo and added more water than necessary. However taste was not compromised at all. I ended up with 3 loaves and they all raised beautifully. My 8 years old couldn’t get enough . Thanks for sharing!
Bread turned out great. However 10 cups of flour seemed like an awful lot for two loaves. So I divided it in to 3. Used 1 size smaller loaf pans amd voila!!
This bread is seriously amazing!!!! I halved the recipe and it still turned out great! The only thing I did differently which I suggest trying out is mixing honey with your melted butter for brushing on the bread before and after baking. Do not be intimidated by the amount of flour, your KitchenAid can handle it. Delicious!
Now THAT’S a loaf! Beautiful oven-spring, gorgeous crust and structure. Tastes fantastic! I have noticed a few comments stating that this recipe uses more flour than other white bread recipes do. This is the very reason I chose to bake this bread. It’s frustrating putting in all the effort [hand kneading ] and ending up with a good but, small loaf. Wonderful flavor toasted or as a sandwich bread… Thank you very much for this recipe!
I’ve made this recipe several times and it’s well loved each time by my family! My loaf pans are a bit smaller, so I get three sweet mini loaves out of it. Thanks for the keeper recipe!
This truly is the best white bread recipe. I couldn’t stop eating it which isn’t so great but it is that good.
I made the white bread, the recipe is absolutely delicious. Thank you! Love it!!!!
I made 2 batches today; 2 plain loaves and 2 cinnamon! Can’t wait to try it!
Tasteless
Best bread ever…not really a bread maker but turned out perfect!
I made this recipe today and, WOW, I can’t believe how big and fluffy the loaves are! This is the white bread recipe for which I have been searching. It is incredibly easy and comes together quickly. I used my kitchen aid to mix and knead it, but when the dough started climbing up the hook, I finished the kneading by hand. But, really, isn’t getting to knead soft, lovely dough by hand part of the fun of baking bread? I have plenty of the no-knead rustic loaves in my recipe file, but I was looking for a soft, fluffy white bread for PB&J; this definitely fits the bill! Aside from my loaves being slightly lop-sided (clearly I need to work on my shaping skills), they rose well and baked up beautifully! If I could attach a picture of them, I would. I can’t wait for my husband to come in so he can see/taste them. Delicious!!I didn’t have any problem with the amount of flour, but I did weigh it rather than measure (so glad you give the weights). I used most of the flour, only leaving a scant cup unused. Also, I didn’t have two 9 inch loaf pans, so I used one 9″ and one 8″, I just cut off a small bit before rolling the loaf for the 8″ pan. Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe!
You’re welcome Jacki! I’m so glad you enjoyed the bread and so appreciate you stopped back to share a review!
I didn’t want to review this and ruin your great reviews, ’cause I think I’m the one that’s having troubles, and it’s not the recipe. I’ve made this recipe twice now. I halved it, first time I really messed up. I ended up with a brick that could not be consumed. Just now I made sure I had every ingredient halved properly, used 4.5 cups of flour only. It rose perfectly, baked to a golden brown, when I took it out of the oven, it’s still very heavy and looks very dense. Very doughy. I’m so sad. Took me months to get macarons right, I think I can do bread (everyone seems to be doing it) I just don’t get what I’m doing wrong.
Hi Leonie, Hmmm… are you baking at altitude by any chance? This is a super light and soft bread so I can’t figure out how it could turn out so dense.
Hi Michelle, thanks so much for replying. I am not baking at an altitude. I’m going to try again. Could I be over kneading it in my kitchenaid?
Hi Leonie, That could be… definitely just add enough flour and knead enough so that the dough is not quite sticky, but still tacky to the touch.
Oh my my…this is seriously the easiest and yummiest bread ever! Thank you for sharing. My family thanks you as well!
You’re very welcome! Thanks so much for the review!
I needed to do some hard thinking, so I tried this, but made it by hand. Truly delicious. Ended up with two beautiful loaves. I did need to add an additional half cup of flour. Thanks for publishing.
You’re welcome, Michelle! I’ve done it by hand as well, and it works out really well!
First time making bread and it was so easy and delicious! Thanks for the recipe!
You’re welcome Misty! So glad you enjoyed it!
I have been baking bread for quite a few years (I’m 71) but never knew how my bread would turn out from one time to the next….ometime it would rise other times it was like a brick. I recently lost my original recipe for white bread so I decided to look on the internet for another one and came across your recipe for ” My Favorite White Bread Recipe” and tried it. I have made many many loaves and it comes out PERFECT every single time!!!! I can’t believe it. My loaves are huge, very tender and light and delicious. I can’t thank you enough. Now it is “MY” favorite white bread recipe. Truly… I love homemade bread and love giving it away. I just printed another copy of this recipe since the first one is showing its wear and tear. One other thing, I tried making just one loaf and AGAIN it turned out perfect. YOU ARE AN ANGEL FOR SURE1
Hi Rebecca, I’m so glad you found and loved this bread! Thanks so much for taking the time to stop back and leave a review, it is much appreciated! :)
Has anyone tried this with active dry yeast? Thats all I have and I’m trying to avoid going out into the snow to get something different!
Hi Lauren, That should work just fine, it might just take a bit longer to raise than the times listed in the recipe.
