This Easy Honey White Bread Recipe Is Great for Beginners (2024)

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This Easy Honey White Bread Recipe Is Great for Beginners (1)

Prep: 30 mins

Cook: 40 mins

Proving : 105 mins

Total: 2 hrs 55 mins

Servings: 20 servings

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Bread and honey are a combination made in sweet and chewy heaven. The sweetness of honey gives the bread a fantastic taste, color on the inside, and a beautiful golden hue to the crust. Our recipe for honey bread needs just seven ingredients and will deliver to your table a wonderful loaf that's difficult to beat in texture, color, and flavor. Honey bread is great for sandwiches, French toast, or bread pudding. A slice of it with butter is a great snack or breakfast, and the ease of making it will make this bread your new family favorite.

Honey has been used in baking and bread baking for centuries as it adds moisture to the dough or batter. Because of its sugars, it can help the yeast grow when used adequately. Its antibacterial properties can retard mold growth, so its use in ancient recipes was key to extending the shelf life of baked goods before refrigeration was invented.

Our simple recipe is ideal for beginner bakers. Don't let the number of steps in the method fool you. In bread making, attention to detail is key, but it doesn't necessarily mean the end product is difficult to achieve. Proofing the bread is the longest part of the process, and the recipe is more hands off than it is hands on. For this recipe, you need two bread tins—9x5-inch ones are great—and close to three hours from beginning to end. Finally, we recommend using bottled water instead of tap water to make your bread. Water softeners and chlorinated public water can sometimes kill the yeast needed to make your bread dough rise.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cups water, warm

  • 2 1/4 teaspoons dry active yeast

  • 1 cup whole milk, room temperature; or skim, or non-fat

  • 2 tablespoons honey

  • 2 teaspoons salt

  • 3 tablespoons butter, softened

  • 6 cups bread flour, divided

  • 2 teaspoons vegetable oil, divided

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients.

    This Easy Honey White Bread Recipe Is Great for Beginners (2)

  2. In​ alarge bowl, mix the warm water and yeast. Ideally, the water temperature should be between 95 F and 110 F.

    This Easy Honey White Bread Recipe Is Great for Beginners (3)

  3. Add the milk, honey, salt, and butter. Stir well to roughly incorporate.

  4. Add 4 cups of the flour and mix well. Add in enough of the remaining flour to make a dough that follows the spoon around the bowl.

    This Easy Honey White Bread Recipe Is Great for Beginners (5)

  5. Turn the dough out onto alightly floured surface. Knead the dough for 10 minutes, adding more flour as needed until the dough is firm and smooth to the touch. If using a standing mixer, mix on high for 3 to 5 minutes.

    This Easy Honey White Bread Recipe Is Great for Beginners (6)

  6. Grease amedium-sized bowl with 1 teaspoon of the vegetable oil. Place the dough inside and turn it over in thebowl a few times so that it's lightly greased all over.

    This Easy Honey White Bread Recipe Is Great for Beginners (7)

  7. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise in a warm, draft-free place for 1 hour.

    This Easy Honey White Bread Recipe Is Great for Beginners (8)

Shape and Bake the Dough

  1. Punch down the dough. Turn the dough out onto alightly floured board and knead for 5 minutes or until the bubbles are out of the bread. If using a standing mixer, mix for 2 minutes at medium speed.

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  2. Divide the dough into 2 equal parts. Shape each dough half into a loaf-shaped oval ball.

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  3. Grease two 9x5-inch bread pans with the remaining teaspoon of vegetable oil.

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  4. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free place for 45 minutes, or until doubled in size. Around 15 minutes before the time is up, preheat the oven to 350 F.

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  5. Bake the loaves for 40 minutes or until the bread top is golden brown and the loaves sound hollow when tapped on top. Remove the breadfrom the pans and allow them to cool on arack.

    This Easy Honey White Bread Recipe Is Great for Beginners (13)

  6. Enjoy.

Choose Your Favorite Crust

Depending on what you do before or after baking the loaves, you'll end up with a different type of crust:

  • Brush the loaves with melted butter immediately after baking to achieve a soft crust.
  • Spray the loaves with water while they bake for a crispy crust.
  • Brush the loaves with milk before baking to get a dark, shiny crust.
  • Brush the loaves with egg whites before baking to get a shiny crust.

What is bread flour?

Bread flour has a higher amount of protein than all-purpose flour, from 11 to 13 percent. Having more protein helps the dough to also have higher amounts of gluten, which gives the dough stretch and elasticity. This means that bread made with bread flour will rise higher and have a chewier bite than bread made with all-purpose flour.

