Baking bread can be a bit daunting, especially for beginners. But something remarkable about it is the use of minimum ingredients, ones that are available all around the world! The technique and other stuff can be perfected in time but the idea is to take the first step.
Everyone loved my Butterscotch Blondies Step by Step Recipe and gave good feedback saying since it was step by step, it made it look less daunting. A lot of people tried it even though butterscotch chips was not easily available where they live. Many of you wrote to me with creative substitutes you used and some even sent me pictures. That was probably one of the most encouraging set of comments I have ever received.
Anyway, after my first attempt at bread, I tried again about a month ago, but this time I decided to go for the normal bread, the one where you need to knead it. The good part is, the ingredients are very very simple and easy to get everywhere.
I hope the step by step recipe makes it less scary for people to take the first step 🙂 If you need to skip the pictures, please scroll to the end of the post for the complete recipe, in one place.
Simple White Bread – Step By Step Recipe
Make sure that you get some good quality active dry yeast.
1. Mix together 1/2 tbsp active dry yeast (1.5 tsp), 1 tbsp sugar and 1/2 cup warm water. Let it stand for 10 – 12 mins until the mixture starts to froth, like so.
If your yeast is not good enough or is nearing its expiry date, it won’t froth much so that should be a good indicator.
Also, this mixture doesn’t smell so good so if your husband or anyone else at home comes around saying “what the heck is that smell? what on earth are you making?”, don’t let that deter you. We can get back at them with the heavenly smell of baking bread very soon.
2. Measure out your flour next. You will need 2 cups of maida or all – purpose flour.
You can substitute half of this with atta or whole wheat flour if you want. Since atta is coarser than whole wheat flour, run it through your mixer once before using it.
3. Mix the flour gently into the yeast mixture with about 1/2 tsp salt, and knead until it all comes together. This dough will feel unbelievably silky. Sprinkle some flour while kneading it gets too sticky.
Ok, it may not look so silky or even smooth because I suck at shaping it out nicely and making it look pretty. But this is good enough, you will see. Make sure you rub in some olive oil (or butter) on the sides of the bowl to prevent the dough from sticking on too much.
Let this sit for an hour. You can cover it with some cling wrap. I didn’t have any, so I cut up a thin plastic bag and used that instead.
5. After an hour, you will see that the dough has risen to almost double its size and that it looks quite uniform and pretty, unlike the previous picture. Always let nature (or yeast, in this case) do its own thing.
Note: its still not going to smell so good but like I said, ignore and keep going.
6. The next step is to knead down the dough a bit, on a floured surface.
If you are anything like me, you will be a bit tired by now, with all the measuring and the waiting and the photography. So call in your husband, or anyone else you can boss into helping you knead. You don’t need to knead your palms off, just be slow and firm.
Make sure you interfere them while kneading and ask them to pose for a few pics. Its all in the game of bread-making.
PS: If you have a bread-making machine, then you fall into the category of people who I am jealous of, so don’t rub it in by commenting and gloating about it, please.
7. After about 10 minutes of kneading, transfer the dough to a loaf tray that’s dabbed with olive oil or butter on all sides. Don’t go overboard with the dabbing though.
I used a pyrex glass loaf tray, and I blame it for this ugly picture. Cover this again with cling wrap / cut up plastic bag and let it sit for another hour.
8. It will rise again to almost double its size, like so.
If you touch the top of the dough, it will be s-o-f-t. Resist temptation to punch it down and play with it. Its time to bake your bread!
9. Pre-heat oven to 200 C / 390 F and bake for about 20 mins. The crust will turn a lovely golden brown.
This, my friends, will be the best smelling thing you have ever made! Trust me!
My crust got a little dry, but you can dab some butter or milk when it just comes out of the oven and you should be just fine. I didn’t do this because I was too busy taking pictures!
10. Cut it into slices and store in an air-tight container for upto 3 days. I got about 9 slices so it didn’t last that long.
Here is the recipe again, all in one place.
