Yes, you can make a proper loaf of white bread by hand, with no machine and no special kit. You need one bowl, 500 g of strong white flour, a sachet of yeast, salt and warm water. It takes about two and a half hours start to finish, but only twenty-five minutes of that is hands-on work. The rest is the dough quietly proving while you get on with your morning.
There is a particular smugness that comes from pulling your own loaf out of the oven, and it is entirely earned by people who have done almost nothing. Bread has a reputation for being difficult, and sourdough has a lot to answer for here. A plain white tin loaf is not difficult. It is four ingredients, a bit of kneading, and the patience to let yeast do the actual work.
This is the recipe to start with. It is forgiving, it uses store-cupboard ingredients, and it gives you a loaf with a crisp crust and a soft, properly risen crumb, the kind that makes good toast and even better bacon sandwiches. Below the recipe you will find the two simple tests that separate a triumphant first loaf from a dense brick, a full troubleshooting table for when something does go sideways, a no-knead version for the truly time-poor, and the make-ahead and freezing notes that turn one afternoon into a fortnight of fresh bread.
Key takeaways
- Four ingredients, one bowl, no machine. 500 g strong white flour, 7 g (1 sachet) fast-action yeast, 1.5 tsp salt, 350 ml warm water, plus a tablespoon of oil.
- About 2 hours 30 minutes in total, of which only around 25 minutes is actual work. The two proves are hands-off.
- Two tests do the heavy lifting: the windowpane test tells you when to stop kneading; the poke test tells you when to put it in the oven.
- Bake at 220°C (200°C fan) for about 30 minutes, with a little steam in the oven for a crisp crust.
- It costs roughly 30–40p a loaf to make, against 80p–£1 for a basic shop loaf and £3–£4 at a bakery.
The recipe
Easy White Loaf
Makes one 2 lb (900 g) loaf, about 12 slices · Prep 15 min · Proving 1 hr 45 min · Bake 30 min · Total 2 hr 30 min
Ingredients
- 500 g strong white bread flour, plus a little extra for dusting
- 7 g fast-action (easy-bake) dried yeast — one standard sachet
- 1.5 tsp fine salt (about 9 g)
- 350 ml warm water — lukewarm, comfortable on the inside of your wrist
- 1 tbsp sunflower or olive oil (about 15 ml), plus a little more for the bowl and tin
Method
- Mix the dry ingredients. Tip the flour into a large bowl. Add the yeast to one side and the salt to the other, then stir the whole lot together. Keeping salt and yeast apart for a moment matters, and there is a reason for it explained further down.
- Add the wet. Make a well in the middle, pour in the warm water and the oil, and bring it together with one hand cupped like a claw, or a wooden spoon if you would rather keep your fingers clean. You want a soft, slightly sticky dough. If it is dry and shaggy, add water a tablespoon at a time; if it is soup, add a little more flour.
- Knead for about 10 minutes. Turn it onto a very lightly floured surface and knead: push the heel of your hand into the dough, stretch it away, fold it back, turn a quarter, repeat. It will be tacky at first and smooth, springy and almost silky by the end. Resist adding much more flour — a slightly sticky dough makes a lighter loaf.
- Check with the windowpane test. Pinch off a piece the size of a walnut and stretch it gently between your fingers. If it stretches thin enough to let light through without tearing, the gluten is ready. If it tears, knead for another two or three minutes and try again.
- First prove, about 1 hour. Wipe the bowl with a little oil, return the dough, cover with a clean tea towel or a shower cap, and leave somewhere warm until doubled in size. A sunny windowsill or the airing cupboard is ideal; a cold kitchen will take longer, which is fine.
- Knock back and shape. Tip the risen dough out and press it down gently to knock out the big bubbles. For a tin loaf, flatten it into a rough rectangle, roll it up tightly like a Swiss roll and drop it seam-side down into an oiled 2 lb loaf tin. For a freeform loaf, shape it into a tight round and set it on a floured baking tray.
- Second prove, about 45 minutes. Cover loosely and leave somewhere warm until risen and puffy, just proud of the tin. Now do the poke test (see below) to know it is ready.
- Bake. Heat the oven to 220°C (200°C fan, gas 7) in good time, with a roasting tin on the bottom shelf. Slash the top of the loaf once or twice with a sharp knife. Put the bread in, pour a cupful of boiling water into the hot roasting tin to make steam, and shut the door quickly. Bake for about 30 minutes until deep golden.
