Super Soft White Bread

>> Monday, November 24, 2008

I've tried several bread recipes over the last few months, trying to lower my grocery budget. I found some yummy recipes, but the bread was so dense and had a pretty hard crust, no matter what I tried -- so it was great for garlic bread but not so great for sandwiches or toast. So I found myself still buying bread at the store, which is exactly what I was trying to avoid by making my own bread in the first place.

And then I found this recipe. It's another recipe that I found online on THIS website.

When I make these loaves of bread, my family will eat the entire batch in one sitting, if I let them. I don't let them. :) It is so extremely soft and is also very easy to make. It makes amazing French toast, and even just toasting it and slathering it with butter is perfection.

I think one of the main reasons this bread is so much better is because it uses bread flour instead of all-purpose flour. I'll admit I hadn't even heard of bread flour before -- every other bread recipe I've ever made just called for all-purpose flour. That's what makes the biggest difference in this recipe!

FYI -- bread flour is high in gluten. It has a few additives - like malted barley flour, vitamin C or potassium - that really help the yeast to work to its fullest potential. It's the extra gluten that provides the chewy-ness. If your recipe calls for bread flour, you can substitute all-purpose flour if you really need to (try your best not to need to, though!), but you won't get the same fabulous results. However, if a recipe calls for all-purpose flour, like a cake recipe, for example, don't substitute bread flour.

As always, you may want to read my tips on working with yeast and bread making before you begin!

Enough chit-chat.

Ingredients:
2 cups hot water (about 110 degrees)
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
6 cups bread flour

Dissolve sugar in water. Add yeast and let stand until yeast is very foamy and bubbly, about 5 minutes.

Add salt and oil. Mix in flour, 1 cup at a time. (You may need to use a bit more flour. I've had to use 6.5-7 cups in the past -- it really depends on the humidity.) Knead dough, either by hand or in your mixer, for about 5 minutes. Place dough in a well-oiled metal bowl, cover with a damp cloth and let rise until double in size, about 1 hour.

Punch down dough, divide in half and place into well-oiled 9x5 loaf pans. Let rise about 30 minutes.

Bake at 375 for 30 minutes. (Depending on your oven, you may need to cover loaves with foil and then remove the foil the last few minutes, to prevent over-browning.)

I dare you not to eat it all in one sitting!

25 comments:

Rachel April 22, 2009 at 11:42 AM  

We are trying this today...hopefully it will get the picky kids seal of approval

Rachel April 22, 2009 at 11:56 AM  

Hooray, they love it!! Thanks.

Anonymous,  January 6, 2010 at 3:23 PM  

I think I must have missed a step- the dough was VERY tough and difficult to knead- I'd say it was "crumbly". I must have added too much flour. I tried to combat it by adding a bit more oil and some left over eggnog from the holiday and that smoothed the texture a bit- but I have yet to see if it will bake out well. It rose by double in the large dough ball and I have them in the bread pans for their 30 minute rise as I type. Updates to come soon!

Jennwith4 June 30, 2010 at 2:32 PM  

When you said super soft you sure meant it! It was awesome however I see what you mean in your "The Absolute BEST Sandwich Bread" post on how it's not great for getting thin sandwich slices. I'll definitely be trying that one next.

Cassondra August 3, 2011 at 4:19 PM  

mmmmmm!!! this bread is sooo good! i added just a little bit of honey t the dough, and it made it almost stretchy....fantastic in the am with butter n cinnamon! thanks!

Anonymous,  August 14, 2011 at 12:09 PM  

I substituted 1 cup of hot water for 1 cup of warm milk (then used the other cup of hot water). this bread came out so moist and delious - just what I was looking for - thank you.

TEA LEIGH October 16, 2011 at 9:02 AM  

This was so simple to follow and the bread turned out exactly as you said it would! THANKS!

Tea.

Chris From Canada,  December 18, 2011 at 8:38 AM  

This really is one of the best bread recipes I have ever used. Easy and so delicious!!

Anonymous,  March 3, 2012 at 4:56 AM  

this really is lovely soft bread the kids loved it. i would just say i didnt have to use 6 cups of flour more like 5 which is prob why it was quite sweet. but very glad i came across this recipe.

Tawana March 25, 2012 at 4:11 PM  

I hve been using this recipe for a few years now,and I absolutely love it. It is the only homemade bread that I have made that stays soft for days after it has been baked. My family can't keep there hands off of it. I have used it for french toast sandwiches and just simple toast and they all turn out fantastic. I just made a fresh batch to day and I add a some whole wheat flour and substituted some of the sugar for honey. I am so ready to see how it is going to turn out I know it is going to be awsome as usual. Thank you so much for this great recipe. It is always a treat.