Simple White Bread Recipe
Makes one 8″ loaf
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour / maida
1/2 tbsp (1.5 tsp) yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 tsp Salt
Olive oil or butter to grease
How to make Basic White Bread
1. Mix sugar, warm water and yeast together and leave aside for 10-12 mins until the mixture froths.
2. Mix in the flour and salt and knead gently. Place in a greased bowl covered with cling wrap for an hour, until the dough doubles in size.
3. Knead on a floured surface for 10 mins and transfer to a greased loaf tin. Cover with cling wrap and let it rise for another 1 hour. It will again double in size.
4. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200 C / 390 F for about 20 mins until the crust turns golden brown.
5. Slice and enjoy!
We had this with some home made hummus when it was still warm, and let me tell you, the feeling that I created all this, was awesome!
Freshly baked white bread with hummus
Try it and drop a comment below, won’t you?
Hey. Did you make this bread in the round oven. I have a similar one and am not sure what all barware material could be used in that. As I understand you have used the pyrex glass loaf tray. Can I use the same
yes i baked this in the round oven and yes you can use bake-safe glassware in it
Hi nags..been following your blog lately for its clear step by step instructions n really informative pics..great job!!! i would like to know if i can bake the bread in a convection oven as i do not have an OTG yet?
yeah sure!
Thanks for the post. Its a simple recipe. Tried it yesterday. The bread was very dense. How do I make it more fluffy? Also the bread tasted sweet. Can I reduce the amount of sugar? Will it interfere with the rising of the dough?
this came out very fluffy for me so it's hard to tell what went wrong for you. yes you can reduce the amount of sugar. generally the sugar is for activating and feeding the yeast and shouldn't make the bread very sweet.
Your recipe sounds doable and I enjoyed your chatty instructions .The comments from other people who have tried it are encouraging so will definitely try it out in a day or two .Thanks from a terrified first timer 🙂
Ya i have a 2 litre bread dish which i really want to use for this recipe. Can you please tell me the adjustments i need to make to the recipe?
i used a one litre dish so maybe you can double this basic bread recipe?
making this recipe right now! i'll let you know how it turns out!
trying this bread right now. i'll post when i'm done. got yeast and sugar and warm water sitting right now!! so excited to see the results!!
Delicious bread however i found it didnt rise much the second time maybe over kneaded maybe not enough not sure trying again now and will report back
i tried this recipe. tasted good but failed to rise. what did i do wrong? the yeast is not old.
that's hard to tell unless i am there with you physically watching everything you did… sorry!
Could be any number of things really could have been the temperature of your kitchen…
love this bread……..i have been trying to make one for over years now and finally i cd make it…………its perfect !!!
Thank you for recipe – it will be useful for me to bake such bread with indian flour. We use to eat this type of bread in Russia but flour little bit different and i'm not so experienced to manage with this difference.
Btw you can have it as bread instead of chapatti, you can use it to make breakfast sandwiches and small lake kanape , you can fry these slices and then add beaten eggs (type of omelett). I also like sweet sandwich: you take simple white bread and cover with thin layer of unsalted butter and then put the jam (better made of sour berries like cranberry) – yummy with coffee or tea!
To bake it you can simply make round form (like big bun) – my grandmother used to bake like this. Btw, it can be made withut yeast also and with different flour types.
Good luck!
thanks for that 🙂
I had no luck with this bread at all!! Only got half way through and it is a big mess! I usually have no trouble with making bread but this recipe didn't work for me!
sorry to hear that. what do you mean by "it is a big mess" though. what exactly seems to be the issue?
I love you!!! Just baked my bread..and yess….it tastes just as heavenly as you said. 🙂
I am SO GLAD 😀 A basic white bread recipe is often the only thing you need!
How I love You!!!!
Wow…!!!its looks really awful actually me n my husband tried recently a week ago to bake bread for the the first time, I think i added little bit much water, so the upper crust is very hard but the taste is good, and your step by step process really really helpful and good will try one more time….thnks Nags
thanks a lot….
you literally saved my life…..!!
i have posted a no-knead bread recipe here: https://www.cookingandme.com/2007/10/i-baked-bread.html
Hello maam,
I have been looking EVERY WHERE for a simple bread recipe and voila, here it is, thanks.
