Homemade Bread Recipe – Easy Step by Step Video for Beginners

Fresh bread makes everyone excited to eat, so let’s learn how to make bread from scratch. This is the easiest homemade bread recipe with step by step directions! Once you get this easy bread recipe down, you’ll be able to use it to make all sorts of bread!

This recipe will soon be on repeat in your kitchen, as soon as you realise how easy it is! It’s human to love bread… Bread is one of the first foods in named in the bible and has been a cultural staple for centuries. However, there are 4 basic kinds of bread!

• Unleavened Bread – Flatbreads do not rise, (there is no leavening) they’re flat like a tortilla!
• Quick Breads – Quick breads are often sweet, and use baking powder and baking soda as leavening to rise and get fluffy.
• Yeast Breads – These are the most common types of breads in the US, and are made with commercial yeast for leavening to rise and get fluffy. There are two types of commercial yeast, Active Drive Yeast and Instant Dry Yeast. (I am talking you through how to make bread from scratch with yeast below.)
• Sourdough Bread – Sourdough breads are fluffy on the inside and made with sourdough starter, which is cultivated wild yeast, for leavening (to make it fluffy).

Why You’ll LOVE This Fresh Bread

1. It’s easier than you think!
2. It’s super soft and tastes so good!
3. A slightly crisp crust.
4. You can shape it however you want to!
5. Only a few simple ingredients!
6. It is an excellent addition to just about any meal!

How To Make Homemade Bread From Scratch

What You’ll Need

To make bread from scratch with yeast you will need a medium size mixing bowl, flour (typically wheat flour like general purpose flour, or ground wheat flour), Yeast, warm water, a little bit sugar, salt and oil or butter. AND 2 bread pans, or baking sheet.

Step 1 – Activate Yeast

How to make bread from scratch with yeast – The first step is to dissolve yeast and activate it in warm water with a little bit of sugar! In a glass cup or small bowl, dissolve 1 and 3/4 tablespoons of active dry yeast, and 2 teaspoons of granulated sugar (or honey) in 1 cups of warm water. Let it stand a few minutes till it gets nice and frothy, I’ll show you what that looks like in this video. ***Important – Do not use HOT water, because it will kill the yeast. Your water should be warm to the touch (about 100°-110° F).

*** If you are using INSTANT yeast, you can add your yeast directly in with other ingredients and skip the activating step. (Just make sure you use 2 cups of water in the recipe.)

Step – 2 Add All Other Ingredients & Mix

Add the remaining sugar, flour, salt, into your mixing bowl and give it a stir to combine. Make a small hole (nest hole) in the middle of your flour mixture and pour in the activated yeast and the remaining 1 cup of warm water.

Now MIX! You can mix with your hand or with a kneading attachment on your Kitchen Air or mixer. (This will get too thick for a hand mixer.) Mix till well combine, about 2 minutes in an electric mixer or 5 minutes by hand.

Step 3 – Knead Bread!

This is the fun part! Now it’s time to sprinkle a small areas (1′-2’x1′-2′) of your clean counter top with a bit of flour to prevent sticking. Dump your mixture out of the mixing bowl on to the floured counter space and start kneading.

If the dough is sticky, sprinkle flour on top and keep kneading. Continue this process till your dough is super soft (like babies skin) and no longer too sticky, but still smooth and elastic. Knead your dough for at least 7 minutes. ***Don’t add flour till it’s dry or hard to knead, because that will make dense dry bread.

It’s ok if your dough sticks a bit to the counter, or bottom of the bowel if kneading in bowl.

Step 4 – Let Your Dough Rise!

Put your kneaded bread dough into an oiled mixing bowl that is at least twice the size of the dough. Spread the top of your dough with a little oil so that it won’t dry out while rising.

Cover your dough and bowl with a clean cloth, and set in a warm place to rise for about an hour. If your house is cold it will take longer to rise. You can put rising dough in a warmed oven. Just turn your oven on for a couple minutes till it gets warm (NOT HOT) and then turn the oven off. AFTER turning the oven off, put your bowl of dough in to rise.

Let rise till doubled in size (about an hour).

TIP: How to make bread with granite counters – Solid surface counters stay colder, so if you have granite or a hard surface countertop, put a folded towel under the bowl of dough. This will keep dough warm while rising, and insulate it from the colder countertop.

Step 5 – Punch Dough Down and Shape!

“Punching the dough” down just pushes out the air inside so that you don’t get huge holes in your bread. (Don’t worry, it will rise again.)

Quickly shape loaves by rolling your dough into balls on the counter a couple times. Shape into loaves that will fit into your buttered bread pans, or on a buttered baking sheet.

What Kind Of Bread Pan Should I Use?

There are a lot of bread pan options to make bread. I love to use my ceramic and stoneware loaf pans! They heat evenly and loaves bake really well.

Metal pans don’t last as long and can cook less evenly, and the bottoms get too dark. They also get rusty pretty fast. I don’t like to use aluminum pans because there are suspicions that they contribute to alzheimer’s.

