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.
Save This Recipe
Enter your email address, and we'll send it straight to your inbox!
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!
Making my second batch of this bread! My husband doesn’t want to buy bread anymore, he loves this one so much!
So easy and it comes out looking like I bought it at a bakery! Thank you!
Looks great. FYI, the recipe adjustment is incorrect. If you set it to half (10 servings) the water does not adjust properly. In fact, it ends up being more water than flour.
Thank you for posting this I thought I was actually going crazy with how wet my halved dough was, I had to add so much flour for it to balance out, it’s proofing right now and I have no idea how it’s going to taste. =/
It turned out perfect! So tasty!!!! It’s a keeper. One of my friends already wants to buy a loaf from me next time.
This is an absolute favourite in our house! We don’t purchase bread anymore. One question… Would it be possible to substitute whole wheat flour instead of all purpose?
can i triple this recipe to make 6 loaves at a time?
This was a very good recipe-maybe today was a day to bake! Anyways it tastes good, but the real deal is that I can slice it without mushing the whole loaf! Always seems to be a problem. This bread stood up to the knife and was moist and just terrific!
Turn the loaf on its side to slice
..less likely to smush.
Great recipe but it would more effective if everything was in weight rather than cups and spoons.
Wow, Michelle- Brown Eyed Baker, this is a magnificent recipe!🍞 I did use 6 cups of flour in step 1. And a little bit more in step 4. Was worried that this extra cup of flour would mess the recipe up. My bread wouldn’t rise or end up looking like yours. Wrong! All turned picture perfect. Will definitely make this recipe again and again! Thank you so much. Will be throwing away all my other bread recipes. 😊
Tastes great and easy to slice! Love this everyday bread!
Best white bread I have EVER made. Turned out perfectly!
2nd review, this is just about the most fool proof perfect recipe. Every single time, the wow factor when the beautiful loaf comes out of the oven. I have made it 3 times now, and a part of me wants to try and experiment with different recipes, but I love this so much that I end up making this instead. Delicious soft bread, that easily lasts a week if kept covered, without any change in texture. Thank you so much!
Lisa
Made this yesterday. “For the love of cheese and crackers” this was so good! I’ve never made bread before and it was easy and so so good. Since it very cheep to make, this will be are sandwich bread from now on. No more store bought bread for my family. Thank you for the recipe.
This has become our go-to recipe! I replaced the 1/4 c granulated sugar with 1/3 c honey. It gives it a bit more flavor. And I put a pan of hot water in the oven with the bread. I find the steam makes it a bit fluffier and softer. My only gripe is that I can never seem to get the bottom to brown all the way. And that’s less likely to be a problem with the recipe than it is with my pans. I tried baking it a bit longer but it didn’t really help much. I’ll have to fiddle with it, I guess.
But other than that, it’s perfect. Better than storebought! :)
If you have a pizza stone, preheat the pizza stone in the oven while your bread is rising. This method will give a crisp bottom crust as well as shorten the baking time (slightly). Also during the rising process I use a shower cap over the pan “poofing” the top above the dough (also reusable) and place in my microwave with ONLY the lights turned on (not microwaving the dough but proofing it by the heat produced in the oven by the exterior lights).
Works perfectly for proofing. If your microwave doesn’t have outside lights you can use a heating pad turned on low to accomplish the same thing. Hope I’ve hellped.
This bread is absolutely delicious. A few notes: I halved the recipe as I only have one loaf pan, and the loaf was ENORMOUS. If you’re making one loaf, I’d recommend thirding the recipe instead of halving it because it ends up pretty huge for sandwich making! I was really grateful Michelle provided the temperature to bake the bread to, because it took over 50 minutes for this beast to cook all the way through. I made sure I took the temperature at a few different depths to make sure it was fully cooked. Next time I make this bread, I’m going to try to third the recipe and use the metric instructions Aaron provided in the comments. But I will make it again, because it really is tasty!! Super moist, nice crust, great crumb (be sure to let it cool completely before cutting in if you can resist!!).
AMAZING!!! If anyone gives this less than 5 stars it’s clearly on their end.
