How to Make the Best White Bread: Recipe for Beginners
Nothing beats homemade white bread. The look, feel, texture, taste, and aroma of homemade white bread brings comfort and joy to the home and your life. It does not have to be complicated and anybody can make this. No special tools or equipment is needed for this recipe unless you want to fancy it up and use a stand mixer or bread machine. I have none of those and can still make this wonderful bread.
Ingredients
Proofing Yeast
- 1 cup lukewarm water
- 2 ¼ tsp dry active yeast
- 2 tbsp sugar, honey, or maple syrup
Bread Dough
- Proofed yeast mixture as above
- 4 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup lukewarm water
- 1 ½ tsp sea salt
- 2 tbsp sugar, honey, or maple syrup
- 2 tbsp melted butter oil
Instructions
Proofing Yeast
- Place the water in a warm mixer bowl.
- Stir in the sugar, honey, or maple syrup to dissolve, and sprinkle the yeast over the water. Gently stir to mix.
- Allow the yeast to sit in a warm place for about 15 minutes, until it’s activated and becomes bubbly and frothy.
Bread Dough
- To the proofed yeast mixture, add the flour, warm water, salt, sugar, honey, or maple syrup, and melted butter or oil.
- Mix the ingredients to form a rough dough. A dough whisk works great.
- Knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes. You can use your stand mixer if you desire. Knead until dough is smooth and slightly sticky consistency.
- Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough proof for about 1 hour until it has doubled in size.
- Prepare 2 - 9x5 inch bread loaf pans by smearing them with butter and set aside.
- Turn the proofed dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead an additional 5 minutes.
- Gently roll the dough into an evenly thick rectangle slightly smaller than the loaf pans.
- Tightly roll up the short side, along the length of the rectangle pinching the edge of the dough while rolling it up.
- Tuck the two ends underneath and pinch all seams together. The seams will be the bottom part of the bread dough.
- Place each dough seam side down into the two prepared loaf pans.
- Cover the loaf pan loosely with plastic wrap and let it proof again in a warm place, for about 1 hour or until the dough rises 1 inch above the loaf pans.
- Place the pans in a preheated oven at 350 ° for 45 minutes.
- Place the pans in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
- Peek on the bread after 30 minutes of baking and brush them with butter and bake an additional 15 minutes.
- After the additional 15 minutes are up, check on the bread again and tap on the center of each loaf with your finger. If they sound hollow inside, they are done.
- Remove them from the oven to cool 10 minutes then remove them from the pans to cool completely before slicing.