How To Make White Bread? I have always wondered about it. The thought of the smell of white bread alone is nostalgic for me because it magically transports me to my childhood days, when we lived closed to a bakery and we were welcomed by the aroma of the baking white bread in the air even a couple of feet away from the store.
Those days I never even thought that one day I will be using an oven to bake leave alone baking something as complicated as a white bread. Yes I didn't think that an easy white bread recipe existed. I didn't think that baking with yeast is easy, even after I started baking other treats regular.
I have always had yeast-o-phobia. Couple of years back, when I started baking, one of the first recipes I had tried was making Naan at home. I gathered all the ingredients with so much excitement and prepared everything as listed in the recipe, put the naan inside the oven and was eagerly waiting to taste it and all my excitement shut down once I tasted it.
It smelled "yeasty", tasted "yeasty" and nothing like what I had expected.
So my experiment with yeast stopped way back in 2006. Somehow I didn't feel like baking with yeast again until recently. So I always only tried eggless quick bread recipes and vegan quick bread recipes.
I didn't let my husband to photograph the steps involved because I didn't want to jinx anything. All the craziness was well worth it because the bread turned out AWESOME!
One day I decided that I'm going to overcome this yeast fear and decided to try a basic white bread recipe. I Googled and picked this recipe. I Googled and picked this recipe because it looked pretty easy to follow and I had the Rapid Rise Yeast or Instant Yeast and not the Active Dry Yeast some of the other white bread recipes called for. I followed everything in the recipe with utmost reverence and I was so serious like I was doing some surgery or something.
I can definitely say that it was the best white bread recipe! The bread was soft and fluffy, just like the freshly baked white bread we used to get in the bakery near our home. The kitchen smelled exactly like that bakery which made it even more thrilling! So if you are like me worried about how yeasted breads will turn out, you don't have nothing to worry, try this "no-fail" rapid rise yeast bread recipe. This recipe for white bread is eggless to begin with. I haven't made any changes to make it egg free.
Another advantage of this easy white bread recipe is that you can bake it into dinner rolls too. This white bread recipe will yield 2 regular size loaves. You can either make 2 loaves or the entire batch as rolls or one loaf and the other portion as rolls. Whichever method you choose to follow let me assure that you will end up with fluffy white bread.
If you tried this Beginner's White Bread recipe, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below!
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Recipe
Beginner's White Bread
Ingredients
- 5.5 to 6 cups All-purpose Flour
- 3 tablespoons White Sugar
- 2 envelopes Rapid Rise Yeast I used Fleischmann's
- 2 teaspoons Salt
- 1.5 cups Water
- 0.5 cup Milk
- 2 tablespoons Butter
Instructions
- Combine 2 cups flour, sugar, undissolved yeast and salt in a large bowl.
- In a medium saucepan, heat water, milk and butter until very warm. Use a candy thermometer to see if the temperature is between 120F-130F (approximately 48C-54C).
- Stir the milk mixture into the flour/yeast mix.
- Use an electric mixer at medium speed and beat for about 2 minutes, scraping the bowl occasionally.
- Stir in another cup of flour, beat again for 2 minutes at high speed, scraping bowl as needed.
- Stir in enough of the remaining flour (2 and ½ to 3 cups) to make a soft dough. I used about 2 and ¾ cups of flour. (See My Notes)
- Lightly flour the surface you will be working on and knead the dough until smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes.
- Cover; let rise 10 minutes.
- Divide dough in half. Roll each half to 12x7 inch rectangle. Beginning at short end of each rectangle, roll up tightly. Pinch seams and ends to seal completely.
- Grease two 8x4 inch loaf pans and place the dough seam sides down.
- Cover using plastic wrap; let rise in warm, draft free place until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. (See My Notes)
- Meanwhile around the 30th minute or so, preheat the oven at 400F/200C for about 15 minutes.
- When the dough has doubled in size, bake it for 25-30 minutes or until done. Remove from pans; cool on wire rack.
- Like always you have to wait for the bread to come to room temperature before you can cut it into slices. If you prefer eating warm bread then just apply some butter and tear it off and enjoy.
My Notes
- The quantity of flour you end up adding depends on the type of flour you are using, the moisture content etc. So add it in small increments until you feel it's right.
- I read elsewhere that, when a bread recipe or any yeast recipe mentions to wait until the batter rises double in size or for a specific amount of time, look for the size and not the time. Sometimes the dough may need more time to double in size than mentioned in the recipe and you may not get the desired result if it does not double. After baking this bread, I did try my hands on dinner rolls and I just waited for the time mentioned in the recipe rather than for it to double in size and the dinner rolls came out look pathetic. The taste and texture was quite good but not as perfect as the bread. That's when I looked for a reason and found that the time does not matter. I'm just a beginner baker and this is my understanding. Experts please share your tips and opinion.
- I also read that, to get neat slices, you have to put the bread on either side and then slice it rather than the usual top to bottom slicing. I didn't know it while slicing my first loaf and did the top to bottom slicing. For the second loaf I followed the trick and it really worked.
- If all you have is Active Dry Yeast, then follow the instructions given for using it. The original recipe is here.
- To make it vegan use non-dairy milk and margarine (I don't recommend this for health reasons, organic coconut oil/avocado oil is a better option).
- The recipe also suggests that you can use up to 2 cups of whole wheat flour in place of all purpose flour, though I have not tried this yet.
Taste & Texture
- The bread looked exactly like bakery breads at least on the inside. The texture was perfect; light, airy and fluffy. I hadn't done a neat job on sealing the edges after rolling the dough, so my ends were not perfect. The bread tasted great too. It's been a while since I tasted freshly baked bread and God does it taste fantastic. It's the best! How did we end up liking the factory made bread? I realized that bread baking is one of the "if I can do it you can do it too" stuff. So no more excuses, gather all the ingredients and bake a fresh loaf this weekend. You just have to just check the expiry date on the yeast and you are good. Also a pick a candy thermometer while you are at the dollar store.
