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), caraway seeds, 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
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
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.
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
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast
- ⅓ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- ⅔ 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 ½-2 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!
claudia says
Hi, this looks really good. Can I just make it entirely in my bread machine?
Bianca says
Totally, I've done this many times! Use the *white bread* setting. :)
Tjasa says
This bread looks amazing! I'm making it this weekend for sure!! yum!
Bianca says
Yeay! I would love to know know how it turns out :)
Micheala says
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 says
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 says
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 says
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 says
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 says
So glad to hear that, Barbara! Thank you so much for the great review!
Tjasa says
This recipe sounds amazing! Can I make it with corn flour?
Bianca says
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 says
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 says
yeah, leaving out the olive oil would be a good idea! :)
Heather says
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 says
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 says
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 says
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 says
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 says
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 says
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 says
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 says
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 says
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 says
I'd recommend slicing the second bread and freezing the bread slices, that way you can toast it up when you need them.
Holly says
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 says
Awesome! Thank you so much for your feedback!
Evie says
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 says
Hi Evie, sure that works just fine!
paisley says
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!