I was gifted a ninja blender with a dough mixing attachment and a ninja auto iq cooking system (intelligent crock pot) so of course that had me searching bread recipes. I have never made bread before so I didn’t know what to expect. But reading your blog and the picture sold me. THIS. RECIPE. IS. INCREDIBLE. I cut the recipe in half in case I messed it up, which I’m known to do. I’m amazed with the turn out. After the majority of the cooking was done in the ninja cooking system the bread was a little to high to keep the lid on so I stuck it in the oven for 10 mins so it could give the top the golden brown it deserved. As soon as I sliced it, half the bread was gone when I turned around. My family agreed this is going to ruin all other non bakery bread. The crust is buttery and the inside is soft and fluffy. I couldn’t have asked for a better recipe. Thank you so much for putting the time and effort into posting this recipe. I can’t wait to make more! I may go do that right now!
Hi Ashley, Thanks so much for taking the time to stop back and share your review; it’s great to know that this recipe works with some alternative cooking methods, as well!
Can I make the bread without the pan/form and just do it on the racks with baking paper
Hi Krista, I’ve never tried it like that, so I’m not sure how much it would spread vs rise.
I followed the recipe and… 7 cups of flour and it was still sticky and tacky. It wasn’t soft and definitely needed to either wet my hands or use more flour or use by silicone scraper to get the dough out of the mixer’s bowl without being covered in sticky dough. I let it rise and it was still a mess. I used more flour to be able to handle the dough and roll it into a rectangle to make a loaf. It was nearly impossible and after baking it, it definitely doesn’t look like yours. I probably could have used 9 cups of flour, but that seemed excessive for only 2 loaves. I thought the water to flour ratio was off, but I thought I’m not professional so maybe.. and I also felt that the amount of yeast was a lot considering it was only 2 loaves. I know a little goes a long way with yeast.Bottom line is: what did I do wrong? Did you write a typo? Is it possible this only works if you don’t let the yeast proof and just add all the ingredients at once. Help. I want it to work and I have no idea why it didn’t.For reference, I’ve baked a lot of bread and doughs. I’ve baked well over 100 loaves including challah, Amish white bread, traditional white bread with potoato flour, laminated yeast dough, and more. Too many to name. So why, why didn’t it work? 🤷♀️
Hi Lori, I’m sorry this didn’t turn out well for you, but the problem was definitely using only 7 cups of flour; I’m not surprised it was a sticky mess. The recipe calls for 9 to 10 cups, which is what it needs to get to the correct consistency. There is no typo and you don’t need to do anything special to the yeast. If you actually follow the recipe, it will work (there are nearly 50 reviews on this recipe, all 5 stars).
This is my go to white bread recipe. Best one on line
Best bread recipe I have tried…….
Made the bread, easy and straight forward, reduced the flour quantity to 8 cups ( stated not necessary to use all the 10cups) and water amount the same and turned out perfectly well. Also reduced the salt (2tsp) and sugar (1/3) quantity.
This bread is delicious! My 5qt Kitchenaid mixer did just fine with it too. This bread is amazing with grilled cheese!! My kids and hubby are big fans!
This was the fastest easiest most delicious white bread I ever made. Try it you will love it!!
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! I too, have been on the hunt for the perfect simple white bread recipe. This one is 4th recipe I’ve tried and it will now be my one and only. I love the tutorial video. It really took the fear out of baking bread. (I am new to baking bread). The other recipes I’ve tried, bread was a bit too dry or a bit too doughy. Others were just not yummy. This one is soft on the inside and perfectly crusty enough on the outside. It tastes AMAZING! I read some reviews and would like to say, this recipe is a must try. Don’t hesitate because your stand mixer is too small. My stand mixer is too small for a 2 loaves capacity so I attempted this all by hand. And to my surprise, it turned out perfect. As for the amount of flour, follow the recipe, 5 cups of flour and really add 1/2 cup at a time until dough is not sticking to sides of bowl. (I mixed and kneaded by hand in a huge bowl) I ended up using a total of 7.5 cups of flour in order to achieve the sticky but not tacky dough. It’s winter here and the air is pretty dry. I covered my bowl and pans with seran wrap and a tea towel. 1st rise took about 1.5 hours, 2nd rise just 45 mins. This bread is a hit already. We love eating this bread warm with butter. My kids love it with PBJ and or with deli cuts. Thanks again for the recipe!! :)
I meant *tacky but not sticky. : )
Why disr my head raise up and become to fluffy and airy.out Sude if that I love it
That is supposed to say airy and fluffy
I made this recipe a week ago and it was delicious….I am making it again this week!
White bread recipe everything you said with the ease of making perfect loaves. I was hooked on your Italian bread that I have made probably 30 times already. This will be my go to for sandwich bread, lovely soft loaves, Golden brown and oh so aromatic. Thanks you for this recipe!
I have never made bread in my life and it turned out so good!! So happy I found this site! I did use bread flour since I bought it before I found the recipe and it still worked. I also had to finish kneading the dough by hand since my kitchen aid mixer was too small for all the flour it called for, but that was for the last cup of flour and took me about a minute or so to finish. Really tasted great!
So I couldn’t wait to try this and as a result I own no 9inch loaf pans. I do have a 9×12 pan that’s 2.5 inches high and was wondering if I could do the loaf in that? I assume it would dome and be like those giant round crusty rolls minus the crusty part? If not I will go to plan b….foil in the middle to keep the loaves seperate.
Hi Jade, I’m really not sure how a 9×12 would work since you’d be making basically one huge slab of bread.
