Farmhouse Bread Recipe

This easy loaf of white bread is made with basic ingredients. It's easy enough for beginners and always comes out fluffy and light with a thin, crispy crust.

❤️ Why you'll love this recipe

• basic ingredients
• the best homemade bread ever in just a few hours
• great for beginning bread makers

This farmhouse white sandwich bread recipe is made from scratch with ingredients that are probably in your pantry right now.

This recipe makes two loaves of the BEST homemade bread and is perfect for new bakers. Soft and buttery on the inside with a crisp, golden crust - this has been pleasing families just like yours for centuries!

If you've never worked with yeast dough before I suggest reading my complete guide to working with yeast doughs before you start this recipe. It has a ton of information that will make you an experienced baker in no time!

🧾 Ingredients

This farmhouse loaf is a traditional homemade recipe, one that is probably very similar to what your grandmother or great-grandmother made.

You don't need to use a special flour, all purpose flour is fine. That means that you can knead it by hand without too much trouble. Here's an overview of the ingredients.

• All purpose flour - gives the dough structure and holds the air bubbles that the yeast gives off during rising. Click here to find out more about different types of flours.
• Active dry yeast eats the sugars in the dough and gives off a gas. This is what causes it to rise.
• Ginger gets the yeast going. Think of it as the bread's first cup of coffee in the morning. It's called an activator. Check out this article if you're wondering about other possible yeast activators. You do not have to use it if you prefer not to.
• Sugar feeds the yeast and helps it to grow.
• Milk gives the texture a delicate softness. You can use all water if you like.
• Butter helps the crumb stay soft and gives it more flavor. You can substitute a light oil as well.
• Salt enhances the flavor and keeps it from rising too much.
• Water adds moisture and helps the other ingredients to blend.

🔪 Instructions

Note: This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the green recipe card below.

1. Sprinkle yeast, ginger and a pinch of sugar on the water into a small mixing bowl. Stir to dissolve and let it stand until bubbly.
2. Stir the sugar and butter into the warm milk into a medium bowl and set aside until it has cooled to 110F degrees.
3. Add the milk mixture to the yeast.
4. Add to the bowl of a stand mixer.
5. Add 3 cups of flour.
6. Beat at medium speed about 2 minutes or stir by hand until batter is smooth.
7. Switch to the dough hook and add enough remaining flour to form a dough that leaves the sides of the bowl.
8. Let rest for 10 minutes then knead until smooth and elastic.
9. Form into a ball, cover, and let rise 1-½ hours.

Form loaves

1. Punch the dough down.
2. Form into two oblong loaves.
3. Fit into greased bread pans and brush tops with butter. Let rise until double.
4. Bake until golden. Remove from oven and brush with butter.
5. Let cool and slice.
6. Store tightly wrapped for up to 2 days at room temperature or freeze for up to 3 months.

How to tell if the dough has doubled

When dough has doubled you can make a dent in it with your finger and it won't fill back in. It will be very soft and puffy as shown here.

🥫 Storage

Store this country loaf in an airtight container on the counter or in the pantry. You can also cover it with plastic wrap.

Refrigerating bread dries it out so keep it at room temperature.

Homemade bread doesn't keep long and will often begin to mold by the third day.

For longer storage freeze it for up to 3 or 4 months.

📖 Variations

One of the reasons I love making homemade breads so much is there are so many little things you can do to change it up! Here are a few of my favorites -

• Add 1 ½ cups of raisins during kneading.
• Use honey in place of the sugar.
• Use brown sugar.
• You can substitute almond, soy, oat, or other non-dairy product for the milk. You can even leave the milk out and use plain water.
• You can use any light flavored oil instead of butter.
• Pinch off balls of dough and use as dinner rolls.
• Add an envelope of dry onion soup mix during mixing for onion bread or rolls.

Next time try the homemade buttermilk bread recipe. It's so soft and fluffy!

💭 Things to know

• If you've had trouble getting yeast to grow it may be too much chlorine in your water. Try using bottled water and see if that works better.
• Use an instaread thermometer to check the temperature of the water or milk (110F), as well as checking to see if the bread is done. When done the middle of the loaf will be 195F to 200F.
• If you put a pan of water on the bottom rack under the bread it will create steam. This helps your bread to rise higher.
• Love a crispy crust? Brush the risen bread dough with an egg beaten with 1 teaspoon of water before baking.
• If you want a soft crust let the bread cool with a clean, damp tea towel over it.
• Let bread cool completely before slicing.

👩‍🍳 FAQs

📚 Related recipes

Once you've worked with homemade yeast dough it's hard to stop! Here are some more great recipes to try.

