Excellent White Bread

By Melissa Clark

Excellent White Bread
Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
Total Time
4 hours 15 minutes
Rating
5(3,027)
Comments
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This straightforward loaf is the white bread of your dreams, and its fluffy slices make for evenly browned toast. The ⅓-cup of sugar makes this mildly sweet and perfect for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but you can cut it down to 2 tablespoons if you’d rather have something more neutral in flavor. You do need some sugar, however, to feed the yeast and ensure a lofty rise. This recipe makes two loaves, one for now, and one for the freezer or to share with a lucky friend.

Featured in: White Bread That’s Beyond the Ordinary

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Ingredients

Yield:2 loaves
  • 2¼teaspoons/7 grams active dry yeast (1 package)
  • 1½cups/355 milliliters lukewarm milk
  • ⅓cup/67 grams granulated sugar
  • 1tablespoon/15 grams kosher salt
  • 3tablespoons/43 grams butter, melted, more for greasing bowl and pans and for brushing the tops of the loaves
  • 2eggs
  • 5 to 6cups/625 grams to 750 grams all-purpose flour
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (12 servings)

275 calories; 5 grams fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 2 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 48 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 7 grams sugars; 8 grams protein; 237 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    In a large electric mixer bowl, dissolve yeast in ¼ cup warm milk. Add the remaining warm milk, the sugar, the salt, the butter and the eggs. Add 5 cups flour and mix with paddle attachment until smooth, about 2 minutes. Switch to hook attachment and knead on low speed, adding more flour if necessary until dough is stiff and slightly tacky, about 10 minutes.

  2. Step 2

    Grease a large bowl with butter and turn dough out into the bowl. Flip over dough so greased side is up, cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and set in a warm, draft-free spot until doubled in size, about 1½ to 2 hours. Generously butter two 9-x-5 loaf pans.

  3. Step 3

    When dough has doubled in size, turn it out onto floured surface and knead for 3 minutes. Return to greased bowl, cover and let rise again for 30 minutes.

  4. Step 4

    Press down dough with your hand to expel the air. Divide dough in half and place each half into a loaf pan. Brush tops of loaves with remaining melted butter.

  5. Step 5

    Cover and let rise until dough is just above the tops of pans, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

  6. Step 6

    Heat oven to 400 degrees. Bake bread for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 20 to 30 minutes, or until loaves sound hollow when tapped, the tops are brown and the internal temperatures are 200 degrees. Remove loaves from pans and let cool on wire racks.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
3,027 user ratings
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Comments

Rose

Changes & Tweaks:

- Halve the sugar for sure, tastes weird with anything savory, even a sandwich other than PB&J
- I had leftover flour, don't be afraid to drop below the 5c
- Rise times were very short with fresh yeast, final loaf came close to over-rising

I made this loaf without any appliances and it was a remarkably easy recipe to mix by hand, kneading up quickly and with little mess or adjustment. Will definitely make again!

Chris Indianapolis

This is my mother's recipe! I add two tablespoons of vinegar to make sure it does not mold in the 4 days it is being eaten.

Andrea

The last time I posted a comment for this recipe was 16 days ago. I have made this bread at least 7 times since. I can't recommend this recipe enough and have emailed it to everyone I know who bakes.
I was making ciabattas and Kindred Milk Bread prior to this regularly, but this is my go to now. I have baked it a different temp's, I only have a single oven, comes out perfect every time.
If you have never baked bread, try this recipe, it's indestructible.

MS

Made this a couple of times now. Used less sugar as I am not a fan of very sweet bread, added a couple of Tbs of ground flax seed for some interest last time and that seemed to work well. It has a fine crumb, more mealy than chewy. Makes good toast. This is the first bread recipe I've used that calls for 3 seperate proofs. 1st proof after the initial mixing and kneading. 2nd punch down and knead some more and 3rd punch down shape into loaf pans and let rise about rim.

OceanBeachSF

The name says it all! I don’t attempt bread very often but I just felt like trying to make bread today, and succeeded. I added a tsp of vinegar as suggested by other bakers here, and reduced the sugar a bit. The loaves smelled and looked amazing out of the oven. Tasted great with a little salted butter, and worked wonderfully for grilled cheese, probably because of the eggs in the dough. A little crumbly used for a hearty toasted sandwich, but I have absolutely no complaints!

charlene

I’ve made this bread dozens of times since I discovered the recipe 4 years ago. It’s incredibly forgiving and versatile. I do everything according to the recipe except I shape it into one loaf and about 8 buns. Or I make 5 mini loaves. I’ve sometimes added cheddar (amazing, and don’t be shy with the amount) and I used it as the base for cinnamon bread. So good.

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