Hi Michelle,
I intend to try your recipe tomorrow. The bread looks amazing and delicious. I am wondering if I halve the recipe do I need to adjust the oven temperature as well?
Thanks, Reji
If you halve the recipe, keep the oven temperature and baking time the same. Enjoy! :)
I dont know what I did wrong. Mine is like a brick 💔💔💔💔
At this moment it is rising (first rise). I followed your recipe to a tee but I had to add MORE flour so don’t know what the final product will be. I use unbleached flour though so don’t know if that makes a difference or not.
This bread came out so good even with all the flour I had to use.Do you think I should less water? It seemed like to much.
Hi Ellie, So glad you enjoyed it! As long as the consistency was correct, I wouldn’t change the water. There are so many variables affecting how much flour you’ll need – temperature, humidity level in your house, etc. I seem to always need to add more in the summer and less in the winter. I would leave the water amount as-is and adjust the flour on a case-by-case basis to get the dough to the correct consistency each time.
I made this recipe and it still came out dense :(
I don’t have any comment but I would like to know what if I use vegetable oil in the place of butter
I’ve never tried to use vegetable oil; you definitely won’t get that buttery flavor that is present in the bread, but otherwise I’m not sure how the texture might be affected.
I’ve made this bread two times and about to make the third. My whole family loooovvees 💟💟this bread!!!!!!!! 🍞🍞🍞So fluffy!!! and so soft! Thanks for sharing this recipe!
I have baked bread all my life (raised on a farm) this is by far the easiest recipe and one of the most tasty! When I make it I divide the dough and make cinnamon rolls for the next morning! Awesome recipe! As a matter of fact my dough is rising at this moment.Hope everyone enjoys it as much as I do!
That’s such an amazing compliment, thanks so much for sharing your feedback Kevin! So thrilled that you’re enjoying the bread and love the tip on making cinnamon rolls with half of the dough!
Just made this now and it is the most INCREDIBLY delicious bread I think I’ve ever made!! I, too, have made lots of different recipes and had some favorites – but this blows them out of the park. Can’t recommend this one highly enough. Thanks for sharing this recipe! I will be making this a lot more! Just for the record, I actually halved it as just wanted to try one loaf first and it worked perfectly halved.
Hi Katrina, So happy to hear how much you love this bread!
I tried making this and by the time I added 7 cups of flour total, the dough just started crumbling and falling apart. Any ideas what might be hapoening there?
Hi Daniel, That’s really strange; are you sure you added all of the water? I could see if you’re in a dry environment, the dough might not need more flour, but for it to crumble and fall apart is very odd.
I absolutely love this recipe! My husband takes sandwiches for lunch every day and pouts if i is not this bread. Thank you, M
The sides and bottom were a little hard. What would cause that?
Hi Sarah, Hmmm did you use dark coated pans? If so, try reducing the oven temperature by 25 degrees.
Your recipes never disappoint!!! I had smaller size loaf pans so I actually made 3 loaves and they are delish! I couldn’t wait for them to warm so I cut into one warm and next thing I know half a loaf is gone! Love the density of the bread and the flavor is spot on.
This recipe is so perfect,no complaints whatsoever. Followed it,only tweaked it with some choc chips but still came out perfect
HI, my bread is rising in the pans and I have a question about the oven rack. You say on the lowest setting….can you clarify what this means. I’m worried that the bottom of the bread would burn if the rack is so close to the bottom burner and higher heat. I would normally place the pans on the rack in the middle of the over???
Hi Joanne, Yes, the rack should be on the lowest setting in the oven. I bake mine like this each and every time (and I’ve been making this bread every 2-3 weeks for almost 2 years) and I’ve never had it burn.
Oh my! I have unsuccessfully tried many bread recipes in the past. Never getting the results I was looking for. This is perfect. Just finished making one loaf (only had one pan the right size) and it is delicious. Cut it while still slightly warm, added butter and homemade apple butter! YUMMY! Perfect for our cold, drizzly day! Thanks so much for sharing this recipe. I just printed it to add to my recipe book that will be handed down to my daughter one day!
OMG!!! This bread is amazing and so easy to make. I’ve sliced up two…one for the freezer and one to eat now. Can’t wait to try more of your recipes.
This recipe is great – but it did give my KitchenAid mixer a hard time. I had smoke pluming out everywhere! Lucky for me the poor old girl recovered, and we were able to enjoy our bread with a clear conscience. Will be making in half batches in the future!
I tried this recipe twice. I want to give it the benefit of the doubt, especially because I love your other recipes. But… both times the dough doesn’t form into a ball, it’s a sticky mess, that doesn’t clear the sides of the mixer. It just spreads out and is a glob. What am I doing wrong? I didn’t put the entire amount of water this time.. help! 😫
Hi LC, You should definitely add enough flour so that it does clear the sides and forms a ball. I’ve never needed more flour, but all environments are different, and you may need to add more…
Recipe exactly, and it produced some delicious bread! Nothing beats homemade bread, I just wish I had more time to make my own.
I made this bread recipe and it turned out better than I ever could have imagined…Thank you!!!
I made this recipe but cut it in half. I brushed the bread with butter before baking. I used a loaf pan. After 25 minutes, it was done. The crust was cracked and hard as a rock. The bread tasted good but the crust made it not so enjoyable. The bread didn’t rise near as much as the Fleischmann’s Simply Bread mix in the box.
