4-Ingredient Easy Homemade Bread for Beginners
This four-ingredient, white bread is straightforward and almost effortless to make. It is the perfect recipe for beginners and delivers impressive texture and flavor!
Ingredients
- 4 3/4 cups + 2 tbsp bread flour, plus more for dusting as needed and DO NOT USE ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR!
- 1 tbsp instant yeast
- 1 tbsp kosher salt
- 2 1/4 cup water, ice cold
- 1 tbsp cornmeal, for dusting (This ingredient is optional!)
Instructions
Day 1
- Add the bread flour, instant yeast, and salt to a large mixing bowl. Whisk well.
- Dig a small hole in the center and pour the ice-cold water inside.
- With a wooden spoon, stir from the inside out, gradually pulling the flour into the center. Stir until mostly combined. Once the spoon can't stir the mixt anymore, press it together with your hands and dump it onto the counter. Knead it just until there is no visible flour; you will only need to knead it about 15 times. *Dust the counter with a tiny bit of flour as needed if the dough sticks to it really bad. However, the dough should be VERY wet and sticky in the end.
- Place the dough inside a large mixing bowl and press plastic wrap directly on top. Cover the bowl in plastic wrap as well, followed by a kitchen towel. Set the bowl of dough in a dark, warm place to rest for 3 hours.
- Then place the bowl of dough, exactly as is, into the refrigerator overnight. I always let mine rest for around 20 hours.
Day 2
- Optional: Dust the bottom of a non-stick 11" by 6" bread pan with the cornmeal.
- Then scrape the dough into the pan and lightly press it from corner to corner to evenly distribute it.
- Cover the bread pan with a sheet of plastic wrap and let it rest in a dark warm place for 2 to 3 hours. The dough should rise almost to the tippy-top of the pan.
- Fill another pan with a few inches of water and place it on the oven's bottom rack. (I usually use another bread pan.)
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Remove the plastic wrap from the top of the dough(the plastic wrap will stick, and that's okay! Just slowly pull it off.) Next, place the bread pan onto the middle rack and bake it for 40 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. *If there is a rack above the middle rack, make sure to remove it, or the bread may get squished by it as it rises. Also, if your oven runs a bit hot, keep an eye on the bread for the last 20 minutes or so. If the top of the bread gets too dark brown, place a piece of aluminum foil over it while it finishes baking.
- Allow the bread to cool down in the pan entirely- this is a must as it is essentially finishing baking in the center. Next, if your pan isn't super non-stick, take a butter knife and run it around the outer edges to easily remove the bread. Then tip the pan upside down onto your hand to pop the bread out, flip it over, slice, and enjoy!
Tried this recipe?Let me know how it was!