Basic Bread Recipe
How to Make Bread at Home
Baking homemade bread can be challenging to even the most experienced home cooks. It’s not like making a stew or grilling up a steak. There is a lot of technique involved and lots of ways to mess up. Below is a recipe for making a basic 4-ingredient bread with step-by-step instructions that should take most of the mystery out of bread making.
If you want to learn even more about the art of great bread making, check out my web site for my article on How To Make Bread. It goes in depth on ingredients, equipment, bread making techniques including mixing and kneading dough. It’s a great primer for anyone interested learning how to make bread at home.
Basic Bread Recipe
3/4 oz. active dried yeast
Heavy pinch of sweetener consisting of sugar, spoonful of honey or dark corn syrup (just to kick-start the yeast)
2 cups warm water (about 115 degrees, F, is good)
approximately 2 pounds bread flour
1 TBSP salt
A little extra flour for dusting
Mix the sweetener with the warm water until dissolved. Add the yeast, and stir again, until dissolved.
Combine the salt with most of the flour - leave out about 6 ounces or so. In the bowl of a large capacity heavy duty stand mixer (or in a bowl or even on the table for you purists), mix the water into 1 pound of the salted flour until well combined. Mix well to start incorporating air. This step will assist in the final rise you will get. Add the rest of the salted flour, and mix again until the flour is incorporated.
At this point, turn out the dough if you’re doing it by hand. Knead in as much of the remaining flour as is necessary to achieve a smooth, non-sticky, not to wet or dry dough. Knead by hand or with the dough hook until the dough is very smooth and elastic and passes the windowpane test.
Fermentation Stage
Shape your dough into a smooth ball and let it rest, covered, in a warm place in a greased bowl until it has doubled in bulk. (Turn the dough in the bowl so all sides are greased, and let it rise smooth side up). When you poke your finger into the side of the dough and the dough doesn’t spring back at all, you’ll know you’re there.
How long it will take depends on the temperature of the room, the temperature of the dough, the barometric pressure outside - lots of factors. A reasonable rule of thumb is give or take about 1 1/2 hours. You can do this step on the countertop or in any draft-free place. On top of the fridge is good, since heat rises, it’s probably a little warmer up there.
I’ve also done this step in a cold oven with the oven light on. Remember, though, the longer you can draw this out, the better the bread will be. If you have the time, a longer time at a cooler temperature is fantastic, say 3 hours at 68 degrees F.
Benching Stage
Now, roll the dough out of the bowl onto a surface very lightly dusted with flour and press out all the gasses. Now, decide whether you are making one jumbo loaf, two loaves (either in pans or just rounds) or rolls. Divide the dough accordingly, or leave it in one piece. Form each piece (again, it’s up to you how many) into a round, cover with a clean, lint free towel or even some plastic wrap, and let rest for a few minutes.
Shaping Stage
Next, shape each piece however you want. If you are making a round loaf, round your dough on the table. You’ve probably seen bakers do this on TV and this is how to do it: take your ball of dough and place it on the table in front of you. Cup your hands around the dough on either side of the dough ball, with the pinky side of your hands touching the table. Without lifting your hands, begin to firmly push the ball in circles on the table.
You can do this slowly or quickly. The end result will be the same, although you will get faster with practice. The friction between the bottom of the dough and the table should cause your dough ball to smooth and tighten. This will allow for a more even rise and a prettier loaf. If you’re not getting any traction on the table, smear a bit of water on the table - just enough to make it a little damp, but not wet.
If you’re making a pan loaf, press out your dough and stretch it into a rough rectangle whose long sides are as long as your pan. Roll the dough up fairly tightly jelly-roll style, tuck the end under and place they cylinder of dough, seam side down, into your pan. Shape your rolls however you want.
Proofing Stage
Put your rolls or loaves on or in whatever you’ll use to bake them - baking stone, cookie sheet, loaf pan. Cover them with a clean, lint free towel or a piece of plastic wrap and let them double again. Since the yeast have been happily multiplying in your dough all this time, it will take about half the time it took during the fermentation period.
Preheat your oven during the proofing time to 375 degrees, F.
Ready to Bake
When you’re ready to bake, if you want to, you can slash the tops of your loaves with a very sharp knife. This is generally done for appearances, although it can boost the final rise in the oven (oven spring - the impressive rise you get during the first few minutes in the oven, before the crust sets), and help to keep the crust from stretching and tearing in the oven.
Your bread is done when it is a lovely golden brown color, when it sounds hollow when you tap it on the bottom, and when the internal temperature has reached 200-210 degrees, F. This could take as little as 10-15 minutes for small rolls and upwards of half an hour for large loaves. When you can smell the bread and it is starting to look done, start checking.
