You can classify this under the DUH file, but there is nothing better than bread. Break me off any piece of sourdough, tuscan, focaccia, whole wheat, or pumpernickel and I will be your best friend. Dipped in olive oil, smothered with hummus, or submerged in saucy meatballs, there’s no wrong way to consume it. And, do you know the best type? Fresh homemade bread. Let me introduce to you the best homemade bread recipe. Your friends and family will be so impressed!
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I always thought you needed a culinary school degree from Paris or would have to be a direct descendant of Julia Child to make bread at home.
I used to think making bread at home was impossible. I always thought you needed a culinary school degree from Paris or you’d have to be a direct descendant of Julia Child to make bread at home. It turns out, neither is true. All you need is a bit of patience to let the dough rise and basic ingredients you likely have in your pantry.
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How to make homemade bread
As easy as this bread recipe is, the hardest part is waiting for the dough to rise. If you plan on making this for dinner, I suggest starting the bread at least 3 hours in advance. This way, by the time you serve it, it comes out warm and soft.
One key step in making this recipe is how you shape the bread the first time it rises. Your goal here is to shape it into a ball without flattening or letting any of the air out. Grab each corner of your dough and fold it in the center. After you do this on four sides, place it into your mixing bowl upside down for 30 minutes.
Before you know it, you’ll have this beautiful warm, soft, crusty loaf of bread to impress all your friends with.
Easy Homemade Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp of dry active yeast
- 1 1/4 cups warm water
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour or bread flour
- 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
Instructions
- Combine sugar, dry active yeast, and warm water in the bowl of a stand alone mixer and let sit for about 5 minutes - or until the yeast starts to foam. If you don’t have a mixer, you can use a large mixing bowl and mix ingredients lightly with a spoon.
- Add your kosher salt.
- With your dough hook, put the mixer on low and slowly add your flour until it’s mixed in with the yeast. (If you're not using the mixer, knead the dough until smooth.)
- Turn off your mixer and lightly sprinkle a pinch of flour on the dough to keep it from sticking to the bowl but do not mix it in.
- Take a clean, damp kitchen towel, cover your bowl and let sit for 1 hour in a warm area of the house. After an hour, the dough should have doubled in size, if not, let it sit for a little longer.
- Lightly flour a cutting board. Once your dough has doubled in size, gently place it on your cutting board. (Tip: you want the dough as airy as possible, be gentle with the dough and don’t do anything to flatten it.)
- Now, this is where we shape it. Shape it into a ball and take each side and pull it up towards the middle. Keep doing this until you get it round.
- Lightly flour your empty mixing bowl and place your dough back in with the smooth side up. Grab your damp towel and cover it for another 30 minutes.
- While your dough continues to rise, pre-heat your oven to 460F and place your dutch oven inside (lid on) so it gets really hot – around 30 minutes.
- Once the 30-minutes is up, carefully take out the dutch oven, place the dough inside (right side up!) of your pre-heated dutch oven, sprinkle some flour on top, and place the dutch oven (lid on!) back into your oven for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes remove the lid from your dutch oven and cook for another 15 minutes – or until the outside is brown and flaky -- with the lid off.
- Let the bread sit for 15 minutes before cutting open. It will still continue to cook.
- Enjoy!
Notes
You want to make sure that your starter yeast is fresh. If it's old and stale, your dough won't rise as much.
Make sure you let the dough rise in a dry space that's not too cold. If your house is cold, place the dough in your oven that's off. Place a boiling hot bowl of water on the bottom of the oven and place dough inside to rise. Do not turn the oven on and close the door.
What should I do if I don’t have a Dutch oven ?
Author
Hi Alex! Thanks for your question. I’ve actually never done it without a Dutch oven before. But, Do you have an oven safe stockpot that’s about 5 quarts? If so, you could use that, and cover it with a sheet pan. But you’ll def want to make sure the pot is deep enough — which is why I’d recommend the 5 quart. Hope this helps!
Alex,
It seems similar to the sourdough I make.
Without a Dutch oven I cook on 350 for 30 minutes (it should be slightly browned and hollow sounding if you knock on the top) ~ Or at least I’m hoping I’ll be trying this recipe tonight.
So second time around and my dough still seems way too watery? I’m using a mixer … any ideas why?
Author
Hmm, try to add about 1 tbsp of flour at a time to soak up that water.
My first one was perfect, second time around it was wet and sticky too. I added a little flour at a time to get it to the right consistency. This is a great easy recipe. Thank you!!
Do you grease the Dutch oven?
Author
No greasing if anything, you can line it with parchment paper!
I love the recipe, although what kind of toppings could I add?
Author
Great question! I’ve never tried it, but olives might be good!
I have done Italian seasoning with some garlic salt instead of kosher salt. I’m about to try some blueberries and cream cheese in a Loaf.
I don’t have a dutch oven, but I used tinfoil to cover it for the 30 minutes and then took it off for the last bit. That seems to have worked pretty well. It’s a bit crispy, but it’s bread non the less!
Author
That’s fantastic!! Thanks for sharing your method, and I hope you enjoy ❤️❤️
We just made the bread tonight, thank you so much for the recipe. The only problem we had was that the bottom became far too firm and was difficult to cut. Do you have any advice? Thank you
Author
Ugh! I hate when this happens. You might want to try and add two ice cubes to your warmed Dutch oven immediately before you cover it and pop the bread in the oven. The steam is key and will help achieve a better crust!
