Easy Bread Recipe

This easy bread recipe is your favorite’s soup’s new best friend. With only four ingredients and minimal prep work, you can have bakery level bread ready to serve with your favorite soups, casseroles, or just because sometimes you just need some bread fresh outta the oven.

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There is no day that just can’t be made infinitely better by homemade bread fresh from the oven.

It’s the perfect cool weather comfort food.

Fresh, warm bread with a big pat of butter melting into it dunked into soup.

If that’s not the recipe for coziness I don’t know what is.

And baking your own really is simple with only 4 ingredients and about 10 minutes of total active prep needed for this easy bread recipe.

There’s minimal kneading and you can make this bread from start to finish in one day.

And once you try it for yourself, you’ll only go back to grocery store bakery bread in a pinch because this is yummier and less expensive.

Ingredients and Kitchen Supplies

Here’s what you need to make our easy bread recipe:

• Bread Flour – Bread flour makes a chewier, stronger bread. While technically, you can substitute all purpose flour in homemade bread, you shouldn’t because it will change the structure of the bread. More on that in a minute.
• Yeast – You will want to use rapid rise or instant yeast over dry active. I like the kind of yeast pictured here with the dough enhancer in it though it is not crucial the way it is for focaccia bread.
• Water – You want the water to be room temperature- not too hot or not too cold. Basically it should be the April 25th of water. It should feel cool to the touch, neither hot nor freezing. Similar to letting it rise in a cool environment, you want cool water so the yeast activates but doesn’t go nuts right away. Slow that yeast’s roll with a cool bath instead of a hot tub.
• Sea Salt – Sea salt offers the best flavor for this bread. Table salt and other fine salts do not add well to the flavor, meaning you should really use your fancy salt for this recipe over fine table salt.

One of the fun things about this easy bread recipe is you do not need to break out your bread pan.

We just pull out our sheet pan when making this bread and possibly a liner, like foil.

How to Make Our Easy Bread Recipe

1. Measure and mix.

In a large bowl, combine your flour, yeast, and salt.

Give it a quick whisk to incorporate the dry ingredients.

Pour in the water and use a sturdy spoon to mix it together.

The dough will be shaggy and dry initially but will come together.

Use your hands to form it into a sticky-ish but still sort of dry looking dough ball.

If it is too dry, add an extra teaspoon of water.

2. Cover and let it rise.

Cover the bowl with the dough in it with a clean towel or foil.

Put it in a warm place to let it rise for at least 4 hours but up to 10 hours or until doubled in size.

The dough will take about 4 hours to double in size and be ready to shape into loaves, but overnight or all day is fine.

3. Shape, rest again, and bake.

After at least 4 hours of rising, remove the bread dough from the bowl.

You can either cut it in half to form two shorter baguettes or keep whole and form a single, long baguette.

If you want to have fun and experiment with loaf shapes, you do you boo though keep in mind the bake time may change.

Place the loaf or loaves on your baking sheet, loosely cover, and allow to rise for about 45 minutes.

Towards the end of the second rise (which you can use to make your soup or dinner), put an 8×8 or larger baking dish filled halfway up with water on the bottom rack of the oven and preheat your oven to 450.

Remove the cover from the dough and score 3 to 4 score marks across the baguettes.

Put the bread on the middle or top rack in your oven and bake it at 450 for 20-25 minutes or until the bread sounds hollow when you tap it and the crust is golden brown.

Remove from the oven and let it cool for a few minutes before slicing and serving.

Serving

This is easy bread recipe pairs with:

• soups – like Creamy Gnocchi Soup, Vegetable Beef Soup, Butternut Squash Soup, or Creamy Sweet Potato and Pumpkin Soup
• casseroles
• salads
• pastas – like Pasta al Pesto, Lemon Pasta, and Creamy Chicken and Pasta
• alongside Italian meatballs or spicy meatballs
• pretty much any meal where you want a warm side of bread

If you want something a bit more compicated but totally worth it, you could try our focaccia bread recipe.

Storing

This bread is best served fresh and warm from the oven.

If you have leftovers,you should let it cool completely.

Once cool, place the bread in either an air tight container or large sealable bag.

To serve again, place bread in a warm oven to heat through.

Bread Flour vs Regular Flour

Ok, here’s where it gets technical.

If you want to make this recipe and don’t have bread flour in your pantry, fear not.

Make it anyway, just know unless you have a very refined palate, you’re not really going to tell much difference.

That said, you do want to use bread flour if possible because bread flour is higher in protein (13-14% vs about 10% for all purpose flour).

That means the bread flour develops more and stronger glutens, which gives your bread the structure and the chewy texture.

Bread flour also absorbs more water than all purpose flour so if you sub all purpose for bread flour, you should be prepared to add about 1/4 cup extra flour if the dough seems too wet.

Tips and Tricks

• This a much drier dough than Focaccia Bread dough. It will almost feel like there’s not enough water. It’s ok. If it does truly feel like the dough is not coming together, add an extra teaspoon of room temperature water.
• For some additional flavor, you can add in some herbs or spices. You don’t want to go nuts, but you some dry herbs can boost the flavor to compliment what you are serving.
• Whenever possible, use bread flour. This gives you the best crust and texture. But if you only have all purpose flour, you can use that.
• Don’t skip the water in the oven. It really gives the bread the nice even cook and the crunchy crust.
• Make sure to preheat the oven and get it screaming hot. This is one of those recipes that won’t turn out right if you have the oven too cool and think, “Eh, I’ll just let it finish coming to temperature with the bread in the oven.” No. Don’t do that. It won’t crust properly or be as fluffy inside.

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