Basic White Bread Recipe for Bread Machines

It’s a myth that bread machine recipes require milk powder. You can use a dairy-free milk powder or substitute dairy-free milk beverage for the milk powder and water in the recipe. Or just start with this basic white bread recipe for bread machines. It contains just 6 ingredients, and it’s naturally free of dairy.

Tips: Basic White Bread Recipe for Bread Machines

Flour Options

This basic white bread uses bread flour, which has more gluten than regular all-purpose flour. It helps to give the bread a better texture as it rises and bakes. In a pinch, you can use all-purpose flour, but you might end up with a dense loaf, and the bread won’t be as tender. If you would like to sneak in some whole grains, you can swap 1 cup of the flour with whole wheat flour (but preferably use bread flour for the rest) or enjoy this recipe. Use ivory wheat flour if you don’t want the color to be affected too much. If you opt to use all-purpose flour or a higher ratio of wheat flour, it is best to add 1 to 2 tablespoons of gluten.

Bread Didn’t Rise

Your yeast wasn’t active, your water was too hot or too cold, and/or you substituted different flours for the bread flour. Make sure to pay attention to the first step to ensure the yeast is active. There is more than enough yeast in this recipe! And make sure it wasn’t the opposite problem, that your bread rose too much and collapsed …

Bread Rose Too Much and Fell

• If your bread is collapsing, then the yeast might be too much for your area, reduce it or change the order of how you add the ingredients. If the collapse was minor, you can reduce to 2 teaspoons. If it was big, reduce it by more.
• Also, bread machine recipes can be tricky at higher altitude. As a general rule, I reduce the yeast to 1 1/2 teaspoons above 4,000 feet when making a bread machine loaf. 1 teaspoon might even be enough.
• Use the ingredient order suggested by the bread maker. For some people, the recipe as written produces a better loaf, but for some, the bread maker instructions work better (usually involve adding the flour before the yeast and not proofing the yeast). It depends heavily on your maker, your climate, your ingredients, etc.
• And finally, consider increasing the salt to 1 1/2 teaspoons per the salt note. It does help to add structure as an added measure to prevent collapse.

Reader Raves

Thanks to Donna for sharing helpful feedback with us via Facebook:

I’ve made this recipe twice in our 1lb bread maker – first time with just white all purpose flour (all we had!) and the second with half strong white flour and half strong wheat flour and it was fabulous. Thanks for having such a great resource for people with dairy allergies!

Special Diet Notes: Basic White Bread for Bread Machines

By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, nut-free, peanut-free, soy-free, vegan, and vegetarian.

Contributed

Basic White Bread for Bread Machines

4.25 from 4 votes

This classic recipe was shared with us by a reader back in 2006. For a refresh, we've given the recipe an edit and added some tips in the post above.

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Total Time 50 minutes mins

Servings: 1 (1½-pound) loaf

Calories:

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x?

• 1 cup warm water about 110ºF / 45ºC
• 2 tablespoons sugar or your sweetener of choice
• 2 ¼ teaspoons .25-ounce package bread machine yeast
• ¼ cup neutral-tasting oil like non-GMO canola, vegetable, or grapeseed
• 3 cups bread flour
• 1 teaspoon salt see Salt Note below

Method

 

1. Put the water, sugar and yeast in the pan of your bread machine. Let the yeast dissolve and foam for 10 minutes. If it doesn't foam at all, you may have yeast that is no longer active. Get fresh yeast and start again.
2. Add the oil, flour, and salt to the yeast.
3. Select the Basic or White Bread setting (for a 1½-pounce loaf) on your bread machine and press Start.

Notes

Salt Note: For more flavorful bread and a little more structure, you an increase the salt up to 1 1/4 or 1 1/2 teaspoons. But for everyday, we find 1 teaspoon to be enough.

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