Basic White Bread
There is joy in bread making. I’m a beginner in bread making and its only recently that I have discovered the wonderful joys of baking fresh bread at home. My friendly neighborhood baker has been kind enough to teach me the nuances of baking bread as well as providing me with fresh yeast on demand. How lucky am I?!-:) There’s nothing to beat the wonderful aroma of baking bread and savoring the taste of fresh, warm bread with a generous amount of homemade butter.
Bread making is not as difficult as I imagined it to be. It does take practice, good yeast and a lot of kneading to achieve a reasonably good loaf of bread. I’m satisfied at the outcome of my second attempt at bread making but definitely need to improve and work on my bread making skills to produce that perfectly risen loaf with a perfect crumb and crust.
Preparation time: 20 mts
Rising of dough: 1 1/2 - 2 hrs
Baking: 1/2 hr
Ingredients for White Bread Recipe:
1 kg all-purpose flour
2 tbsps (20 gms) fresh yeast
1 1/2 tbsps granulated sugar
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 cup lukewarm milk (as warm as a baby’s milk bottle)
1 3/4 - 2 cups lukewarm water (approx)
water for brushing
melted butter for greasing and brushing
Place the all-purpose flour and salt on a flat work surface and combine. Make a well in the center. Add luke warm milk, sugar and fresh yeast and leave it for a few minutes for the yeast to prove. Use your fingers to bring the dough together. From the inside of the well, slowly bring in the flour to combine with the wet ingredients. Add the olive oil and continue to bring in the dry flour till you reach the outer edge of the flour well adding lukewarm water as required.
Knead the dough using the heel of your hand to push the dough away from you and lift it and fold over towards you. Turn the dough into a quarter turn and repeat. Continue to knead this way. This is very therapeutic and believe me you will begin to feel a sense of calm and inner peace. Knead for 10 minutes or until smooth and springy.
Shape the dough into a ball. Grease a large bowl with the melted butter. Place the dough in the bowl and turn it over so that it coats the dough surface as well (will help the dough from drying as it sits). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in a warm area of your kitchen to allow the dough to rise to double its size. It should take about 45 mts to 1 hr 15mts for the dough to rise. The dough took over an hour to rise. You know the dough is ready when it leaves a finger imprint when lightly pressed.
Now punch down in the centre of the risen dough with your fist. This “punching” down the dough, releases excess carbon dioxide produced by the yeast during the rising process and we don’t end up with a yeasty flavored bread. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead again for 2-3 minutes or until smooth and elastic and returns to its original size. Let it rest to rise again until almost double for about another 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease a loaf pan and keep aside. Use a knife to cut a quarter part of the dough and shape each into a smooth round. Shape the dough into an rectangular shaped long roll and place in the greased loaf pan. Brush lightly with the melted butter. Place the loaf pan in a warm place for 30 mts or until the dough has risen slightly above the top of the pan. Gently brush the loaf with a little water or egg white and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until it reaches a golden color and cooked. When you tap the base of the pan it should sound hollow (it means the bread is done).
Immediately turn the loaf onto a wire rack and cool. Once cool, store the loaf at room temperature. This bread is best eaten on the day it is made. However, it tastes equally good after 1-2 days of baking.
Note:
Yeast ferments and grows when combined with flour, sugar and warm milk. Carbon dioxide is produced and trapped in the dough as tiny air bubbles which make the bread rise during cooking and gives its texture. Salt adds flavor. Kneading distributes the yeast evenly through the dough, develops and strengthens the gluten in the flour.
By sailu • Jun 27th, 2008 • Category: All Recipes, Cakes & Cookies, Flour Recipes, Pasta & Baked Recipes
Perfect bread! Great result for a first bread Sailaja. Even Siri baked her own basic bread today! I am happy that you got to learn the tricks from a pro, now variations are endless! Enjoy! :))
Your bread looks great! I could eat some of it now!
Cheers,
Rosa
woow,..looks so nice,.homemde fresh baked bread
Oh I love the way the loaf looks! Can almost smell it here.
I have tried a couple of times, when the oven was new and I had the enthu. But the bread turned out to be like a solid brick!! But with your reliable tips, I will surely give it another shot.
Thanks for posting this. Do you happen to know how to make perfect jalebis (the dahi version, not the yeast one)? Please consider posting that someday.
That bread looks so comforting. I am a novice breadmaker myself who uses breadmaker machine!!;-) but now I am tempted to use my own hands for kneading. Awesome job.
That is what I call a perfect-looking bread..the crumb, crust et al.
looks great Sailu! Soft and delicious i bet!
wow…That wud be the first thing i wud like to try when i get a good oven;-)
Urs came out too perfect…
Lovely! The texture looks great.
The best thing is the wonderful aroma of fresh bread. The whole house smells yummy!
Lovely airy texture, perfect looking bread. Looks like a pound cake those slices…..
Beautiful bread! I am new to baking too and have been baking rolls and stuff. But still to bake my first bread. Question : how do you get such perfect slices?
I have a question, Sailu. What about the quarter part of the dough cut before the last rise? Is it baked separately as a roll? Thanks.
The quarter part of dough cut before the last rise was shaped into a rectangular roll and placed in a greased bread loaf to bake. I used the other 3 quarters to prepare ‘garlic bread’, ‘buns’ and ‘dinner rolls’.