Thanks for the recipe
I baked 2 breads today and it came out fantastic just like you described it
this will be my no 1 bread as from today
I have made this bread every week since Covid outbreak. What I like is to use leftover potato water from boiled potatoes as the water. It seems to make the bread even more moist! Also, because the loaves are SO tall, I cut them in half, and freeze them and we take out half a loaf at a time for the two of us. I have learned that it is hard to cut a straight slice with the bread being so high so I take half the loaf, cut it down the middle, and then slice them into half slices. This works really well. I usually only use about 8 81/2 cups of flour, and find that is plenty. I am going to try adding some whole wheat flour to my next batch and see how that goes. Love this recipe, and all my friends do too.
I love this bread. It’s so easy to make and turns out perfect every time. I don’t use a mixer, just do by hand. Have made rolls from it as well.they look and taste as if I bought from bakery.
Great Recipe! super easy also!
Thank you for the recipe, I made half the recipe to make just 1 loaf., it came out beautifully, but I see that it is not as soft on the next day as it was on the day I baked it. Any reason why that is. Also if I had to knead this by hand, how long should I knead it for. Thanks
Usually takes about 25 to 30 minutes to hand knead bread.
After I put these on my cooling rack, I went to the living room to relax. I then heard my adult) daughter in the kitchen. “Ow! It’s hot! Ow! Ow! Ow! Hot!” Then I heard my son (also an adult) say, “well it DID just come out of a 400 degree oven. Do you remember what a hot pad is for?” I giggled. Thank goodness natural selection skipped over my family! Sooooo good it worth burning your hands for! Hahaha!😂
awesome recipe. I am new to baking bread at home. what I noticed is that the bread became very dry after a couple of days. is there a way to keep it soft. I t was soft the day I baked and a couple of days after that.
My bread (I did a half recipe) came out with a hard crust and I’m not sure what to do about that. The inside was nice and soft but it separated where it was rolled. In other words, my slices have a spiral cut through them. I ended up using a little less than 4.5 cups of flour and i wonder if that was too much? If the dough had been a little bit stickier maybe it would have baked through with the layers adhering. Or maybe there was too much flour on my countertop when I rolled it up? I really wanted to get this right!
You don’t need to use flour on your counter. Your dough should be tacky, but not wet. Oll your dough tight and seal the seam. Put seam side down.
Hi there,
I would love to make this bread. It looks amazing! I was just wondering though if you knew how big these 9 inch bread tins are in lbs? Describing them as 9 inches doesn’t really give me enough information to go on. I’m from the uk, so not sure if there’s a difference in what measurements are used? Also, the link For the bread tins doesn’t work for my country. If you’re unable to let me know what lbs the bread tins are, would you be able to give me all dimensions of the bread tins used so there’s some context…..length, width and depth.
Thank you for your time, from Laura.
I believe they are 1 1/2 lbs
My bread pans are 23cm X 12.5cm X 6cm. Qs a note of interest on the second rise I only let my bread rise 22 minutes in the pan then the loaves do not get “too big”.
Can I use regular yeast, not instant yeast?
I have attempted to make bread for years and failed for one reason or another. I have tried many recipes, but this one tops them all. It is the BEST bread I’ve ever made and I swear it gets better every time I make it. My family loves it. Thanks for giving us this recipe.
I made this bread it turned out so good but the crust was so hard why is thst????
I’d like to make a few unbaked loaves to freeze. Any recommendations??
Hi , I freeze bread a lot. Just do not let it rise the second time. Freeze at that point. Then when thawing it can rise at that time.
These loaves are ginormous ! I had to take the dough out of my KitchenAid because it’s too small as the dough was creeping above the dough hook and into the motor. So I kneaded it by hand for 10 minutes and then followed the recipe as is the rest of the way. I pressed the loaves and put them in the pans and when they rose so quickly I knew they were going to rise even more in the oven. Some bread recipes only use one packet of yeast ( for 2 loaves) and I think if I were to try this again, I would use only one packet of instant yeast. I have not read any other reviews but before I try this recipe again I will be sure to do that in case there are some troubleshooting tips. The only good thing I did do on my own was I scored the tops of the bread so that they would not fall to one side or another. It’s still in the oven so I’m looking forward to trying it later.
Can I use milk instead of water?
Okay, I’m pretty sure that’s the ultimate way to make bread at home!