Besides making a huge batch of bread, it makes a wonderful loaf. Made 2 in Pullman loaf tins some cinnamon rolls and monkey bread. Didnt read the recipe before jumping in so didn’t realize it was 10cups of flours worth of bread. I’d probably half this and make 2 of my regular sized breads.
Have you tried to make this recipe into buns?
Hi Jayne, I haven’t, but others who have left reviews said that they have!
This bread is absolutely the most delicious bread I’ve made. I’m new to bread making and it was quick easy. Nd just out of this world delicious. No yeasty taste. Incredible. Thank you for this recipe.
bread just shouldn’t be this good lol. I don’t have a hand mixer so I did it by hand and I only made one loaf. also I used the active yeat instead of instant because that’s what I had on hand. followed the directions (for once in my life) and it turned out gorgeously delicious!! thanks for sharing, my kids are going to be very pleased when they wake 🙌🏼
I’m learning to deal with the mixing of water and flour everythime I bake bread.
I guess that when someone shares enthusiastically a recipe that has been done over and over and cones perfect and I try and cones up heavy in four I would most definitely blame myself for not being carefull when adding water or flour.
I used in this recipe original yeast and the recipe didn’t come great.
I’m afraid to try to do this recipe again because the water was to much for the 9 cups of flour and I put more flour but failed
Will this recipe work halved in a bread maker?
Hi Janet, You can definitely halve this; I’ve never used a bread maker, so I can’t say 100% for sure, but I think it should be okay.
Just wondering what flour do I use in the in the uk? Would it be plain flour or white bread flour thank you .
Hi Nikki, I would use plain flour.
I do not have mixer with hook attachments
so just keep stirring???
Hi Marilyn, Just mix in a bowl with a wooden spoon, then you can knead by hand; I’ve done it many times!
I found that 8 cups worked. Even the 8th cup was not all used :)
Can you substitute flour for gluten free flour..one to one ratio?
Hi Linda, I have never tried to use a gluten-free flour in this recipe, so I can’t say for sure. If you’ve done so in other recipes, I would use your same approach and see how it works!
Tried the recipe last night . just had to add a little extra flour. Consistency was good
WTH did I do wrong? Followed the directions. After 10 cups of flour dough was still sticky. Added another cup of flour kneading in myself cuz my kitchenaid was stuggling. Finally gave up and put in the greased bowl to rise. Why didn’t the dough come together?
Hi Penni, The amount of flour will absolutely vary based on a number of variables, including the temperature, humidity level, etc. There’s a big difference in the amount I use in the summer vs. the winter, even though we have central air and heat, as well as a humidity control. Always go by the feel of the dough and add enough to get the consistency correct, whether that means less or more.
I had to use a ton of extra flour too. I’m wondering if I accidentally used a little too much water? And two people measuring “one cup” of flour can end up with wildly different amounts of flour in their measuring cup, so one person’s 9 cups might be another’s 10.5. Hope you got some edible bread for your efforts!
I made this bread today, it was the best I’ve ever baked!!!Thank You for the recipe!
You’re welcome, Diane, so glad you loved it! Thanks for stopping back and sharing a review!
This bread is absolutely amazing! Thank you so much! It rose so high and baked up so light and fluffy and moist. I don’t think I’ve ever left a comment anywhere before, but I just had to say something about this recipe. It was very enjoyable to knead by hand. I used honey instead of sugar because I didn’t have any white sugar. Wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but it came out perfect! I let the yeast, honey and water get all bubbly before I added everything else, to be sure it was working properly. I ended up using 9.5 cups of flour. Since I have only one full sized bread pan I made one half the dough into a loaf in that pan, and the rest I alternated between two mini loaves and 8 buns. The one full sized loaf ended up enormous! And one of my mini loaves ended up the size of a regular loaf of bread, in height. Next time I think I’ll split it into three chunks because my full sized loaf turned out way too big. My husband, who has been wanting soft fluffy bread, LOVED this stuff! Big triumph there. This is going to be my #1 bread recipe! Thanks again!
Hi Rachelle, You are so welcome! Love hearing how you used up the dough, thank you for sharing! And thank you for taking the time to leave a review, it’s much appreciated!
Curious how wide your 9″ loaf pans are? I followed your recipe in my 9″ glass loaf pans and they rose up and really spilled over the sides, making a very awkward-shaped loaf! Yours are beautiful.
I think I’m going to need to find a recipe with 6-7 cups of flour to fit in my pans :) Tastes great though!
I just found the link you mentioned to the pans you have. Did you know their dimensions are listed as 10″ (by 5″ by 3″)?! So I think that’s why they over-rose in my 9″ pans. Seriously a lot of dough and yumminess :)
Hi Diana, Sorry for any confusion! Those are relatively new pans and I have made this recipe in older, standard 9″ pans before. Just make sure you let the second rise go until the dough is just barely over the rim of the pans, that should help to keep them contained when they rise and bake in the oven!
want to try this bread, looks so good. want to know if you have ever tried rye flour. i love rye bread. thanks barbara
Hi Barbara, I have tried making different versions of rye bread, but haven’t tried using rye flour in this particular bread. I think it could be good though! I might start with only swapping out 1/4 to 1/2 and see how it goes!
Omg delicious white bread!
Thank you, Elaine! And thanks so much for stopping back to share a review!
