Recipe for a vegan Basic White Bread. Super soft, very versatile, delicious, quick and easy! You’ll only need 5 simple ingredients. You can use this recipe to make loaves, buns, even pizza crust, and flatbread. No need to buy bread anymore in the supermarket!
I have been making this Basic White Bread literally for years now. It’s the perfect base recipe for all of your bread adventures!
It’s delicious, fluffy and you can easily add special ingredients to it like olives (I love that one for grilling), cumin, sunflower seeds, dried tomatoes…
It is perfect for sandwiches, bruschetta or to make some rolls (like these Seeded Burger Buns or these Pretzel Buns).
Usually, when I make this bread, I double the recipe, make one loaf with part of the dough and some rolls to use as burger buns. You can also sprinkle some sesame seeds, flax seeds or poppy seeds on top!
How to make a Basic White Bread Loaf
The ingredients
You’ll only need 5 simple ingredients for this Basic White Bread:
- all-purpose flour (you could also use a mix of spelt or whole wheat flour with all-purpose flour to make it more nutritious and healthier)
- active dry yeast
- salt
- olive oil
- water
Sounds easy, right?! Well, it is!
Even if you have never baked your own bread, this is the perfect time for it! This is the perfect bread baking beginner recipe!
Tip: Just keep in mind that the yeast will need time to make the dough rise for about 1-2 hours depending on the room’s temperature (it needs less time in a warmer room e.g. in the summer). A good bread just needs a bit of time. But as long as you keep in mind to start early enough, you will be rewarded with delicious crispy white bread!
The basic steps
Step 1: Combine flour, instant yeast, and salt.
Step 2: Add olive oil and water.
Step 3: Use a kitchen machine with a dough hook (or knead with your hands) to make the bread dough.
Step 4: Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel. Let the dough rise in warm spot for 1-2 hours.
Step 5: After 1-2 hours, the dough should have approximately doubled in size.
Step 6: Form a bread loaf and carve the surface with a knife.
Step 7: Bake the bread in the oven until golden brown.
Serve the Basic White Bread with…
- spreads (basic hummus, spinach hummus, potato cheese spread)
- creamy soups (carrot ginger soup, broccoli soup)
- stews (goulash, chili con carne)
- tomato bruschetta
How to store bread…
Homemade bread is the best on the day it is baked. Store leftovers at room temperature – a breadbox would be best, or a paper bag or in a container with a not completely closed lid to allow airflow. I like to toast bread slices when I use bread that I have baked the day(s) before.
Versatile Multi-Purpose Bread Dough
What if I told you.. you could make all of this with the basic white bread recipe?! Well.. you can! This bread dough is the perfect base recipe for bread loaves, burger buns, breadsticks, even fluffy naan, and pizza crust! The possibilities are endless!
Bread FAQ
Vegan Bread? Isn’t all bread vegan?
Unfortunately not! Some breads contain milk or honey, sometimes the surface is brushed with egg whites. It’s always good to check the labels for non-vegan ingredients.
Is yeast vegan?
Yeast is classified as a fungus (just like mushrooms) and therefore vegan-friendly. So no worries, you can eat yeast as a vegan!
I hope you enjoy this simple recipe as much as I do! I’d love to hear what you’re making with the basic white bread recipe!
Cheers, Bianca
Basic White Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast
- 1/3 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 2/3 cup lukewarm water
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, instant yeast, and salt. Then add the olive oil and water and stir to combine, then knead with your hands (or use a kitchen machine with a dough hook) until it comes together in a smooth dough*.
- Let it sit, covered with a clean kitchen towel, in a warm spot until it doubles in size (about 1 1/2-2 hours).
- Preheat the oven to 200 °C or 400 °F.
- Form a bread loaf and carve the surface of the dough lightly with a knife (I've made one long cut across the bread).
- Then bake the bread in the oven until the surface is golden**. You can knock on the bottom of the bread and when it sounds hollow it's done!
Notes
Estimated Nutrition Info
More delicious Vegan Bread Recipes
This post was first published in July 2014. Updated in February 2019.
