This is my go-to easy homemade bread recipe that always turns out great, uses simple pantry ingredients and makes my house smell amazing. The bread is so fluffy, delicious and is perfect for sandwiches.
An easy homemade bread recipe is the perfect place to start if you want to start making bread from scratch. There's something so satisfying with making your own bread - it is absolutely amazing. I've been making bread since I was a teenager, and this is the recipe I've always used. I love experimenting with all kinds of recipes for bread, but when I'm in the mood for simplicity, this is the one I go for.
With just a handful of ingredients and a little time, your house will smell incredible and you'll be taking out a golden domed loaf of bread out of your oven.
If you want to bring your whole family together, bake a loaf of bread and you'll have everyone crowding around the kitchen. Whenever I bake a loaf of bread, everyone wants a warm slice with butter and jam. You also can't go wrong with serving bread with homemade soup. In my eyes, there is nothing more perfect.
Ingredients:
- warm water (110-115 degrees)
- dry yeast (active dry yeast or instant yeast) *see note below
- sugar - I've often use honey instead of sugar
- oil (olive oil, sunflower oil, avocado oil, vegetable oil, etc.)
- flour - bread flour is best, but all purpose flour will work too
- salt
- butter - optional, to brush on top of baked bread
Active Dry Yeast vs. Instant Yeast
They are very similar and can be used interchangeably in recipes. However, active dry yeast needs to be dissolved in warm water first, before using it in a recipe. Instant yeast can be added in dry.
If you're not sure which yeast you have, just add it to warm water first to be safe. The water should be about 90-110 degrees Fahrenheit. If the water is too hot, it will kill the yeast and your dough won't rise.
How To Make Homemade Bread
- Dissolve the yeast in the warm water with half of the sugar. (If you're not sure if your yeast is good, set it aside for about 5 minutes, it should foam up.)
- Mix the liquid ingredients. Pour the water with yeast into a large bowl of a stand mixer. Add the rest of the sugar and the oil.
- Add the dry ingredients. Then, add half the flour, mixing to combine, starting on low speed. Add the rest of the flour and salt and keep mixing, until all the flour is incorporated.
- Knead the dough for at least 5 minutes, up to 10 minutes, if you're doing it by hand.
- Set the dough aside to rise until doubled in size, anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the temperature in your home.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Shape the dough. When the dough has doubled, place the dough on the counter and shape it into a rectangle. It should be roughly the width of your bread pan. Roll it up tightly, starting with the short side until you have a neat loaf. Place it seam side down into your bread pan. (Mine is about 9 X 5 inches)
- Set aside to rise until doubled again. The dough should rise slightly over the edges of the bread pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 23-25 minutes.
Tips for the Perfect Dough Rise
When setting your bread dough to rise, brush some oil on the bottom and sides of the dough before putting the dough into the bowl. This will help the dough to come out much more easily after it's risen.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. It will prevent the dough from drying out and will create a nice a moist environment for the dough to rise in.
Quick Ways to Speed Up Dough Rising
Want your dough to rise faster? Here are a couple of tricks to speed up the process:
1. Use a Heated Blanket for a Cozy Environment
Wrap your dough bowl in a warm towel or heated blanket to create a cozy, warm environment for the dough. This will help activate the yeast and encourage the dough to rise more quickly.
2. Try the Instant Pot for Faster Rising
If you have an Instant Pot, you can use it to speed up the rise. Place the dough inside the inner chamber, set the Instant Pot to the yogurt setting, and watch the magic happen. The warm temperature (around 100°F) will create the perfect environment for your dough to rise in about half the time. It’s a safe and efficient way to get your dough ready faster without compromising the texture!
Helpful Tips and Frequently Asked Questions:
It's such a bummer if you make the bread dough and then wait and wait and it doesn't rise.
To check if your yeast is still active, sprinkle the yeast into some warm water (100-110 degrees Fahrenheit) with a little bit of sugar. Set it aside for 5-10 minutes. It should rise and foam up. It’s ready to use! If your yeast doesn’t do that, it’s time to get new yeast.
P.S. Store your yeast in the refrigerator or even your freezer so it stays fresh longer.
Cover the bowl and the bread pan with plastic wrap. You can also brush the top of the dough with oil for extra insurance.