Once the bread is out of the oven, let it cool on a rack - if you have panned the bread, take it out of the pan to avoid having a soggy loaf. Cool to room temperature, then store in a paper bag at room temperature. Since this bread contains no preservatives, keeping it around for more than a day can be an issue. If you know you won’t plow through all of it in a day, slice the loaves once they are cool, and store them in freezer bags in the freezer. That way, you can pop out a piece or two to make a sandwich. It defrosts in no time.
Be sure to check out my web site for How To Make Bread.
on September 30th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
I haven’t baked bread in many years and this is just the push I need to get going again! My husband wants whole wheat/grains - so I will have to investigate how to do that, but this is a good start - thanks!!
on September 30th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Thank you for posting this! I love to make bread, and my husband just expressed interest in learning to make it as well, You read that right, MY HUSBAND! Your instructions are so simple and I know, being a women I complicate things. I’ll be the first to admit it. Thanks again!!
Awapuhi
on September 30th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
What a sense of timing! I just made my first bread last night (baguettes! corn bread and failed irish soda bread notwishstanding) and though it turned out well I was wishing I could find something to read a little more about how to do this.
Can’t wait to try again!
on October 1st, 2008 at 10:12 am
I (a husband) have made bread for many years, after my wife developed “tennis elbow” from kneading the dough. She made both whole wheat and white bread for our family that included four children.
Now, with the empty nest, I still make bread manually, but often will use a bread machine to prepare the dough but bake it in an oven in a regular loaf pan to eliminate the hole(s) that the machine makes.
I can supply a recipe for whole wheat bread if anyone wishes it. It is just as simple as the RG’s basic loaf, but with a few added ingredients.
e-mail me at: j poulter at islandnet dot com. (remove the spaces to send)
Old Jack.
on October 1st, 2008 at 1:32 pm
This is exactly how we made Italian bread in the bakery I worked at over 25 years ago. The recipe makes a wonderful bread that’s a little dense in the center and wonderfully crusty on the outside.
For much of my breadmaking, I use a bread machine. I run the dough through the second rising and then remove it to rest once more before molding it by hand. Then I pan it and let it rise once more, or I mold it and let it rise on a pizza peal with cornmeal on it. Bake it in the oven and you get a wonderful loaf with much less hassle than mixing by hand. I also have the benefit of setting the timer to mix it for first thing in the morning baking.
on October 2nd, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Till I got your news letter I didn’t think anyone could be intimidated by making bread. I’ve been doing it since I was 10. I am so glad someone is out here giving people a nudge towards making “the staff of life” at home. THe varieties are endless and even “failed’ experiments can be delicious!
on October 3rd, 2008 at 4:56 pm
when compare the bread to those from supermarket, I notice that homemake bread have lot of crumb when slicing. Can you please explain why. T.Q.
on October 5th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Deb asked about whole grain breads and for the most part, it’s simple substitution. The only tricky part will be the amount of water needed to get a good consistency.
As far as I’m concerned, the sky’s the limit when it comes to flours/whole grain additions.
Two caveats: if you’re going to add something like wheat berries, wheat bran, oatmeal or other hard, dry ingredients, mix everything up as a sponge first (all the ingredients, but only 1/3 to 1/2 of the flour) and let it ferment away for a couple of hours. That will give those ingredients time to soften up and hydrate, minimizing the chance that those pointy bran pieces will cut through the lovely gluten strands.
Caveat 2: when substituting for other flours besides wheat-based flours (oat, rye, corn, etc), only substitute for up to 50% of the total weight of the flour. Otherwise, your loaf will be pretty dense since the highest concentrations of gluten are found in wheat flours.
Be sure to check out Bread Ingredients and How They Effect The Final Outcome at
http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/bread_making_ingredients.htm
on October 5th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Such a great post and at a good time - we had a bread disaster today and couldn’t figure out what went wrong. I do think I know now.
on October 8th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Does any know the recipe for making bread in a rice cooker i cant find it any were and i misplaced my recipe for it. if any one knows how to make it or where to find the recipe please post.
Thanks in advance. Kagetora
on November 12th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
My problem making bread is the final step, it doesn’t seem to rise in the pans and are somewhat flat.
A lot of improvement since my first loaf many years ago though. At least now it’s edible.
To Deb: One of our personal favourites is spent grain bread. My husband makes beer from scratch and I use the grains and each bread is different because of the “spent grains.”
Type in Spent Grain Bread on the web and you’ll find recipes.
Some are heavier than others and I only toast this bread.
I have made it for friends and get a lot of compliments on it, even though it’s funny shaped (flat) and didn’t rise enough.