Haile Thomas
Your bread looks so yummy. I can just smell it looking at your pictures. LOL I am definitely going to try my hand at making bread. Thank you so much for the inspiration!
bianca
Thank you so much, Haile, for your lovely comment! I hope you enjoy the bread :) they are so many possibilities, you can make a different bread every time so it never gets boring.
Haile Thomas
Yes, for sure. I’ll be sure to make a video and let you know when it’s up on my Youtube Channel! Thanks again. I’m off to check out your other recipes!!
Lauren
Hi I was just wondering what do you put the dough in or on to bake in the oven? Thanks!
Bianca
Heya Lauren, I put the dough on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, because the dough should be firm enough to hold its shape. But you can put it in a loaf pan if you want that distinct shape :)
Justine
This looks amazing and I can’t wait to make it! Do you have a suggestion for an olive oil substitute to make it oil-free?
Bianca
Thank you, Justine. You can simply omit the olive oil to make it oil-free. I forgot to add it in one time and it turned out great too :)
Sholeh Bousheri
Awesome, thank you.
Bianca
My pleasure! Hope you like it :)
Grace
going to make this right now!!!:)
Bianca
Awesome! I hope you like it! :)
Marissa
To bake you didn’t specify if you put it in a loaf pan or what? Would love to make it, just confused on that part. Thanks!
Bianca
I didn’t put it in a loaf pan (although you could of course use one). The dough is holding together enough, so you can form a round loaf, a long loaf, smaller rolls etc. I simply put the dough on a floured parchment paper on a baking tray, carve it with a knife and bake it like that. :) Hope you’ll like it!
Marissa
Awesome, going to make it now. Thanks for the response! :)
Jillian
Do you have a gluten-free option?
Bianca
Unfortunately not because I’m the worst at gluten-free baking :D But if you have a go-to gluten-free bread mix, you could try using that (and probably it’s better to put the dough in a bread baking form). Let me know if you give it a try :)
Jillian
I sure will! I’m not so great at it either but I’ll let you know if I work up tha courage to give it a try :)
Becki
Can you make this with no bread machine? How long would I hand knead the dough for? Thanks!
Bianca
Hey Becki, sure, you can knead the dough by hand. It will take about 5 minutes. Start by combining it with a spoon, then knead it with your hands until it’s a nice, non-sticky dough. You may have to add a bit more flour (if it’s too sticky) or more water (if it doesn’t hold together). Happy baking!
Audrey
I just tried this. I’ve never made white bread before but I would say it only makes one loaf. I split it and the loafs are much smaller than I expected. It tastes really good though!
Bianca
Thank you for the feedback, Audrey! I’m glad you liked it :)
Zona Alexander
Do I turn oven to 480 degrees F? Sounds a little too hot
Bianca
I always bake the bread at full heat, so 250°C and that converts to 480°F ..I keep a close eye on it and once it gets golden/brownish on the crust, it take it out and it’s ready. But there’s nothing wrong with baking it at a lower heat. Especially when making large loaves, reducing the heat and leaving it in longer, makes sure it bakes all the way through. All ovens are different :) Hope you enjoy it, Zona! :)
Donna
It was to hot. Mine burned.
Leah
I tried this recipe at a lower temperature. 480 degrees Fahrenheit seemed way too hot. The other bread I make regularly bakes at 425, but only for about 15 min. Then you lower the temp to 375 for another 15 min. I can’t quite remember what I set my oven to for this recipe, though. 400 maybe? Otherwise, I like this bread SOOOOO much better than my other bread. Thank you so much for sharing!
Bianca
Thank you for the feedback, Leah! I always bake the bread at full heat, so 250°C and that converts to 480°F..I keep a close eye on it and once it gets golden/brownish on the crust, it take it out and it’s ready. But there’s nothing wrong with baking it at a lower heat. Especially when making large loaves, reducing the heat and leaving it in longer, makes sure it bakes all the way through. All ovens are different :) I’m glad you liked itttt, lots of love! :)
Angel
Made this for Thanksgiving. Added fresh thyme and rosemary to one and garlic bread seasoning to another. The bread is best warm. It gets quite hard and breaks up as the day passes. Nonetheless, it’s a good recipe.