- Check it is done and cool it. Tip the loaf out and tap the base — a hollow knock means it is cooked. Cool completely on a wire rack before slicing, however much it hurts to wait. Cutting it hot makes the crumb gummy.
Bread is mostly waiting, and the yeast does the waiting for you.
The two tests that decide everything
The windowpane test: when to stop kneading
The windowpane test tells you the gluten has developed enough to trap the gas the yeast produces, which is what gives bread its rise and its chew. Stretch a small piece of dough thin: if you can see light through it before it tears, you are done. Most beginners under-knead, panic, and end up with a tight, dense loaf, so this is the single most useful check you can learn.
This is also why kneading matters at all. Flour and water alone make a paste; kneading lines up the gluten strands into an elastic web. Ten minutes by hand is plenty for this loaf. If you have a stand mixer with a dough hook you can let it do the work for five to seven minutes, but you genuinely do not need one.
The poke test: when to put it in the oven
The poke test tells you the shaped loaf has proved enough but not too much. Flour a finger and press it gently about a centimetre into the dough. If the dent springs back slowly and leaves a slight dimple, it is ready to bake. If it springs back instantly, give it another ten or fifteen minutes; if it collapses and does not spring back at all, it is over-proved and should go straight in the oven before it deflates.
The why, for anyone who likes to know
Why keep the salt and yeast apart, and other small whys
Salt in direct contact with yeast draws moisture out of the yeast cells and slows them down, which is why you add them to opposite sides of the flour and only mix once each is dispersed. Salt is not the enemy — it controls the rise and seasons the loaf, and bread made without it tastes flat and rises too fast — it should not sit neat against the yeast, that is all.
Water temperature matters too. Yeast wakes up in warm water, around body temperature; water that is too cold leaves it sluggish, and water hot enough to feel hot on your wrist will kill it. Lukewarm is the whole instruction. And a warm room speeds the prove because yeast is a living thing that works faster when it is cosy: a dough that takes an hour in a warm kitchen may take two in a cold one, which is fine, only slower.
The steam at the start is the bakery trick most home cooks miss. A burst of steam keeps the crust soft for the first few minutes so the loaf can expand fully, then it dries and crisps into that proper crackly finish. A roasting tin of boiling water on the oven floor does the job nicely; no special equipment required.
Tin or freeform, and what if you have no strong flour
Tin loaf or freeform: which to choose
A tin loaf is the easier of the two and gives you neat, even slices that fit a toaster and a sandwich, which is why it is the better first choice. A freeform round, baked on a tray, gives you more crust and a more rustic look but needs a slightly firmer dough so it holds its shape rather than spreading. The recipe above works for both; for a freeform loaf, hold back a splash of the water so the dough is a touch stiffer.
No strong flour in the cupboard? You can make a perfectly good loaf with plain (all-purpose) flour — it has less protein, so the crumb will be a little softer and less chewy, but it works. Strong bread flour is worth buying for the better rise and structure, and at under a pound a kilogram it is hardly an extravagance.
When it goes wrong
Bread troubleshooting: what went wrong and how to fix it
Almost every bread problem comes down to one of four things: tired yeast, the wrong temperature, too little kneading, or too little patience. Here is how to read the signs.
| The problem | The likely cause | The fix next time |
|---|---|---|
| Dough did not rise at all | Dead yeast, or water too hot and it killed the yeast | Check the yeast is in date; use lukewarm water, never hot. Proof doubtful yeast in a little warm water with a pinch of sugar — it should froth in 10 minutes. |
| Loaf is dense and heavy | Under-kneaded, or the prove was rushed | Knead until it passes the windowpane test; let it prove until genuinely doubled, not just bigger, however long that takes. |
| Loaf rose then collapsed in the oven | Over-proved — the gas structure gave out | Use the poke test and bake while the dent still springs back slowly, before the dough is straining at the tin. |
| Crust pale and soft | Oven not hot enough, or no steam | Heat the oven fully before baking; add the tin of boiling water for steam; give it a few more minutes until deep golden. |
| Crumb gummy or doughy inside | Underbaked, or cut while still hot | Tap the base for a hollow knock; if unsure, bake five minutes more. Always cool fully on a rack before slicing. |
| Big holes or a dense streak at the base | Uneven shaping or trapped flour | Knock back firmly and shape into a tight roll so there are no large pockets or seams. |
The shortcut and the get-ahead
The no-knead version, for when you cannot face it
If kneading is the part that puts you off, skip it. A wetter dough develops its gluten slowly on its own, given time. Use the same 500 g flour, 7 g yeast and 1.5 tsp salt, but increase the water to 375 ml so the dough is too wet to knead. Mix to a rough, sticky mass, cover, and leave it for two to three hours, or overnight in a cold kitchen, until bubbly and roughly doubled. Tip it onto a floured surface, fold it over on itself a few times to shape a round, prove for another 45 minutes, and bake as above. It is shaggier and more rustic, and it is genuinely no work.
