Jolyn’s Extra Soft White Bread Recipe
on Feb 01, 2021, Updated Mar 24, 2021
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The best white sandwich bread that is perfect for making sandwiches. It’s SO soft and fluffy and isn’t at all crumbly. It is the most amazing texture that is just perfect!
One skill that I think everyone should acquire is the ability to make homemade bread. There is something so satisfying about baking bread from scratch. I love that simple ingredients like flour and yeast can turn into a beautiful loaf that can feed my family.
Table of Contents
Soft White Bread Recipe
Have you ever noticed that sometimes homemade bread isn’t the best for making sandwiches because it’s crumbly and falls apart? This recipe incorporates a few key ingredients like potato flakes, gluten, and powdered milk. Using these in the recipe creates a bread that doesn’t crumble when you cut it, making it ideal for sandwiches.
This white sandwich bread holds up like store-bought bread but it is so much tastier. It is simple to make and your family will be fighting over the first piece!
What type of mixer is best for bread making?
You will have the best success making bread with either a Bosch stand mixer or a KitchenAid. If you don’t have either, you can hand mix the dough by hand but it will require a bit of elbow grease! Don’t skip the long kneading time, it’s what develops the gluten and helps the bread to not be crumbly.
How Do You Make Bread Lighter and Fluffy?
There’s a few things that really help. Sticking with white flour helps and adding a few extras like potato flakes, gluten, and kneading it a long time are the keys to making a really soft bread that HOLDS TOGETHER. That’s why this recipe is perfect for sandwiches!
How do I store homemade bread?
To keep bread soft you will want to store it in an airtight bag or container. You can order bread bags online that will keep the bread fresh as well. Homemade bread also does well in the freezer when stored properly.
More bread recipes:
- Mom’s 4 Loaf Wheat Bread Recipe (SO good!)
- The Best Homemade Cornbread Recipe
- How to Make Homemade Bread (with no eggs, milk, or butter)
- Mom’s Easy French Bread Recipe
- My Favorite Go-To Sourdough Bread Recipe
Extra Soft White Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups warm water
- 4 teaspoons active dry yeast
- ¼ cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons vital wheat gluten
- 2 teaspoons salt
- ¼ cup nonfat dry milk
- 3 tablespoons butter or oil
- ½ cup potato flakes
- 5-6 cups all-purpose flour
- stick of butter to butter the tops of the bread
Instructions
- Add water, yeast, sugar, wheat gluten, salt, dry milk, oil, potato flakes, and 4 cups of flour to the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment.
- Mix on low for 10-12 minutes (this is machine kneading).
- After the mixing time, add additional flour, 1/4 cup at a time. The dough is ready when it isn’t too sticky and can be handled. Give the dough time to work the flour in before adding more.
- If it is gooey, add flour and mix after each addition, until the dough can be worked with your hands without sticking to them. I generally add 5.5 to the full 6 cups total flour for this recipe. It will depend some on your kitchen conditions and flour.
- Form the dough into a smooth bowl and add it back to your mixing bowl. Cover tightly with plastic wrap.
- Let dough rise for 1 hour.
- Remove it from the bowl.
- Divide the dough into two even pieces and form each piece into a loaf.
- Place the dough in 2 greased loaf pan and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour or until the dough is about 1 inch above the rim of the bread pan.
- Bake at 375℉ for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and sounds hollow when lightly tapped.
- Remove from the oven and grease the tops of the loaf with a little bit of butter.
- Remove the bread from the pans and allow to cool on a wire rack before slicing (you can slice warm but the texture is best once it has cooled and the bread has set).
- Once the bread has completely cooled, store leftovers in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, in the fridge for up to 5 days, and in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Notes
- Non-fat dry milk can be found near the canned evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk. You can also find it near specialty flours (sometimes it’s called baking milk blend). It’s a dry milk product and it has a great shelf life. This is the only recipe I use it for and it keeps great.
- I just use normal old potato flakes, like the kind you would make instant mashed potatoes with, for this recipe. Nothing special there and again, they are very shelf stable.
- Vital wheat gluten will be near the specialty flours or just in the baking isle. Again, you might need to collect up these “specialty” ingredients but they won’t spoil quickly and you’ll make this bread often enough to use them up!
Nutrition
White bread recipe is such a good recipe to have in your back pocket. You will love how soft, chewy, and delicious this bread is. Perfect for making sandwiches, toast, and even French toast!
what does vital wheat glutton do for the bread
It improves the texture and helps it to not crumble at all, it’s a really great sandwich bread.
Can I use powdered whole milk in place of the powdered non-fat milk?
Yep!
Thank you for sharing this lovely recipe. I halved the ingredients as my bread maker is one of the smaller ones. It came out perfectly. This will definitely be a firm favourite go to recipe from now on. No need for the storage instructions as with Cornish butter it was gone in a flash.
I love this bread and its simplicity. ” Problem is, it seems to be for a shorter pan and I wouldd like to make this loaf in a bigger pan!my daughter and son’in’law brought their newly married daughter and her husband out so we could meet us, I made two loaves thinking it would last the last two days of their visit, but it was gone in two meals and i made another two for supper and breakfast the last day. i offered to show them the ones I usually make, but my granddaughter insisted, ‘i want this one, just this one!
I bake this in a 9×5 pan but you can put it in something smaller if you’d like!
Potato’s flakes? Is that like instant potatoes?
Yep, instant mashed potatoes work great!
Can the dough be frozen after the rise?
I haven’t played with it. If you do will you let us know how it turns out?
🙏. I did make it and it was great. Forgot to add the butter at the beginning. Scared, I added it after all the flour was in. Stand mixer on medium 5 min and all was well! I will try freezing a loaf next time.
Vinegar is mentioned a couple times in the post but is not in the ingredients list. Is that missing or just a mistake? About to put 4 loaves in the oven so hoping it was just a mistake 😊
Thank you for saying something! The vinegar is in the whole wheat version of this recipe (coming soon!) and I just got them mixed up while writing. The recipes doesn’t have vinegar in it, so you are good to go! I can’t wait to hear how it turns out for you!!!
Oh that sounds amazing also! All 4 loaves turned out great, hooray! One already almost gone, two in the freezer, and one to share with a neighbor. Thanks for another winner!
I made a double batch this morning! One for lunch, one for tomorrow, one in burger buns (I’ll let you know how they turn out!) and one to save to take to church for the sacrament on Sunday (communion). It’s so nice to have a solid recipe that you know will work. I’ve made this one so many times and never had a flop batch!