Bianca
These are great variations! I try to keep the bread in a covered bread box to prevent it from drying out over the day. When I’m not using up the bread on the same day, I toast the slices. So they’ll get soft and warm again :)
Jaimie
I have made this 2x’s in less than a week! Delicious and easy….and fun to play with different flavors/add-ins.
One question, though, my bread barely rises. I follow the directions to a T and let sit for the whole 90min, but it doesn’t really expand. Any suggestions?
It still comes out amazing! Dense and delicious (not too sure if the density is because it doesn’t really rise???).
Thank you so much!!!
Bianca
Hi Jaimie, I’m so glad you like the recipe! Yes, the denseness is because your dough didn’t rise. Let’s change that :)
Reasons why the dough may not rise:
* the yeast is old/inactive (if you’re not sure about your yeast, you can put the yeast in a small bowl, add a bit of lukewarm (not too hot!) water of the recipe and let it sit for about 10 minutes. when it’s bubbly = it’s working. Not bubbly = water is too hot or too cold or the yeast is old or inactive. Once you know your yeast is working, you can add it to the flour, salt, add the rest of the water and oil and knead.
* the room temperature is too cold. The dough needs a little bit of warmth to rise (in winter, I put the bowl on the heating; in summer it’s usually not a problem because it’s warm enough in the room).
* using gluten-free flour (gluten-free flours are so different, they don’t really rise)
* are you using the right kind of yeast (it’s dried baker’s yeast – I always use active dry yeast, but instant yeast or rapid-rise yeast should work just as fine? not to confuse with nutritional yeast << that wouldn’t work.
I hope that solves the problem. Let me know how it goes! Together we can fix it! :)
Best,
Bianca
Kirsty
Can I just say thank you for putting this in metric as well? When I’ve found US recipes on the internet I always have to skip over them, because it’s a lot of pre-thinking to convert from volume to weight! Gonna be trying this tomorrow morning!
Bianca
You’re welcome! Before I had my measuring cups and spoons, it was so hard for me to cook vegan recipes from the internet when the authors didn’t provide metric measurements. Now, I’m trying to provide both measurements (I sometimes forget though haha but I try!). Good luck, let me know how it goes ^.^
Calista
Can you substitute in whole wheat flour instead of white flour? Does it work the same?
Bianca
You can definitely substitute the white flour for whole wheat flour, but you might have to adjust the flour-water-ratio a bit. Add more water if it’s too crumbly. You could also use a mix of whole wheat and white flour :)
Calista Brewer
That sounds great.Tthanks for the detailed response :)
Marissa Bower
Wow! First time making this bread! Loved it!! Thanks so much.
Bianca
I’m so glad you liked it, Marissa! :)
claudia
Hi, this looks really good. Can I just make it entirely in my bread machine?
Bianca
Totally, I’ve done this many times! Use the *white bread* setting. :)
Tjasa
This bread looks amazing! I’m making it this weekend for sure!! yum!
Bianca
Yeay! I would love to know know how it turns out :)
Micheala
This was my first time ever trying to make homemade bread, and it was good! A little too dense for my liking but I think the water was just not warm enough for my yeast. So, I’ll try again tomorrow after my 4 year old devours this loaf with peanut butter on it (currently his favorite food) and see if I can fix that. Great recipe!
Bianca
Hi Michaela, the water should be lukewarm (if it’s too hot it can kill the yeast, then it results in a dense bread as well), so it’s better to keep it a bit cooler than too warm. And it’s best to keep the bowl with the dough in a warm place (maybe near a radiator) while it’s rising. Then it should work just fine! :) Hope it turns out a bit fluffier next time! :) Thank you for the review!
Micheala
I figured it out! I forgot to mention I only use whole wheat flour so it was bound to be more dense and it took some tweaking, but now I make this every other day so we ALWAYS have a loaf on hand! If anyone uses whole wheat flour I recommend using about 1/4 to 1/2 cup more water and in my experiments, a pinch of sugar really helps too. Thanks again!
Bianca
Ah yes! That explains it! :)
It’s fun to see how the use of different flours will change the result, right?
Thank you for the instructions when using whole wheat flour, readers will appreciate that! :)
Barbara
Never before made bread until now! Thank you for an easy recipe that didn’t scare me!! I used 1/2 AP and 1/2 spelt flour and it came out wonderful! Dense and chewy and hearty and yummy!! THANKS!
