Basic Wheat Bread

This bread is great for beginners to help you start out with a bread that will exceed the store-bought bread in health and taste. Be sure to view our bread making 101 lessons to ensure you have an excellent loaf every time!

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup warm water
2 tsp. active dry yeast
1 Tbs. honey
1 cup white flour
1 Tbs. olive or grapeseed oil
2 tsp. salt
3 to 4 cups of flour

DIRECTIONS:

Pour the warm water into a large mixing bowl or into your stand mixer fitted with a bread hook/mixer. Gently stir in the yeast and honey until mixed. Let this sit for at least 10 minutes up to 15 minutes.
While waiting, prepare and measure the remaining ingredients. Grease your bread pan as needed.
Mix the oil, white flour and salt into your yeast mixture.
Begin to add in the flour slowly until the dough begins to form into a ball and starts to leave a clean bowl.
You can now knead the bread by hand or continue to knead it in your mixer with a dough hook. Knead until smooth adding only very small amounts of flour. When you think it is is ready, do the stretch test with a small amount of dough as described here. If it passes this test, it is ready for the next step.
Put the dough into an oiled bowl and turn it to coat oil on all sides. Cover with a damp towel and leave in a warm place to rise.
When the dough seems to have risen to be doubled in size, use the finger poke test to see if it is ready. Simple poke two fingers into the dough gently, up to your first knuckle, and then remove. If the dough comes back to the original position it is not finished rising. If the poked holes mostly remain, it is finished!
When rising is finished, "punch" to dough down to push the air out. Form your dough into a loaf shape and place into your bread pan. Cover with a damp towel to rise again until doubled in size. Do the same finger poke test to ensure it has risen enough.
When ready, preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Bake bread at this temperature until it is golden brown on top. Approximately 20-30 minutes.