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!
Found this recipe today and gave it a try! It was super delicious and will be my go to bread recipe going forward!
Can I use milk instead of water?
Yes, I think that would be fine.
I have been looking at this recipe for a while and since I had time I decided to make it. I am really glad I did! The loaf looks beautiful and the crumb is great. You can even see the spiral on the ends where the loaf is tightly rolled. We had some for breakfast this morning and it was truly delicious. Thanks for another great recipe.
My mother loved wheat bread, so that was the recipe she made when I grew up and didn’t like bread. Thus, I have been on a search for the bread recipe of my dreams for most of my adult life. THIS IS IT. I have been making this throughout the pandemic and giving away loaves of bread to neighbors, because, for me, this recipe makes three big loaves with nine cups of flour. It’s been good to be of some service to people while we can’t get near anyone, and I’m SO grateful for this recipe! THANK YOU, Brown Eyes!!
I was looking for a lighter bread ,came upon this recipe. First time I made it it came out beautifully. So yummy. With four adults in the house this won’ t last long. I just started makin g bread. This will be a keeper for sure!,
Awesome bread recipe. The loaves are fluffy and high. Best bread recipe I know, except for my mother’s.
Soybean oil is added to bread recipes as both a preservative and as a bread emulsifier. Essentially, that soybean oil is what makes your bread light and fluffy. Without some form of preservative and emulsifier, be it lecithin (in this case soybean oil) but also comes from sunflower as well, asorbic acid (vitamin C), added vital wheat gluten, or vinegar your bread is going to be dense and have a short shelf life. It will be wonderful when it first comes out of the oven but quickly become dense, dry, and crumbly. I recommend looking into some of these other preservative/emulsifiers to add to your recipe. A great recipe can turn into an amazing one.
I just made this, and it’s one of the best loaves of bread I’ve ever made. Wonderful recipe, video, and instructions. This is why I turn to your website for recipes more than pretty much any other online! Thanks for sharing. I will be making this regularly to stash in the freezer.
Best bread receipe ever…very impressed. Used smaller bread pans i.e. 8 x 4 size and cut back on amount of dough per bread pan. Used extra dough for 6 beautiful cinammon buns. Next time will make 3rd loaf a cheese bread! Like the crispy crust. Found though that my oven smoked a bit due to butter on the crust.
This is the easiest to make, best tasting white bread in the world. I’ve made it twice in the last three weeks. The second time I halved the recipe and used smaller bread pans. It’s fool proof. I’ve made chocolate babka, hamburger buns, crumpets, tortillas, pizza dough and this is by far the easiest of them all. I’m giving this as a Christmas present This year instead of the normal spiced zucchini or ginger bread loaf. Nothing is more comforting than a piece of jammy toast.
Oh my gosh. This is THEE best bread recipe ever. No joking!!
Your ingredients are wrong. 10 cups of flour is wrong
I thought 10 cups sounded like a LOT of flour. I made a loaf of bread today….similar recipe except less water, and used oil instead of butter. and I only used 3-1/4 C flour.
They are not wrong, it says 9 to 10 cups and it does note that you may not need all of it. In the summer I use more flour than in the winter.
I’ve tried to make bread many times and I always produced bricks. With this recipe I got deliciously light and beautiful loaves. My wife could not stop eating it! I did make one substitute by using 12oz of beer to try to ensure a good rise. No more store bought bread for me😋
Because I live in humid Florida I use 50 g less water in bread recipes. This adjustment worked perfectly so I only needed less than 9 cups of flour. The dough rose beautifully. I almost thought it would explode from my loaf pan. Thank you for this recipe. Would you consider adding gram measurements next to the Cup measurements in parenthesis? This would make it so much easier for those who like to weigh their ingredients.
Hi Val, I am working on getting the weights inline in one place, but if you click the link below the ingredients that says “metric” you will find the gram measurements there. Hope that helps!
Third time I’ve made this bread. I half the recipe as there are only two of us . For those tempted to add more flour, don’t. Sticky dough get so much taller! Sandwiches, toast, French toast, grilled cheese. This week we’re going to try a thick slice of garlic toast next to our St Louis style salad! This is our favorite quarantine guilty pleasure.
I am so happy I found this recipe! I make this all the time – so easy and my family loves it! I usually half the recipe and I often make rolls instead! Thanks!!
Like others, I ended up having to add significantly more flour than the recipe called for. The loaves are currently in their second proof/rest and are doing fine, so I’m not worried about them being properly. However, I am not happy about using 14-ish cups of flour for two loaves of bread. Yes, this recipe works and I’m sure it tastes fine, but I may use a different recipe next time because May 2020 is not the time to be using nearly a whole 5 lb bag of flour in two loaves of bread.
Wow! I only had to use 9 cups. I wonder why you had to use so much??
It may be because I live in the south, so it’s super humid here all the time. The bread was fine overall, but it was too sour for my taste and super heavy (likely due to the amount of flour). They looked beautiful, and my husband liked them, but I’ll go with a different recipe next time.