I read that this recipe can be cut in half. Do you have the recipe for one loaf? Thank you .
Hi Kelly, I do not have a separate recipe written; simply divide all of the ingredient amounts in half and you’ll be good to go!
The recipe is just amazing! Easy to follow and really yummy! I will of course, lessen or remove the sugar altogether, or perhaps add a bit more salt, as kids said it was a bit sweet. Thank you for such a wonderful recipe. I will definitely use this again and it fact, will start making loaves on weekends for freezing.
We have been trying to cut out sugar in most of my family’s diet, so if you do cut out the sugar, please let me know how it works. I don’t do more than just home-cooking, so I may be wrong, but I have read that the yeast uses the sugar to release the gas that causes the rising, I fear that this recipe wouldn’t yield as fluffy a bread without the sugar?
Hi. I trying this bread for the first time and i hope it will turn out as good as yours. Just wanted to ask at what temp shoul i bake it on 180c? My bread is in oven right now please reply.
Thanks alot
Are you asking if 180 degrees Celsius is correct? If so, that’s about 350 degrees F, while this bread needs to be baked at 400 degrees F, which is approximately 200 degrees C.
I made this last night (Feb. 27, 2018) It came out perfect! I cut the recipe in half. So fluffy and delish. Thank you for this recipe. I will defiantly be making this again.
Hi Kelly, I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for taking the time to stop back and share a review!
Absolutely fantastic recipe thank you for sharing…. 2nd time I going to make it, everyone loves this recipe. Just a quick question can I make the dough a night before I bake it?
Ahh good question, I’ve not tried that. If you do, you’ll need to put it in the refrigerator as it will rise too high and collapse otherwise.
I have tried many bread recipes before and this is by far the best, so much so that I’ve stopped searching. I use a traditional sized stand mixer and I can only get about 7 cups of flour before the dough begins to travel over the dough hook plate, so I end up scraping it out and kneading in the remaining flour by hand. I tried using bread flour and all-purpose flour and with about 8.5 cups of bread flour, I tend to get a fluffier top than with a similar amount of all-purpose flour. Anyway, I am a huge fan of this recipe!
Hi Chester, I’m so happy to hear how much you love the bread! Thanks for the taking the time to come back and write a review!
Hi Michelle,
We’ve been snowed in here in Ireland after the worst snow in 36years – and in all the panic in the lead up to the storm, all the stores ran out of bread!! So during our snow days I persuaded my husband to try out your recipe. (He’s the bread maker of the family / I’m the cake baker 😄)
Our girls loved the bread – I think they liked the sweetness – not like our bread in Ireland. The only thing was it didn’t rise up great, and was dense. Still delicious but not as tall and light looking as your pictures. Any ideas how this may happen?
Hi Amy, I’m so thrilled your family enjoyed the bread, and glad you stayed safe during the snow storm! As for not rising and being dense…. there could be a few reasons…
(1) Did you use instant yeast, and not active dry yeast?
(2) Was the yeast fresh? If expired, it can sometimes not rise as it should.
(3) Was the dough placed in a warm, draft-free area? If it was too cold, that may have kept it from rising appropriately.
I hope those suggestions help!
I halved the recipe and make it in my bread machine. Wet to dry, yeast on top. While it tasted fantastic, it looks strange with a sunken top and was very dense and moist inside, crispy on the outside.
I’ve never used a bread machine, so I’m not sure if that could have had an impact on the final outcome. I’m glad you enjoyed the flavor though!
This was my first time making a hands-on bread (only experience with no-knead) and my first time making sandwich bread – I was surprised by how easy this recipe was! I halved it, because we’re a household of two, and because I don’t have a stand mixer and wasn’t sure if my hands were up to the task of mixing and kneading so much dough. It turned out fluffy and rich, and it was super fun watching each rise. I may have given the dough some pep talks about how tall and beautiful it could be if it only put its mind to it.The only trouble I had was that it took longer than 35 minutes to bake through to 195. It was probably closer to 50 minutes, and as a result the top was a very dark golden brown while the sides came out a very pale yellow. Maybe it was my pan that was responsible for the light color of the sides? I used a Nordic Ware aluminum 1.5lb loaf pan. I have to clean my oven soon, so I’ll check to see if it’s calibrated properly as well, but usually everything I throw in there bakes in the given time.Also I forgot to brush the butter on before putting it in the oven, but realized halfway through and brushed it on then. Still worked!
Can you share the recipe for just one loaf?I am finding it difficult to half the ingredients .Especially the amount of water,yeast and flour.Thanks
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast (two 0.25-ounce packets)
1/3 cup + 1 1/3 cups warm water, divided
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1.5 teaspoons salt
1.5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature
4.5 cups all-purpose flour
1.5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, for brushing
A-Mazing!! My husband and I absolutely love this recipe. Not only is it simple but there is relatively little sugar and oil in the bread. It’s light, fluffy, and savory. 100% recommend this bread recipe to everyone!! Do you have any gluten-free bread recipes by chance?
Hi Alyx, So awesome to hear you have both been enjoying this! I don’t currently have any gluten-free bread recipes, though!
This is called Julia’s white sandwich bread,I have Made it loads of times
Looking forward to trying this recipe. Question: Why do you proof the instant yeast?
