Many people love the idea of warm fresh bread but never try baking it because the process seems so time-consuming, complicated, and even magical. Bread is amazing and magical, but making a simple yeast bread is truly not difficult. Here’s a recipe that gives you key tips, walks you through the steps, and yields a delicious and fragrant loaf of bread.

You’ll use ingredients and gear that you probably already have, and the entire process takes less than three hours – most of which is just waiting for the dough to rise. This might be the only bread you ever bake or this could be your springboard to eventually baking all sorts of breads with different flours and even sourdough leavening.

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Checking Your Yeast

Some new bakers are anxious about using yeast because they’ve heard it requires a certain room temperature or that it might be dead before they even open the packet and all the bread baking effort, anticipation, and ingredients might be wasted. The truth is that a yeast dough can rise in a wide range of temperatures, from a refrigerator to a heat wave; the difference is in how long the dough takes to rise. Cold dough rises slower than hot dough, but the final breads are both great.

And as for dead yeast, this indeed can happen but you can always check the yeast’s liveliness before using it to make sure it’s fine, and we give instructions for performing this simple 5-minute test in the recipe below. It’s worth noting that many people keep the same package of SAF Instant Yeast in their freezers for several years and the yeast shows no signs of slowing down.

Five-minute yeast test

How much should the dough rise?

The second thing that worries new bakers is timing. If a recipe says that the dough should double for the first rise in 1-2 hours, is it one or two? And what does doubling look like in a bowl anyway? The answer is that the timing of the expansion depends on the temperature of the dough, and it might actually take less than an hour or even more than two hours! Also, the dough doesn’t have to precisely double, it can be a little smaller or bigger, but you can keep track of where on your bowl your dough rises to and learn from each bake.

Here are some photos of the target expansion of this dough during the first and second rises. My dough was warm and the first rise was 1 hour long and the second rise was 30 minutes long. If I had used cold water in the dough and had the dough sitting in a cold kitchen, the timing would have been longer.

First rise dough expansion

Second rise dough expansion

Barely risen over the pan edge

Easy Shaping

This is a relatively wet dough, which helps it ferment faster and have a lighter, airy texture when baked. You will form this dough into a loaf shape after the first rise with wet fingers, inside the bowl and loaf pan. This makes it relatively easy and mess free, as you’re just roughly shaping the dough, moving it to the greased loaf pan, and then tucking it into a tube shape. See the short video below for a demonstration.

Loaf Pan Options

I used a medium USA loaf pan for this recipe. It’s 9 x 5 x 2.75 inches and about the same volume as glass loaf pans that are 1.5 liters.

It takes longer for glass to heat up than aluminum so you should extend the bake time if you use a glass pan. Cover the bread with aluminum foil if it begins to browns excessively before the interior reaches 190F.

If you have a different size pan, you can read this FAQ to learn how to scale a recipe, or simply bake this size dough in your pan and be prepared for a different fit, either low and wide in the pan or overflowing.

Additional expansion while baking

Beginner All Purpose Yeast Bread

Here's a recipe for fresh baked bread using simple ingredients and gear that you probably already have in your kitchen. The time commitment is minimal and a shaping video and before-and-after dough photos will guide you through the parts of the process that are tricky for beginners.    

Prep Time

20 minutes

Baking Time

35 minutes

Total Time

55 minutes

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup lukewarm water (60 grams)
• 2 1/4 tsp instant yeast (1 packet or 9 grams)
• 1 tsp sugar (5 grams)
• 1 1/4 cups lukewarm water (300 grams)
• 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour (455 grams)
• 1 1/2 tsp salt (9g)

Instructions

Check ("bloom") the Yeast

• In a small bowl, mix 1/4 cup lukewarm water with a teaspoon of sugar. If you have a thermometer, aim for under 110F. Pour the instant yeast onto the water-sugar mix and let everything sit for 5 minutes. The yeast should get foamy as in the photo above captioned "Five-minute yeast test". If your yeast does not bloom (foam up) in 5 minutes, then you may have some dead yeast which you will want to replace before you continue with the recipe.

Mix and First Rise

• Combine bloomed yeast with the rest of the ingredients and mix until well incorporated. Cover and let sit 1-2 hours until roughly doubled in size. See photo above for target dough expansion. For the shorter end of the time range, use warm water to mix the dough (1 cup cold mixed with 1/4 cup boiling) and place the dough somewhere warm but under 85F to rise (e.g. the inside of your oven with the light on).

Shape and Second Rise (aka Final Proof)

• Lightly grease your bread pan. With damp fingers, scoop the dough away from the edges of the bowl until it is a smaller ball. After re-wetting your fingers, lift the dough out of the bowl and place it into the loaf pan. Spread it out in the pan and smooth the top of the dough with a little more water.
• Cover the dough and let it rise for 30-60 minutes or until it just barely crests over the top of the loaf pan. Don’t put it in the lit oven to rise because the oven will be preheating during this time. See the photos above for target dough expansion in the pan.
• About 20 minutes before the second rise is complete, begin preheating the oven to 425F with a rack one position up from the lowest.
• When the dough has finished the second rise, you can score it if you want. Dust the dough surface with flour so the blade of your lame or knife doesn't catch.

Bake

• Put the loaf pan in the preheated oven on the second-to-lowest rack and bake for:
• 15 minutes at 425F
• 15 minutes at 375F
• 5 minutes out of the pan, directly on the rack, at 375F
• The internal temperature of the bread should be at least 190F when it is done.
• The bread might be irresistible, in which case feel free to cut it after about 15 minutes, though the inside will likely still be a little moist and shaggy at this point. The more “proper” thing to do is to let the bread cool for a couple of hours.
• After the bread is completely cool, store it covered or wrapped at room temperature for about 3 days; then slice, double bag, and freeze for optimal freshness.

Notes

Active vs. Instant Yeast: If using instant yeast that you know is good, you can skip the blooming step and simply incorporate your yeast and the extra 1/4 cup of water in with the rest of the ingredients. But don't skip the blooming step if you use active yeast. Also expect slightly longer rise times. 

Different Flours: Use more water in the dough if you substitute some or all of the flour with whole wheat flour or bread flour. Note that whole wheat flour tends to ferment faster than white flour, and the presence of bran makes a whole wheat dough less stretchy and the final bread a little less airy. Also, bread flour tends to have more oven spring, so you may want to score the dough to control the bursting if you make this substitution. 

Extending the Process with Refrigeration: The easiest time to refrigerate the dough is probably overnight after it is shaped and in the bread pan. To ensure the shaped dough doesn't overproof, don't use warm water or the lit oven for the first rise and then put the loaf pan into the coldest part of your refrigerator as soon as it is shaped. You can then bake the dough from cold and simply add a few minutes to the total bake time. 

Extending the Process at Room Temperature: A good way to extend the rising time at room temperature is to use cool water and very little yeast (1/8 - 1/4 tsp). The dough will then take 8-12 hours to rise while you are sleeping or out all day. You may need to do some trial and error based on your kitchen temperature to figure out the best amount of yeast to use.