• Honey Oatmeal Bread is a soft, slightly sweet sandwich loaf with the old fashioned goodness of oatmeal and honey. Makes amazing toast! You can also shape this dough into homemade sandwich or dinner rolls.
• No Knead English Muffin Toasting Bread is an easy, homemade bread with the texture and flavor of an English muffin. Perfect toasted and served warm with butter and honey.
• Amish Milk Bread is an old fashioned yeast loaf that's soft and slightly sweet with that good, from scratch flavor!
• No Knead Crockpot Cinnamon Raisin Bread is SO easy - you'll love it!

You'll find even more homemade bread recipes here!

📞 The last word

Nothing smells as good as homemade bread baking in the oven!

When my dad was alive it was almost like he had an internal radar. I am not necessarily a scheduled kind of person but just about the time I put a loaf to cool on the counter he would knock at my door...

The heels were his favorite and I rarely had intact loaf by the time he left. The heels were all gone every single time.

If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need. Don't forget that you can click on "add to collection" to save it to your own, private recipe box!

If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

📖 Recipe

4.53 from 78 votes

Farmhouse White Bread Recipe

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This soft, homemade white bread is perfect for beginning bread bakers! Delicious for toast, sandwiches or just hot and fresh, oozing with melted butter. It rises three times to make it extra soft and fluffy.

Course Bread

Cuisine Amercian Heritage

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes

Rising Time: 2 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 3 hours hours 20 minutes minutes

Servings:16 slices

Calories:173

Author:Marye Audet-White

Ingredients

1x2x3x

• ▢ 1 cup Milk , 110F. If you have sour milk you can use that.
• ▢ 2 tablespoons Sugar
• ▢ ¼ teaspoons Ginger, it is a yeast activator, you wont taste it.
• ▢ 2 teaspoons Salt, I use kosher salt - if you use table salt use about ¼ teaspoon less
• ▢ 2 tablespoons Butter, room temperature
• ▢ 2 packages Active dry yeast
• ▢ ½ cup warm water, about 110 degrees f
• ▢ 5 cups All-purpose flour, you may need a bit more
• ▢ Oil, to grease pans

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Instructions

• Stir the sugar and butter into the warm milk and set aside.
• Sprinkle yeast, ginger and a pinch of sugar on the water.
• Stir to dissolve and let it stand until bubbly.
• Add to milk mixture and stir in 3 cups of flour.
• Stir in the salt.
• Beat at medium speed about 2 minutes or stir by hand until batter is smooth.
• Add enough remaining flour to form a dough that leaves the sides of the bowl.
• Turn on to lightly floured surface, cover and let rest 10 minutes.
• Knead until smooth and elastic-about 10 minutes.
• Round up into a ball and oil all sides.
• Place in a lightly greased bowl and cover with a tea towel.
• Let rise in a warm place until doubled about 1 ½ hours. (The inside of the oven with the light on is perfect). This is the first rise and will take the longest.
• Punch down or gently deflate the dough.
• Cover and let rise again until doubled, about 30 minutes. You may omit this second rise if you are pushed for time. It does help the texture, however.
• Shape dough into a loaf and place in an oiled loaf pan. To do this roll or pat out into a rectangular shape and then roll up, pinching the seams tightly together.
• Lightly oil the tops.
• Let the dough rise until almost doubled, and top of the dough is rounded above the pan, 30-45 minutes. This is the last rise before baking.
• Bake at 375 for 20 to 30 minutes, or until loaves sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.
• Cool in pan for 5 minutes, remove from pan, and finish cooling.
• If a soft crust is desired cover the loaf with a clean tea towel during the cooling process.
• Once cooled completely you can slice the bread with a sharp serrated knife.

Notes

Storage:

• Store this country loaf in an airtight container on the counter or in the pantry. You can also cover it with plastic wrap.
• Refrigerating bread dries it out so keep it at room temperature.
• Homemade bread doesn't keep long and will often begin to mold by the third day.
• For longer storage freeze it for up to 3 or 4 months.

Tips:

• If you've had trouble getting yeast to grow it may be too much chlorine in your water. Try using bottled water and see if that works better.
• Use an instaread thermometer to check the temperature of the water or milk (110F), as well as checking to see if the bread is done. When done the middle of the loaf will be 195F to 200F.
• If you put a pan of water on the bottom rack under the bread it will create steam. This helps your bread to rise higher.
• Love a crispy crust? Brush the risen bread dough with an egg beaten with 1 teaspoon of water before baking.
• If you want a soft crust let the bread cool with a clean, damp tea towel over it.
• Let bread cool completely before slicing.

If you have questions you can find more answers in this Bread Baking FAQs list.

You'll find more helpful tips and variations in the body of the post.

Nutrition Facts

Calories: 173kcal | Carbohydrates: 32g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 5mg | Sodium: 311mg | Potassium: 70mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 68IU | Calcium: 23mg | Iron: 2mg

Nutrition information is estimated as a courtesy. If using for medical purposes, please verify information using your own nutritional calculator. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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Originally published June 2007 - this post has been updated for easier to understand instructions and better reader experience. Last updated January 27, 2023..