Megan July 26, 2012 at 9:01 AM  

I'm trying this recipe today for the first time. I love baking homemade breads for my family, and usually they are whole wheat. My husband prefers supermarket white bread, so I'm hoping this will be the perfect compromise. *fingers crossed!*

Anonymous,  October 29, 2013 at 9:10 AM  

Can i replace active dry yeast with instant yeast?

Anonymous,  November 24, 2013 at 7:50 AM  

This recipe is so amazing it made me want to post a comment on it which is something I've never done. Its amazing! I have been baking bread for years and, in my opinion, this is the best and easiest bread recipe I've found. It came out incredibly soft, moist, fluffy and yet still had density to it. I followed the directions, used 6 cups of flour, although next time I will add a bit more salt. This will absolutely be my new staple for bread recipes. Thank you for posting this!

Anonymous,  January 31, 2014 at 10:15 PM  

Wow! This bread is addictive!

Amy N,  March 15, 2014 at 2:37 AM  

I started baking bread for my family last year. I've made some good ones and a couple of bad ones *lol*. I have been searching for soft white bread recipes since I started and the closest I got was Brioche bread. Which I absolutely loved. I found this recipe a while ago and tried it for the first time last weekend. It was a huge hit. So soft. I'm making it again now. On my second rise right now. But this time I'm using milk as opposed to just water. I cant wait to sink my teeth into it.
So yes, you have a fan. Just for this recipe. And in far away Nigeria no less.

Anonymous,  January 13, 2015 at 9:14 AM  

Wallbanger/Baker. K I'm letting it rise then I'm going to bake it. Wow its done it great . I'm going to use this everytime.
Thank you

Anonymous,  March 23, 2015 at 9:10 AM  

I just started baking a month ago and stumbled on this recipe. For those experts in baking, please help....I would like to substitute honey for sugar due to glycemic issues. 2/3 cups sugar for how many cups honey?

Thanks for any reply in advance.

Rachelle,  April 26, 2015 at 7:35 PM  

Thanks so much for this recipe. Pretty sure I added too much flour (I think I kneaded wrong and misintrepreted the stickyness as needing 8 cups of flour total), and pretty sure my mini oven isn't calibrated correctly. But it still tastes awesome! Mine came out chewy and soft. Very chewy and fairly elastic. I love it though and I will try this recipe again. I think I'll make this into texas toast, french toast, sandwiches... so many options!

Anonymous,  January 11, 2016 at 9:50 AM  

Im trying this and its in the oven now, i only have 5 min left!! i took off the alluminum foil 10 min before its done to give it some color. so far its looking real soft!

Anonymous,  May 30, 2016 at 4:02 AM  

Hi, I've been looking for this information, thank you so much for all your tips. I really like that you talk about your experience as well, and why some times it didn't work out (I read the other links you tagged there, very useful). I have a few questions.. I wanted to bake super soft burger buns with this recipe, but I also want them to be coloured (1 batch coloured with beets, 1 green batch coloured with spinash and 1 yellow batch coloured with pumpkin). I am vegan, so I didn't want to use eggs, milk nor butter - which all the other recipes call for, usually it's brioche recipe. My question is: do you think I can colour the bread using 1 part of water and 1 part of vegetable juice (without the pulp)? (ex. I'd juice a beet and put it on the stove to reduce and intensify the colour)... and for the sesame seeds to stick on top, I'd use sugar syrup instead of egg wash. Do you have any advise? Thank you very much.
Greetings from Portugal!

Sarabeth,  November 29, 2016 at 5:06 AM  

Made as directed, came out great. Covered in the oven with foil and took loaves out of pan while still watm and wrapped in foil for a soft crust.

Unknown May 18, 2019 at 6:46 PM  

Can i make the dough for another type of bread like croissant or cheeze bread?

Unknown January 11, 2020 at 5:54 PM  

Thank you for this tip. I will be on my 6th attempt. I mixed the all purpose flour w the bread flour and bacame super hard. I will try using just bread flour. Wish me luck!

Unknown April 5, 2020 at 5:30 PM  

So wrapping in foil while still warm gives the top crust a softer crust? I made this recipe but the top crust came out so hard I had to cut it off. Please help

Anonymous,  March 28, 2021 at 5:51 AM  

Can this recipe be cut in half

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