This easy white bread is made from scratch with just a few basic ingredients. The recipe makes two loaves and is perfect for new bread 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!
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This is a traditional recipe, one that is probably very similar to what your grandmother or great-grandmother made. You don’t need to use bread flour, all purpose flour is fine. That means that you can knead it by hand without too much trouble.
- All purpose flour – gives the bread structure and holds the air bubbles that the yeast gives off during rising.
- Active dry yeast easts the sugars in the dough and gives off a gas. This is what causes the bread 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.
- Sugar feeds the yeast and helps it to grow.
- Milk gives the texture of this bread a delicate softness. You can actually use all water if you like.
- Butter helps the crumb stay soft and gives it more flavor.
- Salt enhances the flavor and keeps the bread from rising too much.
- Water adds moisture and helps the other ingredients to blend. 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.
Variations
One of the reasons I love making homemade bread 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 1/2 cups of raisins during kneading for raisin bread.
- Use honey for 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.
Instructions
- Sprinkle yeast, ginger and a pinch of sugar on the water. Stir to dissolve and let it stand until bubbly.
- Stir the sugar and butter into the warm milk and set aside until it has cooled to 110F degrees.
- Add the milk mixture.
- Add to the mixer bowl.
- Add 3 cups of the flour.
- Beat at medium speed about 2 minutes or stir by hand until batter is smooth.
- Switch to the dough hook and add enough remaining flour to form a dough that leaves the sides of the bowl.
- Let rest for 10 minutes then knead until smooth and elastic.
- Form into a ball, cover, and let rise 1-1/2 hours.
Form loaves
- Punch the dough down.
- Form into two oblong loaves.
- Fit into bread bans and let rise until double.
- Bake until golden. Remove from oven and brush with butter.
- Let cool and slice.
- 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.
Need to adjust for high altitude? Check out the instructions from Utah State University.
Equipment
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I like to buy a large quantity of yeast at one time. It’s much cheaper that way and it will last in a tightly sealed jar in the refrigerator for a long time. You may not think you’ll go through that much but trust me… you will!
Some of you have asked about the bread pans I use. Mine are the Pyrex 9x5x4 inch loaf pans. You can find them on Amazon –
Pyrex 1.5-Quart Clear Basics Glass Loaf Pan (Set of 2)
Related recipes
Once you’ve made bread it’s hard to stop! Here are some more great recipes to try.
- Honey Oatmeal Bread is a soft, slightly sweet sandwich bread with the old fashioned goodness of oatmeal and honey. Makes great sandwiches and toast! You can also shape this dough into sandwich rolls or dinner rolls.
- Buttermilk Honey Bread is so easy that even a beginner can do it! It’s the best bread ever for sandwiches – soft with a slightly sweet flavor that comes from honey.
- No Knead English Muffin Bread is nn easy, no knead loaf with the texture and flavor of an English muffin. Perfect toasted and served warm with butter and honey.
Kaffeeklatsch
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.
Thank God we get to keep our memories even after our loved ones are gone. The are priceless aren’t they??
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.
If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Perfect White Bread
Equipment Needed
Ingredients
- 1 cup Milk , 110F. If you have sour milk you can use that.
- 2 tablespoons Sugar
- 1/4 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 1/4 teaspoon less
- 2 tablespoons Butter, room temperature
- 2 packages Active dry yeast
- 1/2 cup Water
- 5 cups All-purpose flour, you may need a bit more
- Oil, to grease pans
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 oiled bowl and cover with a tea towel.
- Let rise in a warm place until doubled about 1 1/2 hours. (The inside of the oven with the light on is perfect).
- Punch down.
- Cover and let rise again until doubled, about 30 minutes. You may omit this rising if you are pushed for time. It does help the texture, however.
- Shape into a loaf and place in an oiled bread pan.
- Lightly oil the tops.
- Let rise until almost doubled, and bread is rounded above the pan, 30-45 minutes.
- 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.
Notes
- Add 1 1/2 cups of raisins during kneading for raisin bread.
- Use honey for 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.
Nutrition
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We’ll never share your email or send you spam. Pinkie swear.Originally published June 2007 – this post has been updated for easier to understand instructions and better reader experience. Last updated March 6, 2020.
Elsa
Elsa I.
Just tried making this (third effort at bread, other two failed miserably) and look to be into another failure.
I can make soufflés w it h my eyes closed but bread …. gah.
No idea what went wrong.
The yeast proofed fine in the water/ginger/pinch salt mixture; the milk was not too hot, nor the butter too stiff.
Added the flour to these combined and it seemed to be sufficient at four cups – scraggly and dry enough. But I forged on, moved it to my kitchen aid and added 5.5 cups slowly— by which time it was a scraggly, unhohomogeneous mess.
Far too dry to come together. So I added about half a cup in total of more water.
