Have you recently purchased a bread machine (or have had one hiding out in your cupboard for a while) and are looking for some awesome white bread recipes? Look no further! We’ve gathered some of the best white bread machine recipes and they are essentially foolproof. Making your own bread is healthier, cheaper, and can be tailored to your own dietary needs and preferences. After trying these recipes, we promise you won’t put that bread machine in the back of the cupboard again.
What Are the Benefits of Making Your Own Bread?
For most of us, picking up a loaf of bread at the supermarket may be easier than whipping up a loaf ourselves; however, there are a ton of benefits to making your own bread that you may not realize. Let’s take a look at what you may be missing out on by buying your bread at the grocery store.
- Making your own bread is healthier. When you purchase a commercially packaged loaf of bread from the supermarket, it has a much longer shelf life than homemade bread – and you won’t have to look any farther than the ingredients list to find out why. Commercial bread nearly always includes preservatives and treatment agents which are necessary for bread that is going to sit on a supermarket shelf for longer than a few days. When you make your own bread, you bypass all of those nasty ingredients. Yes, you’re going to trade no preservatives for a shorter shelf life but your body will thank you.
- Making your own bread is cheaper. This may not seem true when you factor in the initial cost of the bread maker but, over time, this investment more than pays for itself. The cost of a cheap, low-quality loaf of bread is exponentially higher than what it costs to make it. The low cost of a high-quality loaf of bread that you make in a bread machine pays for itself (and the cost of your bread machine) in no time.
- You select the ingredients. Regardless of the type of bread you make, you can tailor the ingredients to your own dietary needs. You have the choice of choosing only the highest quality flours (or grind your own, if that’s your thing) as well as substitute for any dairy and eggs. This is also an excellent way to make sure that your bread is completely gluten-free.
The Basic White Bread Recipe
Looking for a basic white bread recipe that’s as easy as pie? Look no further than our basic white bread recipe. Prep this recipe in five minutes and have it ready to go in just a few hours. Many of these ingredients can be substituted with gluten-free or additional allergy-friendly options.
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm water
- 3 tablespoons white sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3 cups of bread flour
- 2 ¼ teaspoons dry yeast
- Starting with the wet ingredients first, combine all ingredients into the pan of the bread machine.
- Select the White Bread setting.
- Once the bread is finished baking, cool completely on wire racks before slicing and serving.
Gluten-Free/Dairy-Free White Bread Recipe
This is a great option for those who are sensitive to gluten, dairy, or both or those who are simply looking to make better health choices. This recipe takes 10 minutes to prep and 2 ½ hours to cook.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups warm cashew, almond or coconut milk
- ¼ cup unsalted dairy-free butter
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- ½ cup honey
- 3 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon xanthan gum (check the ingredients list to see if your flour already contains xanthan gum. If so, do not add additional).
- 1 ¾ teaspoon instant yeast
- Begin by adding wet ingredients.
- Warm the milk and melt butter in the microwave or on the stove before pouring into the bread baking pan.
- Add honey and beaten eggs, followed by apple cider vinegar.
- Add all dry ingredients except for the yeast (flour, salt, and xanthan gum).
- Make a small hole with your finger in the flour and pour the yeast into the hole.
- This recipe calls for the gluten-free setting rather than the white bread setting when starting the bread machine.
- Due to the ingredients, you may need to scrape the sides of the pan down with your bread machine is mixing (you may not, depending on the bread machine).
- Cool completely on wire racks before slicing and enjoy!
Simple Milk and Honey Bread Recipe
This recipe is a simpler version of our Gluten-Free/Dairy-Free White Bread Recipe for those who are looking for a little spin on the basic white bread loaf. Prep time for this moist and delicious bread is 10 minutes with a baking time of two hours.
Ingredients
- 1 cup and 1 tablespoon milk
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 3 tablespoons melted butter
- 3 cups white bread flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- Begin by adding wet ingredients to the bread machine pan (milk, honey, melted butter).
- Follow by dry ingredients, excluding the yeast (flour, salt).
- Create a small hole in the flour for the yeast before adding it to the pan.
- Select the white bread setting, choosing the medium crust option, if available.
- Remove from the bread machine pan when it has completed baking and cool completely on wire racks before serving. Enjoy!
If you ask us, bread machines today are entirely underrated. We all know there’s nothing better than a warm, moist, fresh loaf of homemade bread. Once you make the initial investment of a bread machine (which honestly isn’t very expensive), all you need to do is keep a few basic ingredients around your kitchen and you’ll never need to buy cheap, low-quality sliced bread from the supermarket again. We’d say that’s a pretty good deal!