Homemade bread doesn't have any preservatives in it like store bought bread, so it will not stay fresh as long. (This is never a problem in our family - it's so delicious, it gets eaten much faster!)
Store the bread in a paper bag or wrapped in a clean kitchen towel if you don't want it to get softer. It will last at room temperature for a few days.
If you want to keep it fresh longer than 3-4 days, store it in the refrigerator for 7-9 days.
Yes! Bread freezes really well. Make an extra loaf and freeze it, or, cut half a loaf in half if you have a smaller family. Make sure the bread is wrapped tightly, preferably in multiple layer. Freeze for 1-3 months. Here's a detailed post all about how to freeze bread.
Thaw at room temperature. (Remove the bread from the bag/container, wrap it in a towel while thawing, so it absorbs any condensation.)
When you get the bread out of the oven, brush the top with butter. It will be even more delicious, but will also make the bread have a glossy finish and will make the crust softer.
More Delicious Bread Recipes You Will Love
PrintA Simple Recipe For Homemade Bread
An easy homemade bread recipe that always turns out great, uses simple pantry ingredients and makes your house smell amazing. The bread is so fluffy, delicious and is perfect for sandwiches.
- Prep Time: 1 hour 20 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
- Yield: 1 loaf of bread 1x
- Category: Miscellaneous
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm water, (110-115 degrees F)
- 2 ¼ teaspoon dry yeast
- 2 Tablespoons sugar (or honey)
- 2 Tablespoons oil (olive oil, avocado, vegetable, etc.) (plus more oil for brushing the bowl)
- 3 - 3 ¼ cups flour (unbleached all purpose flour or bread flour)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- butter, optional, for brushing on top of bread
Instructions
- Warm up the water until it's a nice, bath water temperature. Sprinkle in the yeast and half the sugar. Mix it until the yeast and sugar dissolve. The yeast should get foamy within a few minutes.
- Pour all the liquid ingredients (water, yeast, sugar and oil) into a large bowl of a stand mixer and mix to combine.
- Add half the flour to the bowl and start on low speed and mix the dough with a dough hook attachment, until the it comes together. Ad the remaining flour and salt, gradually increasing the speed and knead the dough for 5-10 minutes.
- Brush the bowl and coat the dough in a little bit of oil, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside to rise until it doubles in size 30-90 min.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- When the dough has doubled, place the dough on the counter and shape it into a rectangle. It should be about the width of your bread pan. (I use a 9 X 5 inch bread pan.)
- Roll it up tightly, starting with the short side and then place it seam side down into a greased loaf pan.
- Brush the top of the bread with oil. Cover loosely with plastic wrap or a towel and set aside until the dough doubles once again, 30 minutes to an hour.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 23-27 minutes.
- Take the bread out of the bread pan within 5 minutes and let it cool on a rack. Brush the top of the bread with butter to make it more glossy and to make the crust softer.
- Store the bread, wrapped or in a bag, at room temperature, for 3-4 days. Store in the refrigerator if you need it to last 5-9 days. Bread can also be frozen for 1-3 months.
Great easy bread recipe! Tastes delicious as well. Takes a bit of time with the double rise however it’s well worth it.
Thanks, Susan! I'm so glad you enjoyed it.
The recipe suggests that the hot water temperature be 330-345 degree F. That is over boiling and will kill the yeast. Later, the recipe says that the yeast should be dissolved in hot bath water which is more realistic. I cannot take a bath in boiling water so that temperature must be a typo! I suggest not more than 100 degrees F, even that is too hot for me to put my toes in the water! Please correct the temperature. Thanks
Actually, the recipe is correct, it is only incorrect when you use the feature in the recipe card that doubles or triples the recipe.
If you use the scaling option that comes with the recipe card, unfortunately it’s not accurate and makes mistakes like this. (I wish I could remove this option completely, but that’s not something I can control, unfortunately.) I would recommend never using an automatic doubling or tripling option on any recipe unless you do the math yourself. It’s done by a robot, not a human being and doesn’t calculate things like this correctly at all, such as temperatures, which is such a crucial step.
In the original recipe for 1 recipe, it says to heat the liquid to 110-115 degrees Fahrenheit.
I cant wait to make this!
I hope you enjoy the bread, Shaz.
If you double or triple this recipe do not double or triple the temperature of the hot water like the recipe says. keep it at a 1x batch so you don't kill your yeast.
