Beginners Bread Recipe

Even if you’ve never made homemade bread or worked with yeast before, this homemade crusty artisan bread is for you. It’s the perfect beginner recipe because it only requires 4 ingredients without any special pans or mixer, there’s no kneading or complicated shaping involved, and 95% of the work is hands-off. Bread masters will appreciate this recipe too because it delivers with delicious flavor, a slightly crisp and mega chewy crust, and those signaturesoft holes inside like ciabatta or French bread.

Have you ever wanted to master homemade bread? Real, crusty, chewy, delicious bakery-style loaves that taste incredible with dips, soups, sauces, and comforting dinners? This recipe is where you start. This artisan bread is for beginners, but even bread masters will appreciate its flavor and ease. It’s so fresh, so flavorful, and so surprisingly easy because it basically makes itself.

You only need 4 ingredients without any special pans or mixer, there’s no kneading, no poolish or dough starter required, and you can add herbs, cheeses, and spices to make a variety of bread flavors.

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This base recipe will soon be on repeat in your kitchen. After you realize how easy it is to make real homemade bread, you’ll find any excuse to bake a loaf.

When it comes to bread, the term “artisan” doesn’t mean 1 particular thing. But generally, artisan bread is homemade, fresh, crusty, and deliciously rustic looking. An artisan is a skilled worker, one who works with their hands. But ironically, there isn’t much “work” involved with this recipe.

Like sandwich bread, whole wheat bread, focaccia, homemade English muffins, seeded oat bread, and homemade bagels—the process is surprisingly easy. If you’re new to yeast, reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.

Ingredient Easy Homemade Bread For Beginners

The crustier and chewier the bread, the less fat in the dough—also known as a “lean dough.” We’re using a lean dough for our artisan loaf today. (If you’re curious, a “rich dough” is a soft bread dough with the presence of fat, such as butter and eggs—the kind we need for overnight cinnamon rolls and honey butter rolls.) Without fat, we’re left with the basics.

You can also add herbs and seasonings such as garlic, rosemary, dill, chopped onion, jalapeño, shredded cheese, chopped nuts, dried cranberries, etc. My no yeast bread is the quick bread alternative here—you can add flavors to that loaf, too!

Baker’s Tip: Avoid adding too much flour to the dough as you work with it. The stickier it is—and the longer it sits in the refrigerator—the more likely you’ll have those big airy pockets of air in the crumb.

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Look at those deliciously soft holes inside! Reminds me of ciabatta or a French baguette, both of which can be a little more complicated to make.

Many readers tried this recipe as part of a baking challenge! Feel free to email or share your recipe photos with us on social media. 🙂

Even if you’ve never made homemade bread or worked with yeast before, this homemade artisan bread is for you. Watch the video tutorial below and review the recipe instructions and recipe notes prior to beginning. If you’re new to working with yeast, reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.

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Sally McKenney is a professional food photographer, cookbook author, and baker. Her kitchen-tested recipes and thorough step-by-step tutorials give readers the knowledge and confidence to bake from scratch. Sally has been featured onI love this super fast bread recipe for last-minute bread. Sometimes it's 4 pm and suddenly I decide I want fresh bread for dinner!

If you are new to baking bread, this easy bread recipe is for you. I've had TONS of reviews from people all over the world who have never made bread before but could make this bread perfectly the first time.

A lot of people are intimidated by making homemade bread. You don't need any special bread machines or even a mixer (although having one will save you some elbow grease).

How To Bake Bread

The secret to fast bread is using Instant yeast. I'm using saf-instant yeast. You can usually find instant yeast right next to the regular yeast at the grocery store.

You don't have to use saf-instant yeast, any brand that says instant will work. Red Star Instant yeast is another popular brand.

Instant yeast is like regular yeast on steroids. You don't need to mix it with the milk and sugar to bloom it. Just mix it in with the flour, add in the liquid and mix! Using instant yeast makes this bread recipe extra easy because you don't have to bloom the yeast, just mix it in with the flour, sugar, and milk.

Ingredient

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Combine your flour, yeast, sugar and warm (110ºF) milk in the bowl of your stand mixer and combine for one minute at low speed.

After one minute, add in the salt and butter. If your dough is too slippery from the butter, sprinkle in ¼ cup of flour to soak up the butter and is kneading properly in the bowl and not just spinning round and round. If the dough is still not sticking to the sides of the bowl, add a couple of tablespoons of water.

Roll a piece of dough in your hand, is it smooth and silky? If so, then it's ready. If it's sticky and lumpy, it needs more mixing.

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You can test to see if your bread has developed enough gluten by doing the windowpane test. Start by pulling off some of the dough and carefully stretching it between your fingers to make a little window.

If the dough isn't ready, keep mixing for another 2 minutes on medium speed or until the gluten test can be performed successfully. Don't worry about over-mixing.

You can do all of this by hand but it will take longer. Probably about 10-15 minutes of kneading. Don't worry, it's basically impossible to over-knead dough by hand.

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Time to let this dough rise! Place it into a lightly oiled bowl and cover it with a tea towel to keep in the moisture.

I put mine next to an open oven set to 170F. Don't put your dough IN the oven or the hot temperature will kill your yeast.

Fast

Just shape your loaves into two (or three or four depending on how many loaves you want). I've even made hamburger buns and hotdog buns with this recipe.

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Tuck all the rough edges underneath to form a nice smooth skin on top. This will make your bread look really lovely after it's baked.

Place your two loaves onto a pan with some parchment paper. Make sure they have a good 8 between them so they don't end up touching as they bake.

Then make 3 or 4 slices on top of the loaf with a sharp knife at a 30º angle about ¼ deep. (wow that is super specific I know).

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We devoured one whole loaf with dinner and saved the other loaf for tomorrow. The great thing about this fast bread recipe is you can make more bread easily whenever you need it.

You can reheat slices or the whole loaf either in the microwave for 10 seconds or in the oven for 2-3 minutes.

Need bread fast? This soft and fluffy bread only takes 60 minutes to make and is pretty much the most amazing bread I've ever had. No special pans or bread machines. You won't believe how easy it is to make your own homemade bread.

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** I turn my oven on to 170ºF and open the door then place my dough on the door near the opening of the oven to proof, not INSIDE the oven.

** If you don't have instant yeast your can use regular active yeast but it will take longer to proof. 1. Let your dough proof for 90 minutes or until it doubles in size 2. Divide the dough, shape, brush with egg wash, make cuts with the knife and let rest for 30 minutes before baking.

** Egg wash - crack one egg and whisk with 1 Tablespoon of water. Use a soft pastry brush to brush it onto the loaves. If you don't use egg wash your bread will be very pale. You can also use milk instead of egg for the wash.

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** You can replace white flour with wheat flour (use 24 oz instead 28 oz because wheat flour is denser than white flour)

I truly believe there is no satisfaction quite like mixing together the simplest of ingredients (flour, yeast, water) and ending up with a perfect, golden, fluffy loaf of bread (or breadsticks…or dinner rolls…or cinnamon rolls).

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I have dozens of homemade yeast bread recipes living on this site, and I try to provide step-by-step tutorials where

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