Hi Robyn, It’s an old recipe from someone’s grandma, so I think probably habit? ;-)
best bread recipe I have ever used
So awesome to hear that Courtney! Thanks for the review!
Had to throw half my ingredients when I realised this is actually for 2 loaves! Please change your title, it is very misleading since it says White Bread, implying 1 loaf. And it is very easy to miss the part where it says makes 2 loaves.
FINALLY A PERFECT NO FAIL BREAD RECIPE, MY BREAD CAME OUT PERFECT! Thank you so much for your PERFECT recipe its the only one I will ever use!!!!!
You’re welcome Dianne, I’m so happy you enjoyed the bread!
I love this recipe.My bread turned out light and fluffy and tastes sooooo good. thanks
You’re welcome, Arlene! So thrilled that you loved it!
I have been making bread for well over 50 years (literally, by hand) and this is a great recipe. In fact, I made one large loaf and divided the remaining dough for 1 small loaf and then some, what I call “free form” rolls. Only recipe change I made was to replace some of the water with milk and part of the sugar with some honey. I was surprised at how absolutely wonderful the loaf was and all other items. Am doing it again today. Oh, when I say “by hand”, that just means I have tried the bread machine thing and the mixer thing, but I guess since I have doing bread my self for so long, the whole process of mixing and touching the dough via kneading is cathartic to me and I love the hands on method for me.
What about making this bread in high altitudes. I’ve heard that your recipe needs to be altered. Can you give me some advice on this?
Hi Mitchell, I’ve never baked at high altitude, but here are some general tips that might help! https://www.browneyedbaker.com/high-altitude-baking-tips/
I live at a high altitude and didn’t adjust it at all. It turned out just fine.
Hi. I’ve made this bread about a dozen times now! My husband adores it and so does the friends I’ve made it for. Beautiful tall loaves. Thank you for sharing this recipe!!
I love this recipe! I always make 2 regular loaves and 2 cinnamon ones! Makes for a happy family!
This bread is amazing , I just made two and the first one is almost gone. So glad I found your recipe.
This recipe was my first attempt at making home made bread. It turned out amazing. I halved the loave size because in my opinion bread needs to be able to fit in a toaster.
Brown eyed baker….you have never steered me wrong! I have been looking for the best cinnamon ri roll and bread recipes for a lot of years and every time I make yours they turn out beautiful! Thanks for posting your passion!! It works!
YUMMY! My kids and I love this recipe! I bake this bread on Saturday. We have this bread on Sunday with some yummy nutella, jam, or butter. My kids take this to school with them. YUMMMMMMM………
Hello ia have a 12 by 5 inch loaf pan can i but the half of the dough in it??
Hi Nina, 12×5 is pretty large, so you could do a half batch in there, but the loaf won’t bake up as high as you see in my photos.
Ive made bread from a lot of recipes, some good and some went to trash but this one is fool proof. Perfect huge loaves every time.
I wonder if it is enough to make 3 normal sized loaves…trying that today.
This bread is amazing! We just sliced it and it is everything you said. Light, fluffy, tall, and the taste is so good. I have been making a different recipe, but is was dense and not what I wanted. This is as soft as you would get from a bakery with a beautiful crust. It is perfect for any kind of sandwich. Thank you so much for this awesome recipe. I was worried about the amount of flour when I first saw it, but after making it I will never make anything else. I don’t have a stand mixer and it was still easy by hand. I would recommend this to anyone and everyone.
Too sweet for this Aussie palet. Followed the instructions almost to a T with this one (substituted 2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil for the butter). The loaf worked out really well. Nice rise and crust. Excellent texture when cut. However, the taste profile is way too sweet. Most bread in Australia has little added sugar so this tasted strange. I will play with the recipe and see if I can adjust is to taste without compromising on the other features. Will let you know how I go.
It’s just delicious, my husband and I both agree. It really does rise wonderfully and it has the lightness of bought white loaves but so much better flavour and texture. Thank you brown Eyed Baker!
Finally! Finally I made real bread! Real bread that tasted great and looked even better! I am amazed that I really did it and I thank you for the recipe. This might have been my last attempt if it failed. No…I would have still wasted my time and my flour! Thanks again for saving me and returning my faith in recipes! Haha
P.S. I would have taken a picture but I only made one loaf (no faith!) and it was only half a loaf before I could get a photo.
You either left out words or incorrectly put a word in so it’s a little confusing when you talk about tucking in the bread. You say … Pinch to seal the seams and the ends, tuck the ends of the roll until the bread, Until the bread what? Into the bread? Just thought I’d let you know.
I just cut a slice to try it and it is soooo good! I never make bread and wanted to try some this weekend. I am so proud of myself. It’s so yummy. The crust is actually a little chewy. Thank you so much! This recipe is going in my cupboard and I will make it often, that’s for sure!
