How To Make Bread (without a bread machine)

Step 6: Into the oven

Preheat your oven to 375 F and put the loaves in.
Bake them for about 25 minutes. Your quick read thermometer should read between 180 and 190 degrees. Pull the loaves out and place them on their sides on a rack, after a few seconds slide them out of the pans and onto the rack. Let them cool.

Comments

[Adomini]

Hi, what if i'd like to keep some dough in the freezer, should i do this after second rising? Will i get same quality bread if i directly put the defrosted dough inside the oven?

[anjaylah]

WOW! I thought I would never be able to make bread without a machine or a complex method. This was right up my alley. It really is not time consuming, just waiting. You do not have to sit and watch it. Thank you so much, i enjoyed this a lot.

[AwareAmerican]

This is my first time baking bread... or anything from scratch really, and it worked really well!! I had a rough start in the beginning due to a poor yeast purchase in the bulk foods section at the grocery store. Apparently, there is such a thing as nutritional yeast, or basically, a kind of deactivated yeast that people just add straight to certain dishes.... I didn't know that. It was a fine yellow powder and it smelled "yeasty" but it made NO bubbles! LOL... so with dry ACTIVE yeast the recipe went smoothly, AND without bread pans!

So, with this basic recipe, can I throw in some extra sugar and say, cinnamon for some sweet bread, or is there something else I need to know or do before I just start throwing things in the mix?

[kkarwan]

the thing about cooking and baking is the directions are basically an outline you can adjust pretty much anything in the recipe to your tastes word to the wise though make sure if you adjust something you try it before you serve and always write down what you did so when you get it perfect you'll know exactly what you did right

[manderson31]

This is my first try, years after your comments. So far everything looks great, I'm at the last rising. I only had two pans so I cut the third into small chunks onto a baking sheet. I am going to try to get them to rise to bake rolls. Wish me luck!! At least I will get two loafs out it!

[aromero4]

Unkneaded bread tastes sooooo good

[bbslyon]

This is the best recipie ever. I made 6 loaves already. I baked one with black olives, plain, nuts and another with cheese. You can add just about anything.Thank you so much.

[ivarela]

I have always wanted to learn how to make bread and thanks to u i know how now.This was my first time making bread it came out pretty good . Thanks for making it easy :)

[skandi]

Just made it with wheat flour- it turned out great!!! Thanks a ton for posting this.

[olliejpndude]

Great bread, just made a batch and it turned out great
I made the bread in batches cuz I only own one pan and it still worked fine
Just let the other dough rise for that time and then use it later
Again, great recipe

[samiesamsam]

what would happen if you were to use regular flour?

[macrumpton]

I make bread with all purpose flour using the no-knead method, and it works just fine.

[ouzelum]

Bread flour has malted barley flour and some additives in it.  The barley gives the yeast more stuff to eat and makes the bread rise better.  The other stuff apparently helps with the consistency as well.
Use bread flour if at all possible.

[imcoolyoudrool]

Bread flour has more protein to form more gluten thus building a more complex structure that makes up a soft crumb and durable crust of the bread.

Alternatively; All purpose or AP flour can still form gluten but is a weaker flour and better for things like pancakes. It is typically a mix of bread flour and weaker flours.

Pastry flour is weaker still and is best for fine pastries and making layered doughs for puff pastry, croissant, and danish doughs. It is also most commonly seen as the topping of flour before baking on the more "rustic" style breads.

And lastly, Cake flour is the weakest of all, it is best for cakes because it has very little protein to form gluten strands and is almost purely white lending itself to coloring as the baker wishes.

And i beg to differ, "bread making is not an exact science" could not be more insulting for those that truly have a love for the science of baking.
But thanks for the "ible" anyway.  :)

[umadabumada]

Its really a Laymen bread making.May God bless you man

[chillyp]

Made the bread for the third time and it's still bada$$!!!! Love it.

[chrinopoly87]

thanks for the recipe! my dough is rising as i type here.

[megbrinst]

I just made the bread and it is great! I coated the top of the loaf with egg white and meted butter before i baked the bread, and it gave the loaf a crisp and golden crust. Thanks for taking the time to put up the instructions!

[drinkmorecoffee]

That's a great idea! Glad this was useful to you, and thanks for the positive feedback!

