An easy step-by-step guide (with photos) for a perfect every day loaf. Slice it thin for breakfast toast or sandwiches, or thick for delicious french toast, this recipe will make it simple to create more nutritious homemade meals for your family.
Start by adding 1 tablespoon of sugar into the bowl of your mixer, this is going to feed the yeast helping it activate. Add warm water, sprinkle the yeast on top and give it gentle mix. Leave for 5-10 minutes until it’s foamy on top.
Add the rest of the ingredients-remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar, salt, oil, flour, and mix on speed 2 (this is the speed recommended by KitchenAid for bread doughs)
Mine needed a few extra tablespoons of flour to come together, you can see the dough sticking to the bottom here in the second photo before adding
Mix for around 5 minutes until dough pulls away from the sides and looks nice and smooth. You can test it by pressing it with your finger to check if it springs back- if it leaves an indentation it needs a few more minutes. Cover and leave to proof until doubled in size.
When the dough has doubled in size, punch down and turn out onto surface, divide in half.
Press down into a rectangle (doesn’t have to be perfect) and fold it onto itself in thirds (like a letter.) From there, roll it up from the bottom into a loaf shape. To give the loaf some structure, begin to gently drag the loaf towards you while keeping your hand behind it to create tension, do this a few times- this will make a beautiful crust. Repeat with second half.
Use oil or butter to coat the pans very well to prevent sticking. Preheat the oven to 375 so it’s ready when the dough is risen; I keep my loaves near the oven to speed up the process. Cover with a clean damp tea towel and leave to rise for about an hour- until the loaves have risen about one inch above the rim of the pans (this is the sweet spot for rising – anything more will create a loaf with too many air bubbles which isn’t great for slicing.)
Bake for 30 minutes, let cool for a few minutes in the pans (but don’t leave for longer than that or the sides will become soggy with condensation.) Turn out onto rack to cool completely
slice and enjoy!
Simple Sandwich Bread
Stop buying bread at the store! Use this easy 5 ingredient recipe for the ultimate loaf, perfect for pb&j, french toast, grilled cheese, and all your other everyday uses
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cup warm water
- 2 ¼ tsp active dry yeast one packet
- 5 ½ cup organic all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup organic cane sugar
- 2 tbsp olive oil or avocado oil
- 1 tbsp salt
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with dough hook, add 1 tbsp of sugar (this will help feed the yeast)
- Add warm water and sprinkle the yeast on top and gently mix
- Wait 5-10 minutes for yeast to activate- it will be foamy on top
- Add remaining sugar, salt, oil, flour
- Mix on speed 2 until dough pulls away from the sides and is nice and smooth (mine needed a few more tablespoons of flour to come together) about 5 minutes
- To check if it's kneaded enough, press the dough with your finger- if it springs back it's ready, if not give it another minute or two
- Cover and let sit for 1-2 hours until doubled in size (the time will depend on the temperature of your house, you could set it in the oven with the light on to speed things up )
- Spray two glass loaf pans (I use coconut oil spray but butter works too, just make sure they're well-coated to prevent sticking)
- Punch down dough to remove excess air and divide in half
- Press and stretch into a rectangle, it doesn't need to be perfect
- Fold into thirds (like a letter) and roll up into a loaf (this gives the loaf it's structure)
- To tighten up the loaf, gently pull the loaf towards you with your hand behind it to create tension, then gently tuck the sides in. Repeat a few times
- Preheat oven to 375℉
- Set into prepared pans and cover for about an hour- or until the loaves have risen to about 1 inch above the rim of the pans
- Bake for 30 minutes
- Cool for a few minutes in pans before turning out to finish cooling on rack
Notes
- variations: experiment using a cup or two of whole wheat flour (anything more than that will make the dough too dry)
- you can absolutely knead this by hand- that’s what I did for years and I feel like it actually gave a better idea of how the dough should feel like
- these loaves freeze very well, just leave out for a few hours on the counter to come to room temperature
- I store this bread in bread bags, it would also do well in a cake stand