Everyone could use homemade white bread from time to time. Ready-made bread at the grocery store is great, but warm homemade bread just hits different. It is firm enough to be used as a sandwich bread and took many tries to get right. Making any kind of bread from scratch is always a labor of love but I think it is worth it very single time. Serve this slices with your favorite flavor of jam or chocolate spread. This is great for grilled cheese too.
Should I use instant or active dry yeast?
Instant yeast activates dough in a shorter amount of time compared to active dry yeast. This homemade white bread recipe has two rising times. I used active dry yeast so my rising times were 2 hours and 1 hour respectively. If you were to use instant yeast, your rising time would be cut by about half. So your rising times would look something like this:
- 1st rise-1 hour
- 2nd rise-25 minutes
- Check out this article to read more on the differences between active dry yeast and instant yeast.
The bread dough
The bread dough has to be puffed twice-once in the mixing bowl after combining it with the ingredients, and again in the loaf pan. I used a 8×4 inch loaf pan for this recipe but a 9×5 inch will also work. The difference between using the two loaf pans is that the latter won’t rise as high as the first. I used all-purpose flour because that is ironically used more than bread flour for regular bread. This usually doesn’t take more than 40 minutes to bake. If you are unsure if the bread is done, insert a cooking thermometer into the soft part of the bread. Its internal temperature should read at least 190°F/87°C.
Overall tips for fluffy white bread
- Bake the bread dough on the middle rack of the oven for 35-40 minutes until it has a nice brown crust.
- When you tap the top of the freshly-baked homemade bread, it should make a hollow sound. The internal temperature of the bread should also read a minimum of 190°F/87°C.
- Let the bread cool before taking it out of the bread pan. Let the bread continue to cool completely to room temperature on a wire rack before slicing into it. This way it is completely firm and won’t fall apart as you cut it.
If you loved this homemade white bread recipe, check out my pull-apart cheesy bread which is stuffed with pesto and pepperoni.
Ingredients
1 cup very warm water
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon table salt
1/3 cup almond milk/dairy milk, at room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg, whisked, at room temperature
3&1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Stir in the sugar with warm water in a large mixing bowl until it is completely dissolved.
- Mix in the yeast and let it sit for 5 minutes, covered, and away from drafts or cold winds. It should look foamy on the surface which is a good sign that your yeast is active. If it hasn't bubbled in any form, throw it away and start afresh with a new yeast.
- Fold in the whisked egg, salt, milk and flour into the same bowl.
- Knead into a ball and transfer to an oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with a kitchen cloth and place in a warm space for 2 hours.
- After that period, the dough would have risen and doubled in size.
- Punch it down to release the air and transfer this to a floured surface. The dough would feel sticky.
- Shape the dough into a thin log with your fingers, about 8x2 inches in size. It should be thin enough to fit directly inside the loaf pan you'll be using without it touching the sides.
- Heavily grease a non-stick 9x5 inch loaf pan with butter. You can also line it with parchment paper for easier removal of the bread.
- Place the log-shaped dough from step 7 into your greased/lined loaf pan. Cover with the towel and let it rise for another hour. The dough should have risen slightly above the edges of the pan.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C.
- Bake the bread dough on the middle rack of the oven for 40 minutes until it has a nice brown crust.
- When you tap the top of the freshly-baked bread, it should make a hollow sound. The internal temperature of the bread should also read a minimum of 190°F/87°C.
- Let the bread cool before taking it out of the bread pan. Let the bread continue to cool completely to room temperature on a wire rack before slicing into it.