5 Ingredient White Bread Recipe

If you're looking for a soft and chewy white bread that's perfect for sandwiches, toast, and snacking- this 5 Ingredient White Bread Recipe is it!

I love EVERYTHING about making homemade white bread! The smell of the yeast dough proofing and baking, all the way up to seeing that gorgeous golden top crust and slicing through to reveal the soft fluffy crumb inside.

This dairy free sandwich bread recipe is easy, simple, and PERFECT for beginner bread makers. Speaking of bread makers, I've included steps below and on the recipe card explaining how to make milk free white bread in the bread machine if you don't wish to make it by hand.

For more bread recipes, make sure to check out my Vegan Hamburger Buns and 2 Hour No Knead White Bread.

Why This Recipe Works

1. It's super simple! This recipe just needs a few basic pantry staples (most of which you probably have on hand right now!)
2. You can make it by hand or bread machine. Using a bread machine really cuts down on time and effort without sacrificing taste. I like to use my bread machine to prep and proof the dough, then turn it into a loaf pan for the final proof and bake.
3. This recipe is beginner friendly. If you've never made bread before, you're in luck. This recipe is great for beginners! Just follow along with the thoughtful tips and tricks in this post and you should have no issues.

Jump to:

• 🥘 Ingredients
• 🍽 Equipment Needed
• 🔪 Instructions
• Bread Machine Option
• 🍴 Recipe Tips
• 👩🏻‍🍳 Common Issues and Solutions
• ⏲️Make Ahead Instructions
• 💭 FAQs
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

🥘 Ingredients

Flour- You can use all-purpose flour or bread flour, depending on what you have on hand. Both are great, but bread flour has more protein and will give you a slightly chewier texture and stronger bread flavor.

Yeast- You can use any dry active or instant yeast. We will not be proofing the yeast beforehand, so make sure the expiration date on your yeast packet is still good.

Salt- This will help to enhance the flavors and make the bread taste great.

Oil- You can use either vegetable oil, canola oil, or even olive oil, depending on what you have on hand.

Sugar- To feed the yeast, we need to add in a little granulated sugar. You could use honey or agave if desired.

Water- This is technically "not an ingredient" since it's not something you'd buy at a store. The water is used to bring the dough together and give it the moisture needed for baking. Room temperature water (or slightly warmed) is best. The optimal temperature is 110F.

For the exact amounts needed, please see the recipe card below.

🍽 Equipment Needed

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• Measuring Cups
• Measuring Spoons
• Large Mixing Bowl
• 8x4 Bread Loaf Pan

🔪 Instructions

Check out how to make Homemade Bread with these simple step-by-step instructions:

Cool the bread for at least one hour before slicing.

Bread Machine Option

1. Place the dough ingredients into your bread machine in the order specified by the owner's manual. Mine goes from wets to dry with yeast being added last.
2. Close the lid and set the machine to "dough cycle" and wait for the beep at the end.
3. Take your dough and turn it onto a lightly floured surface. Knead about a minute and then shape into a log.
4. Place the log into the greased bread pan, tucking under the ends.
5. Cover and let rise 1 hour until doubled.
6. Bake 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees F until golden brown.
7. Let cool an hour before slicing.

🍴 Recipe Tips

Listen to Your Loaf

If you've never made bread before (whether it is bread with dairy or bread without dairy), there's a thing you should note. When bread immediately comes out of the oven, the crust should be hard and sound hollow when tapped.

As the loaf cools, the bread crust softens. Similar to how some pancakes feel firm when finished, but as they sit on a plate, they become flexible and soft.

A Tip for a Golden Top

I like to brush the top of my bread with butter as soon as it comes out of the oven to give me a nice shine and help add moisture to the crust.

Speaking of moisture in the crust, those little crackles you see on the crust of the bread as it cools are a GOOD THING. So are tiny white spots if your crust develops them. These are tell-tale signs that the crust has a good amount of moisture inside, making the bread nice and soft.

Score the Dough

If desired, just before baking your bread loaf, you can score the top of the proofed dough with a sharp knife. This will help to keep your bread from going lopsided as it bakes and gives it somewhere to expand.

Of course, bread does have a mind of its own, so it's more like a helpful suggestion from you to the dough to do what you want. It can still choose to surprise you.

