basic white bread: simple ingredients and easy steps (straight-dough method)

Taste good, cost little, help us avoid consuming any unwanted food additives. Making bread at home is easy, healthy, economical, and very hearty.

Bread is a simple food for thousands of years. Ingredients like flour, water, salt, and yeast, are all we need. Moreover, with addition and combination of oil, butter, sugar, honey, milk, eggs and many other ingredients brings different textures and flavors.

Among all kinds, basic white bread is the most fundamental and most versatile.

This recipe makes a loaf of white bread, it weighs 450 grams (about 1 pound)

item	weight	cups or spoons	weight % to flour
bread flour	300 g	2 + 1/4 cups	100 %
water	180 g	3/4 cup	60 %
salt	6 g	1 tsp	2 %
instant yeast	3 g	1 tsp	1 %
total weight	489 g	–	–
total weight ratio	–	–	163 %
reference	1 cup = 240ml	1 tbsp = 15ml	1 tsp = 5ml

It’s optional to add butter and sugar

butter	18 g	4 tsp	6 %
sugar	9 g	2 tsp	3 %

Total weight ratio becomes 172% (calculation: 163% + 6% + 3% = 172%)

• measuring cups and spoons (or electronic scales)
• mixing bowls, spatula, and whisk
• cooking brush or cooking spray
• tea towel, or plastic wrap, or bowl lid
• loaf pan and cooling rack
• oven and oven mittens

prepare the bread pan: grease the loaf pan with oil or butter, or have it lined with parchment paper

1. weighting ingredients
2. mixing and kneading
   • mix flour and salt
   • have a bowl, mix water and yeast
   • add flour and salt mixture into the bowl
   • mix all ingredients together
   • knead for 8~10 minutes (I found this process very therapeutic 🙂 makes me calm and happy)
3. first proofing
   • put the dough into a bowl (greased or not is optional)
   • have it covered with a lid or a plastic wrap
   • leave it in a warm place for 60 to 90 mintues until its volume is doubled
   • (or optional, put it in the fridge overnight for 8 to 10 hours, the dough will go through a slow fermentation, taste even better)
4. deflating and shaping
   • take the dough out of the bowl and put on a working surface
   • press and fold the dough to deflate the air
   • shape the dough into a nice cylinder, according to the length and width of your loaf pan
5. second proofing
   • put the cylinder dough into the loaf pan
   • have it covered with a lid or a plastic wrap
   • leave it in a warm place for 30 minutes or until its volume reaches 80% ~ 90% of the loaf pan volume
6. baking
   • have the oven preheated to  200*C / 400*F
   • place the loaf into the oven
   • bake for 30 minutes
   • optional: some water (1/4 cup ~ 1 cup) can be put under the loaf pan to create some steam, it’ll make the bread with a beautiful crust