Nutrition
Update: Using the same dough, we can make pull-apart white bread as well.
neha says
My query is wat do v mean by'envelopes of yeast'is it a measurement.....is it dry yeast or wet and wat is the measurement in terms of teaspoons.
Madhuram says
I think it says 27gms per pack, which must be a teaspoon.
Alex says
Hi there,
I am looking for an eggless bread recipe that is gluten free or whole wheat. I do not want to add fruit or nuts, etc. Do you have any?
Madhuram says
No, Alex. Gluten and egg free is very tricky.
Georgia says
hi, i am making this at moment and found out that the dough is very very strong. is this right. it was strong enough that it broke my electric mixer! all well i would just like to know is it meant to be that strong because most doughs are quite sticky
Madhuram says
It should not be that thick Georgia. I'm guessing if you added too much flour by mistake.
Roberta says
Hello Madhuram,
I have made this recipe and came out wonderful..now I was wondering if I could make into dinner rolls?? Woudl it work? Thank you in adavance. BTW, I'm a big fan of your blog!
Madhuram says
Thanks Roberta and yes it would work.
pearlypearl says
Hi, I'm curious why isn't bread flour used, but just normal plain flour?
Madhuram says
Hi Pearl, I don't have a clue about it. I just followed the recipe.
Suzanne says
I'm trying this bread now! On my 10 minute rise as I type this!
Mythili says
Fantastic!!! thanks so much for sharing.. was so looking forward to this recipe. The website looks amazing.. congratulations on such great effort.
Madhuram says
Thanks Mythili.
Madhuram says
Thanks for the detailed feedback, Sandhya. A couple of months back I too tried 50% each of all purpose flour and whole wheat flour and the bread didn't turn out as I expected. Actually yours' looks very good when compared to the one I baked. Mine was not soft at all when compared to the white bread. I guess the 75:25 ratio should work better and with even more rest period the bread should turn out good. Maybe we should not be kneading a lot too.
sangeetha says
Hi, Im from India, vegetarian and no eggs. Wanna try ur recipes. I dont get yeast in my area. Please suggest alternatives.
Madhuram says
You need to have yeast to prepare this sort of bread, Sangeetha. There is no alternative for that.
simone says
Hi, I would like to try this bread recipe, but when ever I bake bread it does not get that brownish colour on top. Any advice thank you. I tried some of your recipe and they came out perfectly.
Madhuram says
I'm not able to answer this question because usually people ask tell me that their breads brown too much and ask me how to avoid it. I think breads may not brown properly because your oven does not heat up enough. So try increasing the temperature a little bit and see how it turns out.
Lauren says
I would like to make this bread but i dont have a candy thermomater so would i still be able to make the bread even though i just guess what temprature the milk mixture is?????
Madhuram says
You should be able to get a decent bread without the thermometer, Lauren. I think warming the milk for about 45-50 seconds in the microwave oven should be fine.
Shubha Satish says
Hi Madhu,
I want to buy a baking pan for both cake & bread. Please suggest which size & brand I should get. Many thanks in advance.
Madhuram says
For starters you could get two 8 inch round cake pans and either 9x5 or 8x4 for breads. If you live in US/Canada, look Walmart's flyer for sale on baking sets. You get 2 round cake pans, 1 muffin pan, 3 cookie sheets, 1 bread pan, 1 pizza sheet for under $20. Usually it's from Wilton or Baker's Secret.
Shubha Satish says
Wow!Wish I could get the smell of freshly baked bread from the pictures!
Wan Jee Tay says
Hi Madhuram
I want to try baking Beginner's white bread but I have only instant yeast that comes in a bottle. How much instant yeast should I use? Thank you.
Madhuram says
Hi Wan, I checked the Fleischmann's website and see that the packet I used was 8gm each so 16gm totally. I'm guessing that it's approximately 1 tablespoon.
Wan Jee Tay says
Hi Madhuram
Many thanks for the trouble. I will be trying out the receipe this weekend. Many thank for the great receipes too!
Madhuram says
No problem Wan.
nags says
that looks amazing! bookmarked 🙂
Renu says
How much is 2 envelopes?
I had tried some other bread receipie, similar to this one. The bread came out nice, but it smelled yeast. so I was not able to eat it.
Renu
Madhuram says
I have to check when I get it again Renu. I'll update it soon. Thanks for bringing it to my notice.
Susan says
I had the same problem Renu. It was because I didn't bake it enough. Try lowering the temperature a little and let it bake for a longer time.
Renu says
Hi,
I have 1 question.
I use dry yeast, and it is then activated using sugar and lukewarm water.
When the receipie says 1 tsp yeast, what exactly it is,
1 tsp of dry yeast, to be activated and added full or just 1 tsp of activated dry yeast.
Renu
Madhuram says
It's just 1 teaspoon of dry yeast.
priya srinivasan says
Looks fluffy and so like a bakery bread!!!! I too like to bake bread, but the only doubt i have is how do you know that your bread is done/baked!! is there any test like tooth-pick test for the cakes/Muffins?
Madhuram says
Thanks Priya. I followed this: http://www.thekitchn.com/fresh-baked-how-to-tell-when-b-106715
Aparna says
The white bread looks amazing..even better than store bought ones. Nicely done 🙂
Aparna from Square Meals
Cham says
The breadworld recipe is an awesome one. I have done this one and came out perfect too. Though we are not bread people i don't mind the white bread once in a month ! Lovely slices... Have a nice break with kiddos:)