You don’t have to have a loaf pan, you can make yeast bread look like a traditional french bread by baking it on a baking sheet.

Step 6 – Let Loaves Rise Again

Spread a bit of oil on top of your shaped loaves, and cover with a clean towel again. Put your covered loaf pans or covered baking sheets in a warm place to rise again. Let rise for 30 minutes.

If your house is cold, turn the oven on for just a minute or two to warm it and TURN IT OFF. Then put your covered loaves in to rise.

Step 7 – Time To Bake Your Bread!

If your loaves are rising in the oven, take them out. Move your oven racks to the center of the oven, and preheat your oven to three hundred and fifty degrees – 350°F.

Once your oven is preheated, put your loaves in on center racks, and let bake for 30 minutes.

Check them at 30 minutes, it should be nice and golden on top and sound a bit hollow when tapped or flicked with your finger. You can use a digital thermometer to see if your bread is perfectly baked. Perfectly baked bread should be about 190° degrees F inside.

Step 8 – Let Bread Cool

When bread is done, remove it with hot pads and set it on the counter. Let bread cool for ten to fifteen minutes. Then turn pan over and remove bread to let it continue cooling on a clean towel or cutting board. (If you leave bread in the baking pan longer it will get soggy bottom crust from steam.

Serve Homemade Bread With

• Homemade Honey Butter! (for a memorable snack)
• Spinach Artichoke Dip!
• With Hot Soup or Chili
• With Garlic Salt and Butter To Accompany Any Pasta Dish!
• Fresh Cheese!
• Freezer Jam!!! We LOVE Raspberry Freezer Jam, Sugar Free Peach Freezer Jam and the classic Strawberry Freezer Jam!!!

TIPS: How To Make The Easiest Homemade Bread Recipe –

1. Don’t skimp when kneading bread dough! Kneading dough activates the proteins in the flour that make bread elastic and hold together well! Aim to knead your dough for at least seven minutes.

2. For 1 hour bread use Instant or Rapid Rise Yeast. This will allow you to skip the second rise! You may put your loaf into your pan or shaped on a sheet right after kneading!

3. Speed up rising time by warming oven to 180 and shut it off. Then place your covered dough in the oven to rise! Check in 30 minutes! As soon as dough has doubled, it’s done rising!

4. Try variations! We LOVE these Date Cinnamon Rolls, or use this recipe for Pizza Crust!

Effects of Weather on Homemade Bread Recipe

The weather can affect on how you make bread in different ways! If it’s cold, it will take longer to rise. If it’s a hot day, your bread will rise much faster, so keep an eye on your dough and just let it double the first rise and the second rise.

***If your dough rises too much, it will fall while baking and you;ll have a flatter bread that isn;t so pretty.

If you are in a humid climate, you’ll need to add more flour while kneading. Add flour 1/8 a cup at a time till smooth and elastic. You may need to add 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup in humid climates.

Don’t Knead Bread After First Rise

After your dough rises the first time, you’ll punch it down and shape it… Make sure you don’t over do it at this point. You want to leave it airy. So just punch it down really quick, and shape it into loaves. Overworking the dough at this point will make dense and less fluffy bread.

How To Store Homemade Bread

If any have bread left after it’s cool, my family eats it super fast, you can store it in an airtight container. I like these plastic bread bag you can get from Amazon.

Place wrapped bread on the counter. If you put it into the refrigerator, it will get hard and stiffer for the next use. Keeping it on the counter keeps it soft.

Don’t UNDER Bake Homemade Bread

If you don’t bake bread long enough, the indie will fall or sink and be doughy. The best way to make sure you’ve baked your bread long enough is to use the cooking thermometer to check the temp inside the loaf. Your loaf should be 190° F inside before you take it out.

How To Make The Easiest Homemade Bread Recipe From Scratch

This is the simple bread recipe I use to make bread from scratch at home. Yields 2 standard size bread loaves.:

• 1 & 3/4 tablespoons Active Dry Yeast
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 cups of warm water (100°-110° F)
• 1 & 1/2 teaspoons SALT
• 1/4 cup melted butter or your favorite oil
• 5-6 cups flour.

Directions

1. In a small bowl dissolve 2 tsp sugar in 1 cup warm water and stir in the yeast with a plastic spoon (not metal). Allow to activate till it’s foamy on top and growing.
2. In a large mixing bowl combine all other ingredients BUT hold back 1 cup of flour. And MIX to combine.
3. Make a well in the middle of flour mixture, and pour in activated yeast and the second cup of warm water.
4. knead your dough for at least 7 minutes till it is smooth and elastic adding the last cup of flour as needed.
5. Allow to rise in warm place for about an hour.
6. Punch down dough and quickly shape into loaves.
7. Put shaped loaves into buttered bread pans on a on greased baking sheet.
8. Let rise again for up to 30 minutes. Do not let over rise.
9. Bake at 350° F for 30 minutes till golden brown on top and 190° F inside.
10. Brush top with melted butter and let it cool.
11. ENJOY! This bread is so good with Raspberry Freezer Jam!

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