Also, wanted to know whether you have tried the folding technique and the no-knead ones as well?
Thanks,
Anju from ulhasnagar
its been ages since i baked simple white bread. and this recipe is so easy too! please drop in a note if you try this with wheat flour 🙂
Followed your recipe and got it perfect 🙂 My hubby loved it so much. It was actually so good the next day. Have to try it with wheat flour next time. Many thanks to the recipe.
I'm trying this, but my dough wont rise, the yeast mixture in the begining had a nice froth and I mixed the flour mixture into it and covered it with a plastic bag, instead of cling because the bowl was to big… Am I doing something wrong?
If dough won't rise, it has to be quality of yeast. Maybe it froths in water but doesn't act on the flour. Try buying yeast fresh before you make it again, maybe?
thanks will try that next time!
I tried baking wheat bread yest (replacing the ap flour with wheat flour) nd it came out pretty good..except that the inside of the bread was a bit moist.What could be the reason for that? pls advice.
thnx! 🙂
Try increasing the baking time!
This was really fun to make, I've just popped it into the oven. Everything looks fine so far. Very easy to follow the recipe and it's nice to see some personality instead of a boring old recipe page. Keep it up! 🙂
I have a bread machine, and I usually let that do all of the work for kneading bread. It's working on this recipe now. It does a very good job with baking the bread, but I prefer baking it in the oven.
I'll let you know how it turns out.
Hi there, this is the 3rd time I try making bread and your recipe WORKS! Thank you!!! I love your pic's and sense of humor!!! Regards, a wannabe bread baker in Tel Aviv 🙂
Thank you so much wannabe baker in TA 🙂 You made my Monday morning!!
That won't work in this recipe. However, there are soda bread recipes available on many sites 🙂
can i use baking soda in place of yeast
can i use baking soda in place of yeast
can i use baking soda in place of yeast
hai 4 the very first time iam into baking and i wondered seeing ur tutorial. step by step instruction with photographs was very easy to understand and simple and i tried it immediately and got a good result and my husband too appreciated me for that. thank a lot and do post nice recipes. hi i used little butter for kneading and my crust was also good.
Thanks a lot Surajana. If you can take pics of the bread and email me, that would be great. You can find my email address in the "about" link on top of this blog.
Hey Anon. Do double check if you added enough amount of water. Another reason could be the quality of yeast. Make sure you use the freshest yeast possible and that you let it froth in warm water for enough time.
Kneading is also important. Make sure that you knead the dough well for 8-10 mins. Use some muscles to get that done! 🙂
My crust was a big dry too so I would ask you to dab some butter on as soon as it comes out of the oven. Alternately, you can give the top of the bread an egg wash before baking (beat an egg lightly in a bowl and brush some on the top of the dough before baking).
These are the reasons you could have gone wrong, do try again and let me know!
hello i had a little problem…the dough turned out to be very dry and hard….can u help wid this???y does the dough become so hard and wat i can do to make it softer….
hi Naga, this is such a treat! I remember my mother made white bread at home when I was younger and we all loved it..especially with home made butter:-) The smell is divine..pls pls post how to make brown bread/wheat bread too…
Will post it soon,had tried few months back the aroma was just great but was a flop.Best to try with small quantity as yours.Thanks for sharing
Nags, the first and second photos are simply beautiful.
GIMME UR ADDRESS NAGS! i gotta raid! i'll do all the kneading, clicking n posing as long as i get to eat what u make 😀 needless to say, i eat husband's share too coz he is gonna be free of all this labour! 😉
Your blogs makes a very interesting read. I must add though that the first bread you baked looked awesome than this one.
Great step-by-step tutorial. Thanks for sending this to YeastSpotting!
i had posted bread-besan toast earlier… this one is bread-rava toast 🙂
This recipe only made 6 rolls for me… is it possible that more yeast is needed?