Make ahead and freeze: one loaf becomes a fortnight
You can get ahead at three points, which is what makes home bread realistic on a busy week.
- Overnight in the fridge. After kneading, cover the bowl and put the dough in the fridge instead of doing the first prove on the counter. The cold slows the yeast right down, so it proves gently overnight. Bring it back to room temperature in the morning, then carry on from the knock-back step. A long, cold prove also improves the flavour.
- Freeze the dough. Freeze it after the first knead (before proving) or after shaping (before the second prove). Wrap well, freeze for up to a month, then thaw overnight in the fridge and let it prove at room temperature before baking. It will rise a touch less than fresh, but it works.
- Freeze the baked loaf. Cool it completely, slice it, and freeze in a bag; you can toast slices straight from frozen. A whole loaf freezes well too for up to three months.
Worth doing the maths
Is it cheaper to make your own bread?
Yes, comfortably, and the gap has widened. A 1.5 kg bag of strong white flour costs roughly £1.20–£1.60 and makes three loaves; a sachet of yeast is a few pence, as are the salt and oil. That puts a homemade loaf at around 30–40p in ingredients, against 80p–£1 for a basic supermarket loaf and £3–£4 for a bakery one. You are not going to retire on the savings, but a loaf or two a week adds up, and the homemade version has no preservatives and tastes considerably better.
The kit is the cheap part too. You need a mixing bowl, kitchen scales and either a 2 lb loaf tin or just a baking tray. Everything else — the bowl scraper, the proving basket, the stand mixer — is optional and, for this loaf, genuinely unnecessary. And nothing here goes to waste: a loaf going slightly stale makes the best toast, the best breadcrumbs (whizz and freeze them), and the proper base for a Sunday bread sauce.
If freezing is your way of staying ahead, the same logic applies across the kitchen — it is worth knowing how to freeze butter and which cheeses freeze best so the cheese-on-toast end of things is covered too. And a fresh loaf earns its place at the table: it is the natural partner to a proper Sunday roast with tall, crisp Yorkshire puddings. For more in the same vein, our easy family recipes collection is the place to browse.
Questions people ask
Frequently asked questions
What is the easiest bread to make at home?
A plain white tin loaf made with strong white flour and fast-action yeast is the easiest bread for a beginner. It needs only one bowl, no machine, and forgiving timings. If even kneading feels like too much, the no-knead version above is easier still.
How long does it take to make a loaf of bread?
About 2 hours 30 minutes from start to a cooling loaf, but only around 25 minutes of that is hands-on. The rest is two proves, roughly an hour and then 45 minutes, during which the dough does the work while you do something else.
Can I make bread without a bread machine or mixer?
Yes. This entire recipe is made by hand. A stand mixer with a dough hook can do the kneading if you have one, but it is not needed, and a bread machine is not needed at all.
Why is my homemade bread so dense?
Dense bread is almost always under-kneaded dough or a rushed prove. Knead until the dough passes the windowpane test, and let it prove until it has genuinely doubled in size rather than baking it to a clock.
Can I use plain flour instead of strong bread flour?
You can. Plain flour has less protein, so the loaf will be a little softer and less chewy, but it still rises and bakes into a good loaf. Strong white bread flour gives the best structure and is only around a pound a kilogram.
Can I freeze homemade bread?
Yes. Cool it fully, slice it and freeze in a bag for up to three months; toast slices straight from frozen. You can also freeze the dough, either after the first knead or after shaping, for up to a month.
Recipe and guide by Linda Garrould. Last updated 15 June 2026.
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