Hi Sailaja,
wow bread looks awesome, will it be difficult to knead dough from scratch? As you got this recipe from a bakery chef, can you get few pastry recipes too, I love pastries and miss those so much, we could not find the same taste here in US. We will be so much thankful to you if you try and post those pastries recipes. I am looking for pineapple pastry and black forest. Thanks a lot for the bread recipe.
Sirisha.
wow, EXCELLENT….U DO IT ALWAYS
pls… as sirisha mentioned plsss… try to post some recipes of pastries, we miss miss miss ……them a lot…….
we miss INDIA….
Hi Sailu
the bread looks really good …..bet would be awesome with some warm butter
Doesnt look like a bread baked just for the second time..U did it like a pro..
That’s the perect loaf of bread! This is something I
That got submitted before I was even ready.:-(
I was saying that I’ve never tried baking bread before. Looking at your results it’s hard to believe that you’re a beginner!
Hai sailuji can u make chicken briyani for us? Please accept my request.
Thank u
So for one loaf, I should 1/4 the recipe. Got it. Thanks, Sailu. If you could sometime post the baking time for dinner rolls, garlic buns it would be great too.
Sailu - that looks amazingly like a pro. i just baked my first bread too - couple days ago - and it was magical!
Wonderful Sailu,I have never used fresh yeast but I heard that the result are much better than instant ones.I will try ur version using fresh yeast.The bread looks so pro and amazing picture too.
the accompanying pics are so good, seem that the bread-baking project is worth a try. thanks for the very detailed description, should be very helpful..
Lovely perfect loaf of bread Sailu! I have also been sucked into the beautiful world of baking bread after just one try
Miri
Congratulations on such a delicious looking bread. Very nice!
Paz
Wow you are so lucky Sailu… Bread looks great just in your second attempt.. You have become an official baker now!!!
This loaf of bread looks too good to be true. I have bookmarked your recipe.
Nice and tasty bread!!Good info abt yeast.Got to try once.
Should try to make a nice cinnamon bread outta that
excellent looking bread sailu…..my daughter is shouting beeeed and jaaaaam mummy after seeing your picture…!!!!:-)
Be it for breakfast or a tea snack, bread rules…I’ve always wanted to bake a bread…Yours looks delicious..But am scared if I can make it,,,Anyway I’ll give it a try,,,Since you have a pro to help, plz do post some snack items like puffs if you can ,, Thanx in advance,,,Won’ful photos again..!
omg! that looks prettier and more perfect than a store bought one. great going with the yeast
Looks really great!! Can you please tell me how to bake it with a microwave? I have a microwave with convection / grill options. Thanks in advance!!!
The bread looks lovely and the entire process seems exciting. What is all-purpose flour in terms of what we get locally- wheat atta, maida or what? Where do you get fresh yeast? I am in Hyderabad.
The flour used is maida. You can get fresh yeast from the wholesale bakery supply store or in any good dept store.
Beautiful and perfect bread, Sailu!
Hi…..
bread looks really great.can I make it in microwave oven?
Hi Sailu,
very impressed with ur recipe, can you let me know which yeast you used.
I used fresh yeast.
hi,
your bread looks awesome. I want to know what is the oven u used for baking. I returned from USA few days back and seriously searching for a good oven but could not find one. Can u please suggest some brands for me to compare and buy one. Your help in this matter is really appreciable.
Thanks in advance.
sirisha
I use an OTG (Murphy Richards), Sirisha.
[…] sailu wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThere is joy in bread making. I’m a beginner in bread making and its only recently that I have discovered the wonderful joys of baking fresh bread at home. My friendly neighborhood baker has been kind enough to teach me the nuances of baking bread as well as providing me with fresh yeast on demand. […] […]
[…] sailu wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt […]
EXCELLENT bread! Although I’m not very clear what is the difference between fresh yeast and dried one. Is there an Indian name for this? I live in Pakistan and I’m sure my baker would know it if i asked for it by its local name.
Thanks and keep writing. I use your site as my bible for practical no-fail recipes.
You can learn more about the difference among different types of yeast here. It goes by the name fresh yeast.:)
hi,
yr bread making recipes are quite tempting to make, but I can’t get fresh yeast.Will it come out as good with dry or instant yeast.
Thanks & reply
It should come out good with dry or instant yeast as well.
hi
Tempting bread!!!!Though i just finished lunch, i’m hungry again.
just one question, sailu,when u say oven, does this also work in a microwave where i can bake in convectional mode.?
Sheilu
This bread is more healthoer than the bread that which we buy from the market. We can also make brown bread.
your recepie for making bread is too good , but idid not get fresh yeast any where i have only instant yeast so please reply me soon as possible what to do.
Your bread looks perfect! Great job! I love the photos as well!
We’d like to invite you to participate in our September apple and peach recipe contest (the recipe can be sweet or savory). All competitors will be eligible to win one of three prizes :)! Please email me, haleyglasco@gmail.com, if you’re interested. Feel free to check out our blog for more details: http://blog.keyingredient.com/2008/08/29/september-kick-contest/
Thanks :),
Haley
KI Blogger
I just made this today and it came out very well, I used bread flour as I had some, will try with all purpose the next time.Thank you for the lovely recipe
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