Best Bread Machine Recipe

This white bread machine recipe is made with unbleached all-purpose flour or bread flour! You’ll love this easy bread recipe cause it’s perfect for sandwiches and toast and in our humble opinion, it’s one of the best bread machine recipes ever.

There’s no arguing it, my Mom is 100% the best at baking homemade bread.

Me, on the other hand? It’s not one of my skills. She’s handed down her recipe to me, tried to teach me, gave up teaching me, then taught my husband instead.

We’ve all decided that mom’s bread recipe will live on with Kevy. I am just not good! Haha 

But my mom created this recipe for me so that I could bake my own bread!

This easy bread machine recipe is dedicated to homemade bread.

Jump to:

• Tips + Tricks
• Key Ingredients
• How To Make
• Bread machine recipe troubleshooting:
• How to store:
• Other bread machine recipes you’ll love!
• Recommended tools
• 📖 Printable Recipe
• A word on flour:

Tips + Tricks

No. 1 –> This bread maker recipe gives a 2 lb loaf. Please double check that your machine has 2lb capacity – or you’ll likely have a heck of a mess!

No. 2 –> Check out the information below on the protein content of your flour! It can greatly affect your end result.

No. 3 –> Start with 1 3/4 cups of water. It really depends on your flour and some flours don’t like 2 cups of water. The first time you make this, I recommend adding 1 3/4 cup of water and then checking the dough during the first mixing cycle. Check the troubleshooting guide below.

No. 4 –> This recipe makes a delicious sandwich bread, and can be adapted to make cinnamon raisin bread, or my cardamom cranberry bread, or even everything bagel bread, if you like! If you’re interested in a whole wheat bread recipe for the bread maker, I’ve got one of those too.

Key Ingredients

• warm water
• sweetener (sugar, honey, maple syrup etc)
• oil
• salt
• flour (all-purpose, or bread flour, see notes below)
• bread machine yeast – avoid active dry yeast if possible, to use it you must proof it before baking this bread.

How To Make

1. Add the wet ingredients to the bread pan.
2. Add the salt and sweetener to the wet ingredients.
3. Add the flour to the pan, sprinkling it overtop all of the water.
4. Either sprinkle the yeast on top of the flour, where it’s not touching the water or create a well in the flour, then add the yeast there.
5. Place baking pan in the bread maker and select cycle.
6. Wait for bread to finish baking, then remove to cool before slicing.

Bread machine recipe troubleshooting:

Bread too dense:

1. Type of flour: As mentioned above, if you’re using a flour that doesn’t have a high enough protein content, you can expect a dense loaf of bread. Protein is necessary for the bread to produce gluten, and as we know, gluten is the amazing thing that gives bread it’s stretch and elasticity, and the ability to trap air and create bubbles in bread.
2. Quantity of flour: I never weigh my ingredients for this recipe, nor do I sift my flour. Here’s how I scoop my flour for this recipe – stir the flour in the bag or container well, then use a 1/2 cup measuring cup to scoop the stirred flour into my 1 cup measuring cup. Give it a quick shake, then level with a knife. It’s quick and easy, keep it simple!
3. Yeast – Add this at the very end of the ingredient layering. I toss all the flour into the baking pan, then sprinkle the yeast on top of the flour away from the water and liquid ingredients.

Bread collapsed during baking:

1. Too much liquid: There is a range of water quantities in the recipe card, start with the least amount of water, and work your way up. It’s easier to add a bit of water to the pan while mixing than to start fresh!
2. Not enough salt: If you’re using coarse ground salt in this recipe, you may not be using enough salt! Try adding a bit more next time.
3. Yeast: Too much or too old yeast can cause your bread to collapse. To avoid this in the future, proof a small amount of your yeast to confirm it’s still active, and if so, decrease the quantity in your next loaf by 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoons.

Other problems:

If this is your first time using this recipe, I highly recommend checking in on the recipe while it’s 10 or so minutes into the first kneading cycle. At this point, you’ll be able to tell if your dough is forming a nice ball and pulling away from the edges.

If the dough is too wet at this time, and not holding a ball, add a couple tablespoons of flour. If the dough is too dry and looking shaggy, add a tablespoon of water.

Check out my guide more information on troubleshooting your bread machine.

How to store:

Homemade bread doesn’t keep long. It doesn’t keep any better in the fridge either. We often cut our loaves in half and freeze half and keep the remainder out on the counter. Freezing as soon as the bread has been cut and cooled usually gives me better results.

Try a bread box!

Other bread machine recipes you’ll love!

Recommended tools

Ya’ll we can’t have a bread machine recipe without a bread machine!

Here’s the one that I have and I have NO problems recommending it to anyone else. I love all the different features and settings on my Breville Custom Loaf. But most of all, I love love love that it makes a perfect loaf of bread!

📖 Printable Recipe

A word on flour:

As a Canadian, I use purpose flour for literally all purposes. Here’s why it matters to you and the results for your recipe:

• CANADIAN flour is different than American flour!
• The protein content in Canadian flour is required by law to have at least 13% protein by weight.
• The protein content of the flour greatly affects the bread’s ability to absorb water, produce gluten, and, therefore, your final results.
• IF you are using American flour, please use Bread flour specifically – OR ensure that your flour passes the protein content test 12-13%

How to determine protein content in flour:

Simply do a little math – make your teachers proud!

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