Just add LESS water. It’s an altitude issue. I live in the mountains in Tennessee. I used 9 cups of flour and all the water called for in the recipe, but I also “felt” my dough as I went. Remember, the recipe calls for the dough to be tacky but not sticky. Add only as much water as needed to provide you with the tacky dough using the flour amounts that you prefer (I imagine in Florida you could get away with 8-9 cups of flour). I lived in South Florida for 17+ years, so I have experience baking in the different altitudes. You are basically at sea level in Florida, so just adjust the liquid in your recipes to allow for that adjustment :)
Instructions and ingredients don’t mention oil; but it is in video and article …guess I should have read and viewed that first but you might want to update recipe and instructions to include
The video does not mention oil. It does show butter being added, which is also mentioned in the recipe.
There’s no oil in the recipe or the video. Only 3 Tablespoons of room temperature butter. ???
Hi Michael, There is not any oil in the recipe or in the video?
There is no oil in the video, there is melted butter. You must be talking about some other video.
Excellent bread, thank you for the recipe,
The video has oil but neither the ingredients nor instructions mentioned oil?
Excellent recipe!! I am new to making bread from scratch. Since I tried the basic recipe and it turned out so well, I decided to make cinnamon raisin and five seed bread loaves. As my kitchen Aid mixer is not large enough to handle the full recipe, I simply halve it. So far, everything has turned out great! Thank you for making it so easy!
Awesome
I’ve been making this same recipe for decades since I first found it as a new bride back in the 70s in the Betty Crocker Cookbook I had received as a shower gift (only difference is that one uses shortening where yours uses butter in the loaves.) It really IS the best!
But you did it one better… The original recipe calls for removing the loaves from the pan as soon as they come out of the oven. I left it in the pans for the 10 minutes that you do. What a world of difference! Gone was the crispy crust, replaced with a soft, chewy one. That, to me, made a completely different bread! My husband can’t get enough.
A trick I learned over the years to have it freshly baked whenever you want it: You can par-bake the loaves for 22 minutes. Cool completely, then wrap and freeze. When you want the bread, remove from the freezer, brush with butter, and finish baking in a preheated oven for 14-15 minutes, until golden. Follow the directions as written at this point.
Should have added that when you remove the loaf from the freezer, put it back into a loaf pan to finish baking. When done, leave it in the pan for 10 minutes before turning the loaf out of the pan to cool.
Thank you for this extra tip on par-baking!
I tried a recipe very similar to this one yesterday and my loaves came out very good. My recipe is the good old fashioned Jamaican hard dough bread. One would say it’s the straight dough method using butter and not milk.
My family loves the bread because it’s soft and nice. However, I didn’t use as much flour and I got 2 loaves of bread per double batch. For a double batch (2 loaves)I used 7cups flour to 8 tbsp or 1 stick butter, 3 tsp yeast, 2 cups plus water, 4 tbsp sugar, 3 tsp salt. I used my hand 1st to bring the dough together before tossing it in the mixer. I used my hands for the finishing touch. I let it sit in the bowl for 1 hr to rise and after rolling the dough into 2 loaves and placing it in the pans I let them sit for another hour. I baked the bread at 350 degrees for 30 mins or so.
Trust me, the best bread ever.
Oh my! I’m a pretty experienced bread baker and I have to say this may be the best white bread I’ve ever made! I didnt change or modify a thing and it came out perfect albeit VERY tall! Great flavor, perfect soft texture! I suspect the dough might also work very well for cinnamon rolls. Next time I may make cinnamon raisin bread or some other flavor variation. But fyi it is truly amazing as is!
I tried this recipe with some modifications. I used 5 cups of all-purpose flour with 4 cups of whole wheat flour. The bread came out very well. It was a little dense but the air bubbles were all uniform without any large pockets. Excellent recipe. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Sugar feeds the yeast, helps in browning, and flavor as well as tenderizing…I would not cut it back….
I make all our bread and I’ve NEVER seen a recipe for only two loaves use that much flour. 5-6 cups flour is the norm for 2 loaves of bread. So why so much flour? It seems extremely excessive and with your amount of flour one could easily get at least 4 loaves out of this recipe.
I just don’t get it.
Hi Janis, This recipes makes two very large loaves of bread. Some folks split it into three loaves!
Do u need to put so much sugar?
Thanks for this… I baked it with the Tang Zhong method, which usually means increasing the liquid somewhat.
I found I didn’t have to, though, which makes me suspect that for some types of flour and in humid conditions, this could, indeed be too much moisture.
Some recipes require a high moisture dough, though.
Some wheat flours retain more moisture naturally, and others are very much affected by environment and storage.
Nobody has done anything wrong, you just need to go cautiously and adapt to your local conditions.
I liked that it was a very frugal loaf with minimum ingredients. Turned out well.
Wow. .. Best recipe….love it!!!! make often… always turns out great And yummy……Thanks for sharing
This is a great recipe! I encourage you, if it didn’t work out the first time – try again! This recipe has its rating for a reason, so persevere and you will be grateful for the results. I certainly was! I would recommend using the advised instant yeast, having tried it also with active dry, and this also works perfectly kneading by hand, adding a couple of minutes to the stand mixer kneading time. Thanks so much!