This is wonderful …..I halfed recipe and the one loaf is huge next time I will put in 2 pans the taste is fantastic…..I will make this again and again
I just recently dove into the world of breadmaking, and while I have my sights set on sourdough (my “mother dough” is currently developing on top of my fridge!) I had to scratch the itch so I sought out a yeast-based recipe and ended up here! I don’t own any loaf pans yet so decided to try out a technique I read that it used to shape loaves without a loaf pan and I think it turned out wonderfully! The method is to shape the loaves on your greased or lined baking sheet and tuck the sides in a bit, after the final rise, giving the top some surface tension without letting it crack.I’m no stranger to working with dough, having made cinnamon rolls and dinner rolls for the holidays over the years, so I wasn’t all that surprised when I ended up using 11 cups of flour for this. The trick really is to just keep adding flour until the dough stops sticking to the sides of the bowl, or if you are kneading by hand, to keep adding until it stops sticking to your hands; “tacky but not sticky” really is how it should be. Another “pro-tip” I have is to use your oven with just the light turned on as the place to let it rise, the light makes it just a little bit warm, and as it is a draft-less place, it’s the perfect place to let your dough rise!I really love how it turned out! I’ll definitely be using this recipe from now on! Here is a picture of my final product, proof that you can totally make this if you don’t have the bigger loaf pans (or, like me, any loaf pans at all!) https://imgur.com/gallery/agfi4
Hi Caleb, Thanks so much for sharing your review and photo! The loaves are gorgeous and so helpful to let others know you can make it without pans!!
Hello from France.
Thanks a lot for this recipe. I made an half batch three hours ago (it was complicated as I had to translate ounce into grammes, cup into centiliters and divide by two after but Google is my best friend in those cases ;)
All of it is already gone, my chidren and wife loved it, even without any butter on it.
We love our french bread but love other bread too ! I’ll keep this recipe in my favourites book. Cheers !
Hi Michelle,
I hope you’re well. If I want to make one loaf instead of two, is it as simple as halving all the ingredients? Thank you.
Hi Sherina, Yes, that’s all you need to do! Enjoy! :)
Absolutely delicious! I used coconut oil instead of butter, and it turned out delicious (no coconut flavor detected). I’ll be using this recipe from now on. I love it!
I wanted to add: I halved the recipe; used honey; and I used my hands to mix the dough with 4c flour, then eventually added 1/4c more.
I had halved this recipe and it is by far the best tasting bread I’ve made thus far. The instruction for “soft and tacky, but not sticky” is key here and I think that was my failure point with my other breads. I most definitely will be doubling the recipe as it didn’t last long. lol Thanks!
This may be the best bread I have ever made..and I have made many recipes. I followed the instructions exactly only did all the mixing and kneading by hand(not hard). I used original fleishemanns yeast and it rose very fast..45 minutes! I made 2 loaves of bread, one loaf of cinnamon-raisin, pie pan of 6 Cinnamon rolls and had enough for 10 fried breads for “breakfast dinner”. I will be making this recipe again, and I recommend it for others😊
made two loafs of this bread according to the insstructions.
it gets dry in one day. what am I doing wrong and not having
luck keeping it smooth and soft?
Hi Tom, Oh no! I would make sure you’re not adding too much flour; I know for me I need to use vastly different amounts depending on the time of the year, so go by feel and only use as much as you need to reach the correct dough consistency. I hope that helps! Also make sure you’re storing it completely airtight and I would recommend only slicing as you go… if you slice the whole loaf at once it will get drier faster.
I have made alot of bread in my life.. but I have to say this is the best recipe I have ever made. I habe used it a few times and it never fails! I also use it to make buns and cinnamon buns. I did agree the flour is too much. I use 7 cups and its perfect..thank you for this recipe. Barb
Great recipe, my goto for white bread. While it IS possible to 1/2 the recipe, I have had better success making it as written. It works out to 1 pullman loaf and 1 regular, though my next batch may be a pulman and either hamburger or sub rolls
Looks really great! I need a substitute for butter because I do not eat dairy in any form. What can I use in the place of butter?
Thanks.
Hi Lilian, I think shortening should work in the bread, or if you have a non-dairy butter substitute you regularly use.
Perfection!!! I have been trying for YEARS to make fluffy sandwich bread. This recipe is perfection!!! I used Arthur’s bread flour and instant yeast (still activated it per first step) it is Fluffy, moist and not dense at all!! The flavor is perfection, too! Most recipes don’t have much flavor. This one is brilliant!
Amazing receipe. I made just 1 loaf and it came out perfectly. Very soft and delicious. I could not get the brown on the sides. This is the first time I am baking bread. I found the receipe very easy to follow.
Great recipe…thank you!!! I made it with all purpose flour the first time and bread flour the second. WOW! The switch to bread flour made an incredible difference. Thank you again! We finally found our go to recipe for white loaf bread.
I’m a dedicated sourdough baker, but if there is a yeast bread worth making it’s this one! I make all my own bread from scratch – loaves, buns, rolls – but when I don’t have time for a 24 hour rise, this is my go-to! I knead everything by hand, and the recipe comes together fairly quick. I did half sugar half maple syrup (I always put a little honey or maple syrup in my sourdough breads and it gives it an awesome extra fluff!). I used 1/3 less water, set aside in case I needed it, and 7 cups of flour. The dough was warm, pliable, and a dream to knead. The dough is so large right now, I might do 2 smaller loaves and a batch of rolls. I love getting so much bread out of one batch, and it’s so time efficient! Can’t wait to eat these for lunch!
this was fabulous! only used 8 cups of flour, but the active dry yeast didn’t take longer to rise for me, i guess that’s just me though… otherwise it was great!
Thank you, I just loved this recipe. Your rolling technique is so similar to the asian “milk roll” recipes that I have been experimenting with lately. So I took your recipe one step further and punched out the dough into a rectangle 6X folding it in thirds each time. When it got too tough to work with, I let it rest for 10 min. then resumed. I made mine into 4 smaller loaves, that actually were still “large” loaves. This was really soft chewy bread, reminds me of “japanese” bread.