Am now sure I overkneaded it.
Might you do a video of the entire kneading process? Saw one of you making this bread (by which I know my mixture is a stodgy lump of bleach) and your fear kneading for ten minutes will be dull but trust me, some of us need (knead?) it.
Thank you
Marye
Hi Elsa,
I do have a video at the top of the page – it wasn’t working but I’ve fixed it.. I’ll also try to do another soon that’s more in depth. Thanks!
judith judge
could i use butter instead olf oil and wil it taste as good
Marye
Yes – just be sure to melt it. 🙂
Anamika @ Supplement Crunch
Looks fantastic! Thanks to share your healthy and tasty recipe………..
Carolina Radovan
This has become my go-to recipe for bread. I have a wonderful mixer (Ankarsrum) that can handle mixing/kneading 4 loaves at one time (could do six, but I just make 4). Highly recommend this machine as I’ve been making my own bread for a couple years now and am not into making every day LOL!
Either way, texture for this bread is beautiful, it toasts beautifully, it can take globs of butter, is so nostalgia inducing, that cute perfect white bread sandwich shape… I could go on and on… I have 4 loaves in the oven now!
I proof for longer, only because I’m easily distracted, but I think this makes it even yummier!! I double twice in the mixer container, to double or more size. Then a third time in the bread pans. Thank-you so much for sharing this recipe with us – sincerely appreciated.
Anyone hesitating, don’t! just make it and yum! for the whole gang ;o)
Marye
Caroline you are the sweetest! Thank you!
Stephanie
Does this recipe make one or two loaves
Marye Audet
two.
Virginia Julain
Can regular salted butter be used?
Marye Audet
sure! You might want to cut back on the salt in the recipe though.
Amanda
When you say sour milk do you mean buttermilk? And you say a lot of sour milk so exactly how much would you be using double of the regular milk? And have you tried it with the buttermilk?
Marye Audet
I mean sour milk – milk that has soured. The measurement is the same no matter which you use.
Jo-ann Anderson
I have been making my bread for years and love trying new recipes, I will be trying your recipe soon and will let you know how it turns out. Thanks for sharing.
Allison
Just wanted to point out a spelling error. You put 2 loves instead of 2 loaves lol
Marye Audet
LOL! Well I do love bread
Jerry
My bread turn out really thick on the inside, any idea as why that might’ve happened?
Marye Audet
It wasn’t baked through and it didn’t rise enough – those are the two most common reasons.
Kathleen
How do you warm your milk? On the counter or microwave?
Marye Audet
Usually in the microwave
Bob
I have a question regarding the use of ginger and bread machines. Many bread machines have a difference in their order or putting wet/dry ingredients in. For my particular bread maker, I put the wet stuff first, then salts and sugar followed by the flour. I then make a small well and put the yeast granules there and turn the bread machine on. I am wondering where I should add the ginger, in the well with the yeast or to the water? Has anyone else experimented with this before and would have the answer?
Thanks
Marye Audet
I’ve never used a bread machine so I can’t really answer. Sorry.
Janet
You.mix the ginger wIth the flour.
Marye Audet
With the yeast.
Bea
I didn’t see where you added the salt??
Marye Audet
I forgot to put it in. I’ve fixed it now..You put it in right after you add the 3 cups of flour.
Char
Ooooh…awesome! I have been wanting to learn how to make my own bread! Thank you for this awesome recipe!
Marye Audet
🙂 have fun with it!
Vicki
Is the white flower self rising or plain?
Marye Audet
All purpose flour or bread flour.
jack
Hi Marye
Can I use Crisco shorting in the bread. Thanks from Jack
Do you have a Multigrain bread recipe.
Marye Audet
You “could” use Crisco but I don’t recommend it for a variety of reasons, flavor being one.
I do have a multigrain recipe…https://www.restlesschipotle.com/multi-grain-flaxseed-bread/
Carole
Why do bread recipes call for sooo much yeast? I used to make 8 loaves at least as big if not bigger than your picture shows, and use 1 tablespoon of yeast.
Is the yeast different, or are people just in too much of a hurry to ‘let’ it rise?
Thanx
Marye Audet
I suppose it is the time factor. You can certainly use less… I get the best results with this measurement though.
May
How much yeast is “2 pkg”? The photo of your yeast is in a 2lb bag so I’m not sure how much to use.
Marye Audet
about 1 tablespoon
Holly Sims
My first ever attempt at baking bread from scratch is rising with the oven light right now! My forearms are killing me from kneading, but it will be well worth it if my loaves turn out well. This just might have to be a new part of my workout! Will update later!!!
Holly Sims
Oh my goodness! This bread is delicious!!! The first loaf disappeared FAST!
Tammy
Is that powdered ginger?
Marye Audet
Yes, it is.
Misti
That is some beautiful bread!