Hi Candi,
I'm so sorry that's what the recipe card says when you click to double or triple the recipe. That's terrible! When working with yeast, it's very important not to overheat the water. I did write this in the actual blog post too.
If you use the scaling option that comes with the recipe card, unfortunately it's not accurate and makes mistakes like this. (I wish I could remove this option completely, but that's not something I can control, unfortunately.) I would recommend never using an automatic doubling or tripling option on any recipe unless you do the math yourself. It's done by a robot, not a human being and doesn't calculate things like this correctly at all, such as temperatures, which is such a crucial step.
In the original recipe for 1 recipe, it says to heat the liquid to 110-115 degrees Fahrenheit.
Why does my bread smell like wine/ alcohol I have fresh yeast and the water was at 108 degrees, and my flour doesn’t expire until next year?
One of the reasons could be that the dough was overproofed. If it's proofed too long (left too long to rise), sometimes the yeast will smell stronger. It's also not uncommon for the bread dough to have a small amount of wine/alcohol aroma. During the natural fermentation process of adding yeast to bread dough, yeast breaks down the carbohydrates in the dough into alcohol and carbon dioxide. It shouldn't be really strong though. If it really bothers you, try using less yeast, although the bread may not rise as much. Usually though, it's because it was proofing too long, became over-fermented and then smells sour. I hope that helps.
Hi Olga! I want to try this recipe but I do not have a stand mixer. Would I be to use a hand beater and then finish off mixing by hand?
Donna C.
Hi Donna,
Yes, you can definitely mix it by hand. Just knead it longer and it will work great. I don't recommend using a hand beater, because it isn't strong enough for bread dough.
Thank you! I just tried this recipe and it turned out great.
Wonderful! So happy you were happy with this bread recipe:).
Hello, I am wondering if I can use a Dutch pan instead of the loaf pan?
I have never tried it with this recipe, so I can't tell you if it will work or not from experience. Let me know if you try it.
I thought I left a comment days ago but apparently I didn't! Made it exactly per directions (used scale for flour both times) for the first batch - wonderful 1st and 2nd rise and then half of it fell in the oven during baking. It was delicious but looked ugly...lol Second batch yesterday and I subbed 1/2 of the flour for whole wheat and added 1/2 tbsp baking powder to (hopefully) even out the added weight of the more dense wheat flour. It didn't rise as much either time but it was over the rim of the bread pan, and again it fell during baking, this time completely. My yeast was new and I proofed it before adding other ingredients for both batches. Both loaves tasted wonderful, but I have never had much luck with yeast breads as a whole anyway.. Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated and THANK YOU for all the wonderful recipes and ideas.
Hi Regina! Sometimes when the bread collapses in the oven, it can be because the bread was overproofed before being placed in the oven, which makes it not as strong and it falls when it's baking. I also don't recommend using baking powder in addition to yeast when making bread. Whole wheat flour naturally won't rise as much as all purpose or bread flour will. If you want to use whole wheat flour, just use the same amount of yeast, you don't need to add any baking powder. If you want it to rise more, use more bread flour than whole wheat flour. It will taste good, just won't be as tall and fluffy as when you use all bread flour. I hope that helps!
Second batch done today. I used half whole wheat flour this time and it didn't rise as much, but still tastes wonderful . ❤️ The first time I followed the recipe exactly and it had a beautiful 2nd rise....then half of it fell when baking ☹️ I have never had any luck with yeast bread but these two were the best tasting by far. Thank you for all the wonderful recipes.
Hands down. This is the best bread recipe!
Thank you, Olga!
Thank you, Alesia! I'm so glad you enjoyed this recipe.
Delicious bread! Thank you for sharing with us
This bread recipe is so delicious! We love it.
Yay! So glad it worked out for you. Thanks for sharing your feedback.
I do not have a mixer, just a portable hand mixer.....can I make it the “old fashioned” way like my grandmother used to do?
Yes, absolutely. You can mix it by hand, but don't use a hand mixer - it will ruin it and most likely kill the motor. It just isn't powerful enough to mix bread dough. Your hands will work great:).
How long do I knead the dough without a mixer?
About 7-10 minutes.
It’s so good! I tried my homemade bread for the first time and it’s delicious! Thanks for the recipe!