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!
Any body trying to bake this recipe or make any bread, you really need to use high protein bread flour you will just not get the correct crumb texture or desired result from all purpose flour.
thank you for the recipe, will do this at my kitchen!
Hi. Your recipe calls for salt. What type of salt? Table salt, Morton kosher, Diamond Crystal? The size of the salt crystals makes a difference. Thanks for your help!
You want it to integrate fully intothe dough. I normally use table salt but fine sea salt works as well.
I use Diamond Crystal and measure with slightly heaping measuring spoons full since it is coarser than table salt.
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Thank u so much for sharing this great bread recipe, its awesome!!!!! You are the best!
This is amazing. I use it all the time. My kids have eaten this bread for over a year. I’ve tried many recipes. I love this one. Thank you for sharing!
I’m in my 60’s and have baked bread my whole life. This is the simplest and best white bread ever. Follow her directions to the letter. Let the bread cool completely. I cut my bread with an electric knife. Yep, you heard it. The same electric knife people carve a Turkey with. Makes perfect slices. Such a breeze to cut. Just make sure your bread is cooled completely. I’ve been making this recipe for a couple years now. Always perfect.
I’ve baked a lot of bread over the past 50+ years. I think this recipe could use an additional 1tsp salt. All of my guests at lunch agreed.
P.S. I use as little salt as possible in my cooking with the exception of pasta water.
Excellent, no need to look any further for soft white bread. I am always changing recipes then can’t find the one I like so am rating it so I can remember, plus it is great
Best white bread recipe I have ever made. Can it be made into cinnamon bread also?
I made two loves and they turned out perfect! Better than store bought!
Looks beautiful and golden but, the taste is horrible, bland and the bread is heavy/dense.
I haven’t tried it yet, it’s baking now. so far it seems like an amazing recipe and it smells delightful. I didn’t realize how tall it would get in the oven though haha
A few things. One: AP flour doesn’t give you the right springiness and texture to the dough – bread flour has more protein which is what forms the gluten and you really want that. Two: Really kneed the dough to get the gluten to form, if you don’t kneed it enough you get a crumbly heavy bread. Three: Make sure you let it proof adequately. It needs to double in size. If you like a more yeasty taste to your bread, you can accomplish that by letting it overproof in the first round. The yeast is reproducing during proofing so letting it rise more will give you a stronger yeast flavor. You will need to really press out the air bubbles more if you do this. Do not over proof on the second rise in the pan or you will get a bunch of air pockets.
I have looked and looked but I still don’t have a recipe for a loaf of 3lb. White loaf of bread for my three lb. Loaf bread maker. Can you help me please?. Your recipe is for two loafs of bread so it is the nearest thing that I have found. I don’t think i would use quite that much flour.wha do you recommend?
I’m going to make this! I’ll let ya know how it turns out. I can taste it already!
The link to your recommended bread pan links to bread pans other than the one in the recipe. What are the measurements of your 9 inch bread pans in this recipe?
9 X ? X ? Thank you for a reply.
Mike
Tried this bread, loved it, but it fell apart when I sliced it. Next time I won’t spread and roll it maybe that will work. I have not repeated this comment.
Tried this bread, loved it, but it fell apart when I sliced it. Next time I won’t spread and roll it maybe that will work.
came out amazing!!! thank you!
I found your recipe years ago and it’s the only sandwich bread recipe I use. My family loves it! Thank you! ❤️
Awesome bread!! I have a 700gm bread tin and I halved the recipe and it made a great, large soft bread to go with our vegetable soup. Will use this recipe every time we have soup. Thanks 🙏🏼
Recipe worked out very well… Thank you! Made nice large, crusty loaves.
I love breads and this recipe is fantastic.
My family loves this recipe! We typically do two batches of these loaves every week, since we don’t buy grocery store bread. We even started gifting my father in law 2 loaves every Sunday during family dinner. Our big family can hardly wait for this to cool before wanting to dive in and devour this bread. Thank you for posting this recipe!
After experimenting, have decided that this was my go-to white bread recipe. Love the fact it produces two “large” loaves. Have baked these approx. ten times now with zero complaints. Grandkids love them. Sooooo, am going to try and mist the loaves with water as being inserted into oven. I like a thick crust and apparently…this will do the trick with white bread. Artisan Bread is awesome and also easy to bake, would like to figure out how to “crust” up white bread. Stay safe people and keep ” rollin in the dough”
Very yummy and easy to make!!! A big hit for breakfast on the weekend!!
Can I turn this into a raisin bread?
Absolutely! Before you roll up the dough do this:
Let one stick of unsalted butter come to room temperature. Using a hand mixer or wire whisk cream the butter. Then combine 1/2 cup whiteor brown sugar with 2-3 sp cinnamon and 1 cup of raisins. Gently spread the mixture onto the pre rolled dough and roll up. This will allow the cinnamon and raisin mix to be marbled through the bread. And raise/bake per instructions. We make this weekly for our kids for breakfast.
I tried this recipe because it had good reviews for taste.
Followed the recipe to a T because it was the first time I had tried the recipe.
It was an easy to work with dough that baked up 2loves beautifully…
However, the taste and texture left a lot to be desired… In fact, the taste left everything to be desired. There was no taste, just a bland flour flavor even with all the butter brushed on…
The crumb/texture felt heavy, but would not stay together for BLT sandwiches.
Granted, I am normally baking sourdough perfection, but this bread, though pretty, is just bleh…
Quiet upsetting that so much resource was wasted.
I’m trying to figure out the metric, and not coming up with 808, way out, think it was 146. And the rest of the water works out at 497ml. Is this correct?
808mL is the total amount of water–0.75 cups to start the yeast and 2.67 cups added with the other ingredients.
This is the best white bread recipe. I’ve done in many times and it’s my family’s favorite.
Turned out awesome
made it turned out great only thing is i think i need to use bigger loaf pans lol so light and fluffy love it ,had some trouble fitting in my slicer
I halved this recipe the first time and it came out perfectly! Perfect toast for breakfast or for sandwiches