6 rolls sound about right for this amount of ingredients.
Simply fabulous. I never thought bread making was so easy. You made it so simple. The first one I made got gobbled up in 10 mins. To make a smooth crust without it drying and cracking you can smear the surface of the dough with some milk with a brush or spoon just before keeping it in the oven. Thanks a lot.
Sunil
This is a great tutorial! I love baking breads of all kinds. This is a great recipe – easy to follow.
Thank you Nags! you are the best! no really, I mean it 🙂
Simply delicious. Thanks for the step by step instructions.
Thank you so much for this less scary version of simple bread. I’ve been evrywhere .. but almost always found some complicated stuff .. including keeping the dough overnight etc.
I am trying this for sure … no I did not jump to the recipe … those pics are a great help. 🙂
i had posted bread-besan toast earlier… this one is bread-rava toast 🙂
Mahimaa – ah yes 🙂 I knew I can’t have been totally wrong! 😀
Hey Nags, I was just looking at all bread making recipes this morning and was very sure I wanted to bake one this weekend and I login to see you posting a bread recipe. Nice… The bread looks very good.
Thats so lovely nags!..very neat
The texture of your bread looks quite good, Nags. I like your step-by-step posts.
And I have a shortcut now. I use my food processor to do most of the kneading for a lot of my breads! Easy on my wrists and I don’t “knead” to sweat it out.:)
A very very useful pictorial…
Great step-by-step tutorial. Thanks for sending this to YeastSpotting!
The bread looks good. Have to try some bread making and ur step by step presentation makes it look like a doable recipe.
OMG..you baked such a lovely looking bread. Wish we were neighbours so I could have smelled and sampled:)
Oh yeah got it..Thanks 🙂
That’s a really a humerous post! Good idea to boss somebody to knead the dough!!!
U made only one loaf, I love baking bread, I will try probably soon this recipe! The slice is gorgeous!
Lovely pics ! Nice step by step instructions…absolutely idiot proof…hehehe. My hubby is the bread maker in the family and he experiments with all sorts of bread types, but he’s never made a simple white bread loaf. Will pass this on to him, so that I can enjoy eating it :))
good girl :)..love the bread and the bossing part 😉
bread looks yum.. soft on the inside and crip crust. i will have this with butter 🙂
Pat urself on the back for such a a lovely loaf! I tried once, but the end result was heartbreak 🙁
The crust looked gr8, golden brown and all, which became hard later and the inner texture was all porous but very chewy.. wonder what went wrong…
That was a nice read with great effort Nags..That type of yeast i never got in life i think..makes great result !!
Hey I got one doubt..you have mentioned in step2 to measure 2 cups of maida but in the recipe at the end has 1 cup of maida..if its like using 2 cups how much of water should i exactly use?
I’m new to baking breads..Thanks for this step-by-step tutorial..i will try this soon and let you know ow it came :)I also wanna try your butter-scotch blondies.but i couldn’t find the butterscotch/chocolate chips here..You know i’m living in a old town..can you suggest some alternatives ??
Oh and an OTG is an Oven Toaster Grill 🙂 It looks like a smaller version of a Microwave and is supposedly good for baking. I had a small simple version and it made my cakes extremely dry and not that great. Maybe a higher end OTG would be a better bet. I never tried grilling in it but that could come out well.
Sorry for the messup in the amount of flour in the complete recipe at the bottom – the right measurement is 2 cups. I used about 1/2 cup water but the measurement may change according to the texture of your flour and humidity and all the rest of it. So please use your own discretion.
Asha – thanks for the honest feedback. Its true, the crust was dry but it didn’t make it hard to chew or anything. The sliced bread hardly showed that flaw but next time I will make small indents on the crust like you said 🙂
Madhumathi – Substituting choc chips is the only thing I can think of but that will change the flavour considerably.
I agree with u how wonderful a feeling you have when you bake your own bread! It gets addictive!! Looks airy n moist!