Bianca
So glad to hear that, Barbara! Thank you so much for the great review!
Tjasa
This recipe sounds amazing! Can I make it with corn flour?
Bianca
Ohh, corn bread! That sounds interesting! Actually, I’ve never tried this Basic White Bread with corn flour. Not sure if corn flour works with yeast.. I don’t think it would rise. Also, it’s probably best to bake corn bread in a loaf pan, not sure if it would hold together in a loaf on its own because of the missing gluten. I think it would be best to stick to corn bread recipes..
kath
if I was to make this with sundried tomatoes, would you suggest leaving out the olive oil as they come in oil already? thanks!
Bianca
yeah, leaving out the olive oil would be a good idea! :)
Heather
I just made this and the outside is really hard and undone a little on the inside I only put it in for 20 minutes what did I do wrong ? 😟
Bianca
What you can do the next time:
– Maybe reduce the heat a bit – maybe your oven is much more powerful :) That way it won’t brown that fast and it has more time to bake all the way through.
– Maybe your loaf was too huge. If you make it longer, it will bake all the way through faster.
– If the top browns too quickly, you can place the bread on a lower rack to make sure it bakes without burning the top.
I hope the tips help! Let me know how it will turn out :)
Erika
I’ve made this bread twice now! However…the first time I was in Norway and the oven was confusing and I basically started the parchment paper on fire,,, but the bread was still tasty! Second time, its currently in the oven, I just had to remove both loafs off of the parchment paper because it was starting to burn… is there special parchment paper you use?? I am having a hard time with the high heat. Great recipe!!!!!
Bianca
What?! That’s weird! I’ve never had parchment paper catch fire and bake with high temperatures all the time.
Does your parchment paper come very close to the walls or the heating elements?
Or check if the package says if the parchment paper is suitable for up to a specific temperature…
Miranda
I am currently baking this – with gluten free flour. So far I’ve noticed I needed a bit extra water to combine my flour, it didn’t rise enough for 2 loafs so I am just baking one. I put mine in a bread pan even though it is holding enough to put on a baking sheet but I ran out of parchment paper so this will do! I put my oven to 400 instead of 480, it’s going in the oven now. Fingers crossed!
Bianca
I’m not sure if the recipe works with gf flour, the flours are completely different. I haven’t had much luck with gf baking, so I kind of gave up :D How did it turn out?
Miranda
TERRIBLE lol. I’m not having much luck either. This was one of the first bread recipes I tried. I’ve tried 3 more since this and nothing. My daughter just got diagnosed with a bunch of food allergies and I am seriously struggling. No peanuts or tree nuts, no eggs, no soy, no dairy, no gluten. Losing hope.
Moya
Hi there, I made your bread but should I have proved it again once I had shaped it? Any other breads I’ve made a normal to this. Wanted to try the vegan one as my daughter is vegan
Elle
I just recently moved to Sweden and since everything here is SOOOOOOOO expensive I decide to have a lots of home made/baked from scratch meals. I made this and it 22h15 and I’m waiting for it to come out of the oven. Thank you so much for sharing the receipe and the hummus one. Hope that turns out great!
Heather
Going to make this now for my son is allergic to dairy, egg, peanut and almond. Has anyone had any luck freezing the 2nd loaf?
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! Finding food for my son has proved to be quite challenging!
Bianca
I’d recommend slicing the second bread and freezing the bread slices, that way you can toast it up when you need them.
Holly
This was my first time making bread and it turned out great. I baked it at 425°f for 30 minutes. The outside was almost perfectly crispy (but a little on the hard side) and the inside was soft. I’ll definitely use this recipe again but will lower the temp a little more next time.
Bianca
Awesome! Thank you so much for your feedback!
Evie
This recipe looks awesome gonna try it out with my mum later!
Question am I allowed to use plain flour instead of all purpose flour?
Thanks
Evie
Bianca
Hi Evie, sure that works just fine!
paisley
i decided to go vegan a couple days ago but this is one of the first things i am making, its actually rising right now!
Sophia
How should we adjust the baking times for pizza? Should we cook the crust first, and then add toppings?