Wait Before Serving

Make sure you wait at least an hour (if not more) before slicing into the bread with a serrated knife after it cools. This time is important for the bread to soften, retain moisture locked inside, and become that fluffy white sandwich bread that rivals that of storebought.

👩🏻‍🍳 Common Issues and Solutions

🍞Why is my bread tearing?

If your dough tears when being baked, it's because the elasticity in the gluten didn't get to spring to life as it should have. This could be from the dough drying out during the proofing.

It's basically like the bread dough created a crust before it baked, so the dough didn't have anywhere to expand as it was being baked and created its own exit paths. This is why some people will cut a line down their loaf before baking, to encourage the tearing to happen only where you want it to.

If your bread tears or falls apart as it's being sliced, This is most likely because the bread was under-kneaded and the gluten wasn't properly developed. Make sure it's properly kneaded before proofing.

Another cause is under proofing. While most recipes will say to rise for 1 hour or until doubled. Many people choose the 1 hour wait time and will bake the bread before it has actually doubled.

Please wait until the bread has risen to double its original size, and just use the "listed time" as a guestimate, as it can be faster or longer depending on many different factors.

🍞How do I know if my bread is done?

The internal temperature of the bread should be around 190-205F. Stick close to the specific bread recipe you're using, as the baker often gives a temperature to check for. Underbaking your bread by even 10 degrees can cause different results than expected.

🍞Why is my bread dense in the center?

Did you slice it while the loaf was still warm? Did it reach the proper temperature, or was it underbaked? Are you sure you kneaded it well enough? All of these things can cause your loaf to be dense in the middle.

🥖 How Long to Proof Dough

The time needed to proof dough truly varies from person to person. It depends upon the weather, climate, wind drafts, temperature of ingredients, age of the yeast, and more.

On average, it can take anywhere between 1 hour to 3 hours for the dough to proof properly, but some people can see it happen in as little as 30 minutes.

The goal is not waiting to a specific time but instead looking for a specific response from the dough. We want the dough to be doubled in size, and whether that takes one hour or more, we shouldn't jump straight into the next step before completing this one.

You should expect that it will take about 1 hour for your dough to double in size and proof, but here are some tips for getting it there.

• Cover the bowl of dough with greased plastic wrap. This helps to prevent the dough from drying out and helps to trap the heat. The cooking spray on the plastic wrap helps to prevent it from sticking to the dough.
• Store it in a warm location. I like to preheat my oven to 200 degrees F for 2 minutes and then turn it off. Then I place the bowl in the oven and let it rise until doubled.

Other locations to place your dough include:

• Inside your closed microwave
• Inside a closed oven with just the oven light turned on
• On a hot and sunny day, your kitchen's countertop can work well too

🍞 How to Knead Bread Dough

Kneading your dough with an electric mixer using dough hooks is simple and easy, but my favorite method is to do it by hand because you're far less likely to overwork the dough when doing it this way.

Knead the dough by hand by placing it onto a floured surface and using two hands to roll it out into an oval, pull back half, so it's sandwiched together, and repeat.

Smoosh the dough as you roll it back out into an oval, and bring it back. Every few times, rotate the dough about 90 degrees so that you can get all of the dough worked into the process.

When the dough is smooth and elastic, it's finished. This takes about 10 minutes by hand, faster if you're quick, but there are a few good ways to tell when you are finished.

1. The dough should not tear easily. This means that if you stretch a chunk of the dough between your fingers, it doesn't tear apart like paper and creates jagged edges.
2. The dough should be elastic. You should be able to poke the ball of kneaded dough with your finger and watch the dough quickly try to bounce back and fill in the hole you made.

⏲️Make Ahead Instructions

Yes, you can make the dough and let it do its first round of proofing in the bowl as directed. Then when you go to place in the loaf pan for the second rise, simply cover it well in plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge for up to 8-10 hours or in the freezer.

Once frozen solid, place in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Thaw the bread overnight in the fridge (in the pan) and once morning has arrived, preheat the oven for either method (fridge or freezer). Let the loaf rest on the counter for about an hour to come to room temp. Bake as directed.

💭 FAQs

More great yeast bread recipes to check out soon

• Blueberry Cream Cheese Babka
• Vegan Slider Buns
• Banana Nut Bagels
• Unicorn Twist Bread

📖 Recipe