Oooh bread!!!
I love me my carbs 🙂 It’s funny because my next post was going to be strawberry jam 🙂
ps: what’s an OTG?
Wonderful Picture of the Dry yeast!
I have always been using whole wheat to bake, but yours look so pristine white, I want to make this with flour exclusively:-) That’s how i eat my bread- hummus or any other chutney or spread:-)
Your blogs makes a very interesting read. I must add though that the first bread you baked looked awesome than this one.
it definitely looks yummy.. will try it for sure and will let u know!
Smell of bread baking is on top my favorite food smell list. Pictorial looks lovely as usual. Thanks for taking time.
The bread looks so fluffy inside & soft.
Not to be picky but just something I noticed.. initially in the step by step, you say 2 cups of flour but in the final ingredient list (below) you say 1 cup of flour… may want to check & update.
I've been meaning to try the no knead bread for ages.
I HAVE BREAD MACHINE AND I LOVE IT BUT DON’T USE IT OFTEN!!!;D
I will be honest, texture inside is good but top is dry as you said. I think you used too much Yeast for 1 cup flour!
You must also score/cut the bread dough on top to release air/steam so it doesn’t split on it’s own randomly.
Either way, great to eat homemade bread in the morning. I almost never buy White bread, but bake sometimes with plain flour.
Good one Nagu! 🙂
Wow Nags well done for making yuour very delcious fluffy looking bread, totally agree home made breads are the best and the aroma which comes from you kitchen when you bake them is pure bliss.
Looks really soft! And I agree that the smell of freshly baked bread is hard to beat.
Nags, the first and second photos are simply beautiful.
Yes, I agree with you-best smelling thing ever! I have to try this. Pics are gorgeous.
Nags,
The picture spoke for itself….Great yummy breads….
Lovely one Nags, I baked my first bread (focaccia) a month back and totally loved the whole process/aroma/experience 🙂 And I made mine in the microwave (convection mode) and it turned out really well
GIMME UR ADDRESS NAGS! i gotta raid! i’ll do all the kneading, clicking n posing as long as i get to eat what u make 😀 needless to say, i eat husband’s share too coz he is gonna be free of all this labour! 😉
Will post it soon,had tried few months back the aroma was just great but was a flop.Best to try with small quantity as yours.Thanks for sharing
All I can say is.., great job lady.
I’m jealous of you now, as I dont have an OTG. First thing I would love to try when I buy an oven or OTG would be this bread 🙂
I love the post especially the part of bossing over someone to knead it 😀 A is my spot boy 😉 LOL
But it is indeed a very well-written, funny, informative post and the bread for a person on a non carb diet is maddening to see. But then, having a person who is doing this at home has made me immune
*goes off with nose in air*
Oh Nags..this one,after the B.Blondies is my favorite in Edible Garden[Though I’m planning to make spiced baby potatoes and a number of other recipes soon from here;-)].I’ve always wanted to bake bread but the list of ingredients always scared me off,I mean using up 5-6 cups of AP flour will finish off my monthly ration,well almost!!I’m definitely gonna try this out,though I’m not so sure about husband-kneading-the-dough-part;-).You rock!!
Btw,Butterscotch chips are available in Nuts n Spices in Chennai!!;-)
hi Naga, this is such a treat! I remember my mother made white bread at home when I was younger and we all loved it..especially with home made butter:-) The smell is divine..pls pls post how to make brown bread/wheat bread too…
the end result looks fantastic. i may never buy bread from a store again! thanks for the step by step 🙂
Looks good!Hope you enjoyed that soft home made bread with hummus! I remember first time I used yeast for Naan,my hubby peeped into the kitchen and after smelling it,he even couldnot eat those naans..! But I feel bread will give a pleasant smell after baking!
Thanks Divya! And that’s a great tip on the store in Chennai. Let me add that in the post!
Do drop in a line when you try other recipes 🙂 Would love to hear about it.
Shreya – you can follow the same recipe and replace the ap flour with whole wheat flour 🙂