How to Make Bread: A Simple UK Everyday Loaf

There's not much in home cooking as satisfying as pulling your own loaf out of the oven, crust crackling as it cools. And it's really rather easy. Bread has been made in home kitchens for thousands of years with nothing more than flour, water, yeast and a pair of hands.

Why bother making your own bread?

Cost is the obvious one. A bag of strong white flour makes several loaves for the price of one decent shop-bought loaf, so the maths adds up fast if you get through a lot of bread.

Then there's what goes in it. A supermarket white sliced can carry a long list of emulsifiers, preservatives and flour treatments to keep it soft and shelf-stable for days. Your loaf has four ingredients and no additives at all. It also simply tastes better: a fresh, properly baked homemade loaf leaves shop white standing, with a real crust and a proper chew.

Four ingredients, a bit of kneading and a warm corner of the kitchen. That's the whole trick.

And it's oddly relaxing. Most of the time is the dough resting while you get on with something else. The active work adds up to maybe twenty minutes.

What do you need for one loaf?

Here's everything for a standard loaf. The flour, yeast, salt and water are essential. The sugar and fat are optional, though they help a little with browning and softness.

A word on flour. Plain (all-purpose) flour won't give you the same result. You want strong white bread flour, sometimes labelled "very strong" or "extra strong", because the extra protein is what builds a good structure. Doves Farm and Allinson's both do a reliable strong white that any supermarket stocks.

On yeast, "fast-action", "instant" and "easy-bake" all mean the same thing: a dried yeast you stir straight into the flour. One 7g sachet is exactly right for 500g of flour.

What's actually happening in the dough?

Understanding the why makes bread far less mysterious, and it means you can fix things when they go wrong.

Gluten gives structure. When you mix flour with water and start working it, the proteins in the flour link up into gluten, described by the millers at Wessex Mill as an elastic protein "that can trap the fermentation gases." Kneading is what develops it into a strong, stretchy web. Strong flour has more protein, so it makes a stronger web, which is exactly why it holds a taller loaf.

Yeast makes the rise. Yeast feeds on the starches and sugars in the dough and, as it does, gives off carbon dioxide gas. That gas gets caught in the gluten web and blows the dough up like thousands of tiny balloons. Wessex Mill describes fermentation as yeast "converting starch and sugar into carbon dioxide gas." No yeast activity, no rise. That's why dead or stale yeast leaves you with a brick.

Salt does two quiet jobs. It seasons the loaf, and a saltless bread tastes flat and oddly sweet. It also keeps the yeast in check, so the dough rises at a steady pace rather than racing off and collapsing. Leave the salt out by accident and you'll notice both.

How do you make a simple loaf, step by step?

This is the whole method. Read it through once before you start, then it all makes sense as you go.

1. 1

   Mix the dough

   Tip the flour into a big bowl. Add the yeast to one side and the salt to the other (salt sitting directly on yeast can knock it back), plus the sugar and butter or oil if using. Stir together, then pour in most of the warm water and mix to a rough, shaggy dough, adding the last of the water until there's no dry flour left. It should feel soft and slightly sticky, not dry.

2. 2

   Knead for about 10 minutes

   Turn it onto a lightly floured surface and knead: push the dough away with the heel of your hand, fold it back, turn a quarter, repeat. Resist adding more flour. After roughly 10 minutes it should feel smooth, springy and elastic. To check, stretch a small piece thin between your fingers. If it goes translucent enough to see light through without tearing, the gluten is ready. That's the windowpane test.

3. 3

   First rise (prove) until doubled

   Shape the dough into a ball, pop it in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a tea towel or cling film. Leave somewhere warm for about an hour, until it has doubled in size. A cold kitchen just means it takes longer, so don't rush it.

4. 4

   Knock back and shape

   Gently press the risen dough down to release the big air pockets. This is knocking back, and it gives you an even crumb. Now shape it: either drop it into a greased 900g (2lb) loaf tin, or form a tight round for a freeform loaf on a lined tray.