I don’t know if my technique was worth the effort, because I didn’t exactly follow your technique.
I also added the butter last, after letting the mixer knead the dough for about 5 minutes. I read that this allows the glutens to break down before adding the “fats”. Most asian recipes do it this way.
I think you should try this proceedure and let me know if it is worth the variance in technique. Since you would know the difference in texture.
thank you
Deanna
Hi Deanna, Thanks for sharing! I actually did make milk bread recently and LOVED it! https://www.browneyedbaker.com/milk-bread-recipe/
Hi and thanks much for this recipe. If was truly easy to make and fun. Although I saw your pics and mine was a little shorter and more chewy and a little crumbly inside what did I do wrong?
Thanks.
Hi Javanna, It might have been a little shorter if it didn’t rise as much (cooler or less humid environment, etc.), as for the texture, I’m not exactly sure without actually tasting it. I hope that helps!
If I have margarine instead of butter should I cut the salt amount and if so by how much
Hi Shari, I would probably just cut in half, enjoy!
This recipe really seems outstanding, but it has been my experience that using bread flour gives a springier result. Regular flour gives the crumb a slightly granular texture. Good, but not superb!
I want to make this by your recipe, since it sounds exceptionally good. And I’m no beginner. I can evaluate recipes often before trying them, and this one is impressive. I’d like to follow it exactly, but with bread flour.
You might want to tell people that they don’t HAVE to make bread from this mixture. I’m planning to make one loaf of bread and a yeast-based fresh raspberry coffeecake with a 10x sugar glaze. Another use for that extra half of the dough is to make dinner rolls, and freeze the dough in separate balls for easy use some other day. I have some small brioche pans that make the resulting dinner rolls look yummy. I form the dough, usually into 3 balls per roll – freeze them separately, then put enough frozen rolls into a plastic freezer bag. If pre-frozen they won’t stick much. Then you’re ready on a busy day to put 3 balls in each greased muffin tin, wait till they rise and bake.
I love a recipe that lets me make two different things out of one mixture. I’d bet you could make good bubble bread (tear-apart) in many varieties, using this dough. Sometimes I take bread dough into a olive oil-greased large baking pan, let it rise, then spread olive oil generously on top, poking fingers to make indentations to hold the oil. While it rises, I slice onion into paper thin slices (use a LOT), cut them in half (at least), then mix them with garlic, pepper, salt, olive oil and oregano. Spread the risen dough with the mixture and bake – a delicious onion bread. I think it’s called Focaccio.
For something sweet, like my fresh raspberry coffeecake, the bread dough isn’t sweet enough, but you can sweeten the berry mixture and, of course, the glaze adds enough more. Another coffeecake I love to use with the extra bread dough is a pecan coffeecake, similar to Sara Lee’s. I cut the dough into two or three cables, roll them firmly, then coat the cables with soft butter, and roll them around in a mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon. Lay them in a spiral in the greased cake pan and let rise. Pecans, lightly toasted in oil go into crevices. Bake it then mix a 10x sugar glaze to drizzle on top after cooling.
So my question is: CAN I use bread flour in this recipe? Are there any adjustments which would then be necessary?
Hi Holly, Thanks for sharing all of the suggestions for the bread dough! You can use bread flour, the texture will just be altered a bit. Enjoy!
I have tried this recipe and I love it. Can I substitute the butter for liquid fat ( oil) ? If so, how much?
Also when I tried my second loaves with oil I found the bread sought of went out of shape. Could this be due to using oil instead of butter ?
Hi Shingai, I haven’t tried using oil in this recipe, so I can’t say for sure, but if you’ve noticed a definite difference and that’s the only change you made, that could definitely be it.
I’m making this recipe right now. It took 3 tries to get the yeast right but it’s really not rising much. I tried active dry yeast, then instant. I used a calibrated thermometer to check the water temp as well. Any tips on yeast and rising?
Hi Ronessa, I definitely recommend the instant yeast, and if it’s fresh yeast and it’s not rising much, I would try moving it to a warmer area, or turning on your oven for a few minutes, then turning it off and putting the dough in there.
The main ingredients call for 9-10 cups. BUT then you say 5 cups in your directions. Did you mean 9-10 cups of flour? I couldn’t find where you added the remaining 3-4 cups of flour
Hi Sandi, In step two it states to “add the remaining flour…” Enjoy the bread!
Hi,
Your recipe looks perfect. But I was not sure while baking bread has both the top n bottom heating rods needs to be turned on or only the bottom. Also is there a need to turn the fan on in the oven.
Thanks and Regards.
Hi Seema, I’ve never heard of an oven that needs to have multiple heating elements turned on, so I’m honestly not sure. And if by fan you mean convection? I baked these in a conventional oven, so no fan was used.
Thanks for your white bread recipe! Your fantastic pictures make me think of how good a sandwich would be with some slices of that bread or maybe some toast, on second thought, definitely both! thanks for the inspiration!
Have made this recipe twice. Both times it came out absolutely beautiful and delicious. Will now be my go to recipe for homemade white bread. Thankyou so much for sharing the recipe!
You’re welcome Jane, I’m so thrilled that you’ve enjoyed it! Thanks for taking the time to stop back and leave a review, it’s much appreciated :)