Top down baking view of bread ingredients

Bread

Bread03.09.2026.

The simplest bread recipe you’ll ever have encountered

baking
Time4h
Complexity2/5
4
g
g
Calories333
Carbs90.9
Sugars10.6
Fats1.2
Saturated Fats0.2
Protein8.7
Fibers2.3
Salts1.8

Ingredients

Dry

Wet

Instructions

Step 1

Warm up the water to a near lukewarm temperature

Step 2

Mix up all the dry ingredients and add the water

Step 3

After forming the dough ball, seal it tight inside a bowl and let it sit in a warm place for 45min

Step 4

Add/Spray some oil to the bowl and oil your hand/s.

De-flate the dough and stretch and fold from sides to center two to three times.
Roll it up, tighten it and let it rest in a sealed bowl in a warm place for another 30min

Step 5

De-flate yet again, stretch and fold from sides to center once and pre-shape the dough into a ball.
Proceed to shape the dough in accordance with your desired final shape, which will probably be a sandwich loaf.
Transfer it into an oiled up baking pan, oil the top and cover it tightly (preferably with cling film).

Leave it in a warm place until the size doubled (approx. 1.5h)

Step 6

Remove the cover and oil the top yet again right before baking.
Bake at 180°C for 35min or until color changed to a golden one

Step 7

After baking, transfer the loaf from the baking pan into a blanket and onto a wire rack for around 2h. However, feel free to slice and eat it after 5-10min

P.S. — You will need a pretty sharp knife because the sides will be pretty soft and moist

P.P.S. — Don't burn yourself

A few
notes

Bread is picky.

I learned that the hard way

Warming up the water gets the fermentation started sooner.
All the other ingredients should be at room temperature.

Using cold ingredients will delay the fermentation process.
Using hot ingredients can kill the yeast

We are utilizing the “No-knead” method here.
This keeps the recipe simple and accessible to everyone.

ChainBaker did a great job explaining it.
He also has a lot of other useful resources for baking purposes

Depends.
Here are some deviations for this recipe:

Ingr.AmountRange
Flour347g320g - 370g
Water210g200g - 220g
Yeast2.4g2.2g - 2.6g
Salt6.9g6.7g - 7.1g
Sugar33.7g10g - 36g

The sugar, in this recipe, is primarily the sweetness of the bread.
Always add at least some of it to help the yeast in the fermentation process.
It is also vital to the browning of the crust during baking.

Be wary of the salt — even small deviations can noticeably affect the taste

There is really no reason to make this more complicated than it needs to be.
Instant yeast goes straight into the dry mix and works just fine.

Both fresh yeast and active dry yeast don’t give a better result — they just add another step

Shaping isn’t just about making the loaf look nice.

When you fold and shape the dough, you’re creating tension in it’s surface. That tension gives the dough something to push against as it expands during proofing, helping it rise into a nicely formed loaf instead of spreading out

Your dough might not rise as much as you’d hoped. It might even go a little too far.

Bake it anyway.

The result might be denser/flatter/collapsed, but it will still be bread.
And, more importantly, it will still taste pretty good

The time listed in a recipe is a guideline, not a law.

The size and shape of the loaf, the pan you’re using, your oven, the temperature of the dough, and how far it was proofed can all impact the baking time.

Your loaf is not my loaf, so expect some variation.

If you have a thermometer — The center needs to reach around 88°C

I had particularly bad results with an aluminum loaf pan.
Mine seemed to heat up way too slowly and I never got results I liked.

Maybe it was just that particular pan, but I much prefer non-stick steel for bread

There are a lot of variables here.

Bread can be surprisingly sensitive to small changes. And sometimes you’ll do everything right and still end up with something a little different than you expected.

Don’t let that put you off.

I was terrible at baking bread when I started. I eventually had to read an entire book just to understand what I was actually doing.


You don't need perfect bread.

You just need to bake the next one