Country White Bread Recipe
Slathered with butter, loaded with lunch meat, or served alongside soup, this Country White Bread recipe delivers all the flavor and texture that grandma’s white bread always had. It’s an easy, rustic bread recipe that’s perfect for any dish.
Bread is delicious with just about anything. From soups to steaks, bread is always a great choice, and if you choose our rustic homemade white bread recipe, it’s even better. This recipe is an old-fashioned favorite that you’re going to love.
Table of contents
❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It uses limited ingredients that you probably have in your kitchen right now.
- It’s a rustic bread with a soft interior and the perfect golden crust.
- Every slice tastes like grandma’s love!
🛒Ingredients
This is a no-frills, rustic recipe, which means it only uses simple ingredients. You probably have all of them in your kitchen right now. If you happen to need something, you’ll find it at any grocery store.
All the bread ingredients are listed here, but you’ll find the exact amounts in the recipe card at the end of the post.
- Water
- Milk
- Granulated sugar
- Dry active yeast
- Bread flour
- Salt
- Vegetable oil
- Butter – melted
🔪 How to Make Country White Bread Recipe
This is an easy bread recipe that even beginners can make. The hardest part about it is simply having the patience to let the dough rise before baking it!
Step 1: Combine the Water and Sugar
Heat the water and milk in a small saucepan over medium heat until the mixture reaches 110 degrees.
Step 2: Add the Sugar and Yeast
Pour the milk mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer. Then, add the sugar and stir until dissolved. Add the yeast and set aside for 5 to 10 minutes until foamy.
Step 3: Make the Dough
Add 1 cup of the flour, the salt, and the vegetable oil. Begin mixing with the dough hook attachment, adding the remaining flour gradually until the dough forms and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
Step 4: Knead
Knead the dough by hand or with the dough hook for 5 minutes.
Step 5: Let the Dough Rise
Grease a large bowl generously with vegetable oil and place the dough ball in it. Turn the ball over once so that it’s coated on all sides. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and place in a warm area of the kitchen to rise until doubled in size – about 1 hour.
Step 6: Punch and Divide
Punch the dough down and turn it out onto a clean counter. Divide it evenly in half and shape into loaves.
Step 7: Let Rise Again
Place each loaf into a 9×5 loaf pan greased with nonstick cooking spray. Cover the pans with a clean kitchen towel and let rise again until the loaves double – about 30 minutes.
Step 8: Bake
Brush the tops with melted butter and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees until golden brown on top.
Step 9: Cool
Cool the loaves in the pans for 5 minutes. Then turn out the loaves and cool on wire cooling racks.
📝Variations
Do you want to change up this recipe and make it your own? Here are some ways that you can do that!
- Milk – You can use any kind of milk, but whole milk makes more flavorful bread with a more tender crumb.
- Bread Flour – Although bread flour delivers the absolute best texture, you can use all-purpose flour in a pinch.
If you think this bread looks good, then we think you’ll enjoy our homemade cinnamon swirl bread.
🥄 Equipment
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Stand mixer
- Saucepan
- Large bowl
- Kitchen towels
- (2) 9×5 loaf pans
- Cooling racks
🥫 Storage
Store this bread for up to 3 days at room temperature in an air-tight container. For longer storage, wrap the bread in a double layer of plastic wrap and a layer of foil, and freeze it for up to 3 months.
What to Serve with White Bread
This rustic white bread can be served in all the ways you’ve always enjoyed any other white bread. Make sandwiches or toast. Serve it with soups or alongside casseroles. If you’ve ever eaten bread, you know what to do with this white bread!
💭 Tips
- The oven is the perfect place to let your bread rise.
- Be sure you use fresh yeast. Old yeast will be dead and won’t make the bread rise.
- Be sure you knead the dough for at least a full 5 minutes to develop the gluten it needs for its chewy texture.
⁉️ FAQ
Do you have questions about this recipe? Here are the answers to the most commonly asked questions.
There are a few reasons that dough may not rise. Old yeast, the liquid that is too hot or too cold, or not letting the bread rise in a warm enough area are all reasons that bread dough may not rise.
Yeast is alive. When it’s added to warm liquid with sugar, the yeast “wakes up” and begins to feed on the sugar. The gas it releases from feeding is what makes the bread rise. Old yeast is dead, so it can’t do its job.
The butter used in the yeast mixture along with the milk gives white bread its subtle flavor.
In the summer, your counter is probably fine, but the absolute best place is in the oven. Set the oven to 200 degrees for 1 to 2 minutes to get nice and toasty, then turn it off. Your bread dough will love it.
🍽 More Recipes
Do you enjoy bread? Then try these delicious recipes:
🧾Recipe Card
Want to make this recipe? Print the recipe card below, or pin this recipe, so you can find it later.
Country White Bread
Equipment
- mixing bowls
- lightweight kitchen towel
- Loaf pan
Ingredients
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup milk
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- 1 ½ tablespoons dry active yeast
- 5 ½ cups bread flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons butter melted
Instructions
- Heat a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the water and milk and heat to 110F.
- Pour the warmed milk mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved.
- Pour the yeast into the milk mixture and set aside for 5-10 minutes until the yeast is foamy.
- Stir in 1 cup of the flour, then the salt and vegetable oil.
- Use the dough hook attachment of the stand mixer to begin stirring the dough. Add the remaining flour a little at a time as it mixes, until the dough forms and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
- Knead the dough by hand or using the stand mixer for 5 minutes.
- Grease a large bowl generously with vegetable oil. Place the dough ball in the greased bowl and turn over once so that the dough is oiled on all sides.
- Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel and place in a warm area of the kitchen to rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
- Punch the dough down then turn it out onto a clean counter. Divide the dough into two even pieces and shape into loaves.
- Place each loaf of dough into 9×5-inch loaf pans that have been greased with non-stick cooking spray. Cover the pans with a clean kitchen towel and place in a warm are of the kitchen to rise until the loaves are doubled, about 30 minutes.
- While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 350F.
- Once the bread has risen, brush the tops with melted butter then bake at 350F for 30 minutes until golden brown on top. The loaves should have a hollow sound when tapped.
- Cool the loaves in the pans for 5 minutes, then turn out and cool on wire cooling racks. You can brush the top of the bread with more melted butter while it’s warm if desired.