Hi I don’t have a scale to measure anything nor super small measuring cups so how much exactly is .25 cups of water 😅
Author
No worries!! It’s 1 1/4 Cups. No scale necessary 🙂 you can measure it out with any measuring cups you have.
Hi Kristen, I just got inspired by your Easy Bread Recipe and my question would be I have a 3.5 Qt. dutch oven so how to amend the amount of ingredients? (the pot is a Le Creuset). Thank you
Author
So glad you’re making it!! Before you get to the cooking step, cut the dough in half, let one half continue to raise while the other half cooks. Then you have two loaves 🙂
I don’t have an electric mixer so I’m doing everything by hand. The dough was extremely wet and sticky using the measurements you provided. I ended up having to knead it on the counter but it stuck so much I ended up adding more flour to it. Much more than the recipe called for. And even now as it rises in a bowl, it’s still very sticky. I followed your instructions exactly and I don’t understand how the dough can be so wet. I’ve never made bread that the dough is this wet before. I’ll let you know how it comes out.
Author
Thank you for your comment. You did the right thing by adding more flour to compensate for the sticky dough! Curious what your environmental conditions are – what is the climate like where you’re baking the bread? The moisture can sometimes impact the moisture levels in the dough. You can also let the dough raise longer than the recipe calls for, that sometimes helps with moisture levels as well! Yes, please let me know how it turns out!
Same happened to me. Two times.🤔
Can you use table salt instead of kosher? If so how much?
Author
Yes! But I would use half the amount
Hi Alex! I have made this recipe every week since I have found it, it makes the perfect loaf of bread every time!! I have done it both in my Dutch oven and in a loaf pan. I also saw an earlier comment about adding olives. I made an olive and fig jam loaf, it turned out amazing! Thanks for a great new recipe!
Is this recipe cut in half from a full 5 cups of flour? I’ve made it three times now, the first time had to add a sizable amount of flour to keep the dough from basically being a soup. The second I added slightly less flour as a test. And this time I just doubled the entire recipe and the dough seems to be perfect. The bread was amazing all three times by the way.
I’ve never made bread before, but my father used to when I was a kid. This recipe was so well written and clear and made this inexperienced baker feel very accomplished. Thank you, girl! Kristen you are awesome!
Author
Thank you so much!!
Author
So glad this worked out for you
First time in my life, I’ve ever made bread! It came out nicely, but I had to remove it from the oven four minutes before baking it for the last 15 without the lid. Thank God, I took it out because it would have burned! Save it in the nick of time and it came up soft on the inside and crusty on the outside. I lined it with parchment paper and when it was time to let it rise, I microwaved the damp Kitchen rag so it would have some warmth. I’ll be making this again for sure, but reducing the baking time.
The temp seems high is it right
Author
Yes! Really want to create steam in that Dutch oven
Really good.
I have made this recipe with the dutch oven and without (placed the dough in my cast iron skillet and baked)….. and it comes out well. The dutch oven makes the crust – crustier. Which is super nice. I make this recipe quite often and I am so happy my kids appreciate fresh baked bread!!
Hi ! I just love this recipe, but I wanted to know how to make this bread with a sourdough starter.
Do I replace some of the flour with my sourdough starter ?
Thanks Kim
If I cut it in half to bake, does the cooking time stay the same? Thank you!
Author
Great question! Cooking time should be slightly less. A quick note that bread freezes VERY well so you can always freeze what you don’t use. But if cutting the recipe in half, I would check the bread about 10-15 minutes earlier than the recipe suggests
I bought a dutch oven just to try this bread. Please tell me if I can shape it into a turkey or will it mess up the bread?
Author
I admire your creativity. However, I have personally never tried to shape this recipe as a turkey! I say go for it, it does hold up well so it should be alright. Good luck and happy thanksgiving. Please let me know how it goes.
Thank you so much for this simple recipe. I change things a little to accommodate my family. I use 00 flour from Italy. I use Pyrex bowls and aluminum foil instead of a Dutch oven. I also turn my oven on 170 F which is the lowest setting. Once it hits 170 F, I turn it off and start my dough. I let my dough rise in the warm, but not hot oven. Turns out beautifully. Thank you for the lesson, I and my family are grateful. May God bless your food and keep you and your family well.
hello, I’ve made this recipe twice now and my husband loves it. Question, the final boule is rather small, is there a way to scale this to make a larger one? I would say double the size would be perfect.
This is literally the best bread I’ve ever had or made. Light and crispy topped with homemade butter or nothing at all.
I’ve made it twice, once as the recipe called for – with modified times ( my oven gets hot) so 22min with the lid and 7min without. It was perfect. While I was mixing the dough was super wet, then I realized I had missed a whole cup of flour. So it was perfect. I was also mindful to not over mix or squeeze the air out.
Second time I doubled the recipe and kept with the modified times. And again it was perfect!
Thank you!!!!
Made this today and it was absolutely perfect! So easy and fast! Thank you! Now I have to check out the rest of your recipes! So good!
Hi Kristen! I’m making a loaf for dinner, and thought about adding cheese inside the bread. Would that work out?
Author
Yes! That’s a great idea!
Does it have to be kosher salt or can I use regular salt?
Author
Would recommend kosher!