[BridgetBBL]

I made the bread today and it was really good. I make a lot of things from scratch at home, up until this point, I hadn't made bread. It was amazingly easy. Its was also a cool thing for my 4 1/2 yr old join in with. Thank you for the instructions.

[drinkmorecoffee]

You're very welcome! Glad it worked.

[dougyd]

brilliant, worked a treat!

[drinkmorecoffee]

Glad to hear it!

[mahak]

I made this bread, but my bread was very hard. Also the dough didn't rise at all. Some suggestions please?

[Molant]

Sounds like your water was too hot and killed the yeast. It just needs to be a little warmer than room temperature.

[Devierue]

I've had luck with covering my bowl with a cloth while it rises. As the others have said, warm water is important. I haven't tried these instructions, but my own recipe is very similar. Something I've noticed is that sometimes the bread will be hard (almost like a thick shell) after it cools - to remedy this, I brush/rub butter all over the top while it's still in the pan. Keeps the bread nice and soft. Good luck!

[jzx2sr]

mahak / drinkmorecoffee Make sure you use WARM water and not HOT. The yeast is what makes the dough bubble and rise, if the water is too hot it will kill the yeast. I have never made bread before and just sucessfully made it again tonight following these instructions. I used Fleischmann's instant yeast, it comes with 3 8g orange packages. Good luck!

[jzx2sr]

I just wanted to clarify, you only use 1 of the 3 8g packages. This is for the entire recipe. Also, both times I made this bread, I only made 2 and not 3.

[jeremydominguez0]

did it still come out good? jd

[jzx2sr]

Came out great. I still use this recipe from time to time. NOM, NOM, NOM!

[drinkmorecoffee]

How much yeast did you use? How long did you let rise?

[mahak]

This is my third attempt at making bread. I used 1.5 tbsp of dry yeast. First two times I let it rise for 1 hour and subsequently another hour each. They hadn't risen well. On my third attempt I let it stay for 6 hours on the top of my refrigerator. It had doubled in size by then. Also the dough I get after kneading it is very sticky, so on my third attempt I used a wooden long-handled spatula to knead it. This time the dough was very satiny. Yet even after baking it for 25 mins at 200C, the bread was half-baked from the inside, with a very hard top. The sides and the bottom of the loaf which was touching the bread pan did not bake at all. Please help. This is very frustrating as usually my tarts and pan cakes turn out really nice and are appreciated by my family.

[mashirk]

I love this instructables site. I just recently started baking my own bread. I found it costs me .50 a loaf compared to the $2 a loaf at the market. Plus I know what's in the bread and what's not.

[jojobethrox2999]

sounds easy

[Joyce]

Great job bread is so easy. 1. There is a Kitchen Aid Mixer in the back of your first picture, I use mine to do most of my bread mixing especially for French Bread or Pizza crusts. 2. The water temperature is O.K. if it feels just warm on the inside of your wrist. 3. Yeast is cheap if you buy in bulk either from a store like Sam's less than four dollars for a couple of pounds, or a health food store (make sure it is baking yeast), a Tablespoon is the equivalent of a package. 4. If you mix one third cup of instant mashed potatoes into your liquid after the yeast has softened it makes a loaf that stays moister (this is in regular white bread). 5. Yes metal pans do make a browner loaf. Time is the most important thing with bread, if it raises too slow you can always leave it to raise longer, if it is too soft of holey you can always add a little flour knock it down and let it raise again, an extra raising really doesn't hurt. Great to know there are other folks out there making bread, it really is easy and tastes so good.

[SugarTeen52]

Mmmmmm, you guys are making me so hungry. I just want to go make all kinds of bread.

[drinkmorecoffee]

Then here's some inspiration for you. :-) Lots of bread recipes at that link, among other recipes and methods.

[drinkmorecoffee]

:-) I use the mixer when I'm not making an instructable, it goes a lot faster. And we buy our yeast in bulk too! from Sams club actually. :-D Thanks for your feedback!

[bmcgon534]

looks like no one has made bread since July 2007 -- lol Thanks for the recipe -- and the feedback. I have just started to make our family organic bread and was searchign to find out how to make the bread rise sufficiently -- Ido not like a small amenic looking loaf! helpful suggestions here - gonna try the mashed potato idea.....hmmmmm