5. 5

   Second prove for 30-45 minutes

   Cover again and leave for another 30-45 minutes, until it has puffed up and springs back slowly when you prod it. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 220°C (fan 200°C, gas 7).

6. 6

   Bake until golden and hollow

   Bake for 30-45 minutes, until deep golden brown. To check it's done, tip it out and tap the base: a cooked loaf sounds hollow, like knocking on a door. If it thuds, give it another five minutes.

7. 7

   Cool before slicing

   Lift it onto a wire rack and let it cool for at least 30 minutes. It's still cooking inside as it cools, and slicing too soon gives you a gummy crumb. Hard as it is to wait, this bit matters.

Tin loaf, freeform round or rolls?

Same dough, three finishes. A tin loaf gives you those neat square slices for toast and sandwiches, and the tin supports the sides so it rises tall. A freeform round (a cob or bloomer) is baked straight on a tray for more crust and a rustic look, though it spreads a little wider. For rolls, divide the knocked-back dough into 8-10 pieces, shape each into a ball, prove them on a tray and bake for around 15-20 minutes, as smaller pieces cook faster. Start with a tin loaf if you're new to it: it's the most forgiving.

Can I use a stand mixer instead of kneading by hand?

Absolutely, and it's a proper arm-saver. Fit the dough hook, add everything to the bowl and mix on a low-to-medium speed for about 5 minutes, until the dough is smooth and pulling cleanly away from the sides. The windowpane test works exactly the same to check it's ready. Everything after that (proving, shaping, baking) is identical. Just don't walk off and leave it, as an over-mixed dough can go slack.

What about a wholemeal loaf?

Wholemeal is a simple swap: use wholemeal bread flour in place of the white. Two things change. First, add a splash more water, because the bran soaks up more moisture. Doves Farm's wholemeal recipe uses 350ml against 325ml for the same weight of white flour, so start there and adjust. Second, expect a denser result. As Allinson's puts it, wholemeal "tends to give a slightly denser and moist texture with a little less rise and springiness," because the bran interrupts the gluten. It's nuttier and heartier, and many people prefer it. For a halfway house, use half wholemeal and half strong white for lift with a bit more flavour.

Why didn't my bread work?

Most first-loaf problems fall into four buckets, and each has a clear cause.

• It barely rose. Nearly always the yeast. It was old or past its date, or the water was too hot and killed it, or the room was too cold to get it going. Check the yeast date, use warm not hot water, and give a cold kitchen extra time.
• It's dense and heavy. Usually under-kneaded, so the gluten never built enough structure, or under-proved, so it didn't rise fully before baking. Knead until it passes the windowpane test, and let both proves run until the dough has genuinely doubled.
• It rose then collapsed. Over-proved. Left too long on the second prove, the gluten stretches past what it can hold and sinks in the oven. Bake once it's puffy and springs back slowly, not when it's ballooned to its limit.
• It's pale and soft. The oven wasn't hot enough. Get it properly up to temperature before the loaf goes in, and if in doubt bake a few minutes longer until the crust is a deep golden brown.

How do I store homemade bread?

With no preservatives, your loaf is at its best on day one and good for 2-3 days. Keep it in a bread bin or a paper bag at room temperature. Skip the fridge, oddly, as it actually stales bread faster.

For longer keeping, bread freezes brilliantly. Cool it completely, then freeze the whole loaf or, better, slice it first so you can pull out a couple of slices at a time and toast them straight from frozen. It'll keep a good month or two in the freezer. A slightly stale loaf isn't wasted either: it makes excellent toast, breadcrumbs or a bread-and-butter pudding.

Related guides

Once you've got this everyday loaf under your belt, there's a whole world of baking to explore. Browse the full baking section for more.

Ready for the next step up? The natural progression is sourdough. It swaps the shop-bought yeast for a live starter you keep going yourself, and rewards you with that tangy flavour and open crumb. You'll first need to get a culture going, and our guide to making a sourdough starter with water walks you through it from scratch. It's a slower, more hands-on craft than this loaf, but if today's bake has caught you, it's a lovely place to go next.