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.
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 (p.s. these are my very favorite loaf pans!). 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.
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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
Watch How to Make My Favorite White Bread Recipe!
My Favorite White Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 4½ teaspoons instant yeast, two 0.25-ounce packets
- ¾ cup + 2⅔ cups warm water, divided
- ¼ cup (52 g) granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 3 tablespoons (43 g) unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature
- 9 to 10 cups (1200 g) all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons (43 g) unsalted butter, melted, for brushing
Instructions
- In the bowl of a mixer, stir to dissolve the yeast in ¾ cup (180ml) of the warm water, and let sit for 5 minutes. Add the remaining 2⅔ cups (640ml) 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 9x12-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.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
I’ve never made such a beautiful, great tasting loaf of bread! This recipe is perfect! I did have to use a little bit of olive oil for the butter since I ran out of butter. Used a regular yeast and a rapid rise. I’m excited to have such a great recipe for bread now! Never buying bread from the store again.
I’m so thrilled to hear it, Amy! Thanks so much for taking the time to stop back and share a review, it’s much appreciated!
just tried this recipe and the results were quite good. Only change I made was to add a bit of light brown sugar to the melted butter for the final coating. Well done and thank :)
Ooooh I bet the brown sugar with the butter was delicious!
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 :)
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!
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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!
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!
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/
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!
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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
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
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.
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😊
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!
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.
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! :)
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 !
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!!
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 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!
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.