You can make your own bread flour by adding 1 1/2 teaspoons of wheat gluten to each cup of all-purpose flour you use in your bread recipe.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
183Calories
3g Fat
32g Carbs
6g Protein

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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 20
Amount per serving
Calories183
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 3g4%
Saturated Fat 1g7%
Cholesterol 6mg2%
Sodium 232mg10%
Total Carbohydrate 32g12%
Dietary Fiber 1g4%
Total Sugars 2g
Protein 6g
Vitamin C 0mg0%
Calcium 21mg2%
Iron 0mg2%
Potassium 63mg1%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

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This Easy Honey White Bread Recipe Is Great for Beginners (2024)

FAQs

What happens when you add honey to bread? ›

Color: Honey can give bread a darker crust and crumb color due to its natural sugars caramelizing during baking. This can result in a golden or amber hue, depending on the type and amount of honey used. Tenderizing: Honey can act as a dough conditioner, making the bread softer and more tender.

Does yeast activate with honey? ›

Honey or agave syrup work too. Types of Yeast: Active dry yeast lies dormant and needs a warm liquid to become “activated.” Instant yeast, also known as quick-rise or rapid-rise yeast, does not need to be activated or “bloomed” before using.

Can I use honey instead of sugar when making bread? ›

out the sugar for honey! Just substitute honey for the. same amount of sugar in the recipe and add a little.

What is the secret to soft homemade bread? ›

Brush With Butter

Butter contains fats that retain gases during baking, ensuring the dough rises properly in the oven and softening the crust. If you forget to brush the dough before you bake, you can still apply it as soon as you take it out. The butter will minimize the amount of crisping a loaf will do as it cools.

Is honey or sugar better for yeast? ›

Honey creates a more golden crust than sugar does. It also helps to keep bread moist and adds a distinctive flavor. Because of its antibacterial properties, it retards mold, which improves the shelf life of baked products. But that antibacterial property has a downside—some honeys can kill yeast.

Why can't you bake with honey? ›

Honey is more liquid than sugar, changing the consistency of your baked goods. Honey is more acidic than sugar and will change the flavor of your baked goods. Honey browns more quickly than sugar, which can result in overbaked goods.

What is the best honey for baking bread? ›

Amber Honey

It has more caramel notes, which makes it the ideal honey for spreading on bread. For baking purposes, you can use it to make Parker House rolls.

What kind of honey kills yeast? ›

Pasteurized honey or bust

To be clear, wild honey — the kind you can find at farmer's markets and health food stores — is the honey that threatens your yeast. Wild, or raw, honey has been left completely natural, traveling from hive to jar with zero processing.

Can you add too much honey to yeast? ›

In answer to your question, you can use too much honey. Somewhere above 4 1/2 pounds per gallon, you get into territory that is very tough for yeast, and many will stall before fermentation is complete. When above 5 pounds per gallon (above a gravity of 1.200 you reach a point where most yeast can't even start.

Can diabetics eat honey? ›

Used sparingly, honey can be part of a healthy, balanced diet for people living with diabetes. But it's good practice to get into the habit of limiting honey and any added sugar as much as possible. More than focussing on an individual ingredient, think about what you eat for each meal as a whole.

Is honey better than sugar for diabetics? ›

Generally, there's no advantage to substituting honey for sugar in a diabetes eating plan. Both honey and sugar will affect your blood sugar level. Honey is sweeter than granulated sugar, so you might use a smaller amount of honey for sugar in some recipes.

What is the ratio of honey to sugar in baking? ›

To substitute 1 cup of sugar: Use 2/3 cup honey. Honey is sweeter than sugar, so you need to use less. Decrease other liquids in the recipe by 1/4 cup, because there's water in the honey too.

How do bakeries get their bread so soft? ›

Commercial bread is softer due to the steam process used by bakeries, which is made to keep bread hydrated and fresh. Use cold water in a pan and put it on a rack beneath your bread to create steam.

How do you make bread lighter and fluffier? ›

All it takes is a small amount of dough enhancer per loaf to create a much lighter and fluffier result. Using a dough enhancer like Vital Wheat Gluten works to improve the texture and elasticity of the dough and elongate the strands of gluten. Doing so allows more room for the gas in the dough to develop and rise.

What do bakeries use to keep bread soft? ›

Commercial bakeries use two types of ingredients to slow spoilage — emulsifiers and enzymes. Emulsifiers keep bread from going stale by preventing oil and water from separating.

Does baking with honey destroy nutrients? ›

Honey should not be heated rapidly, over direct heat. Basically, the hotter you heat it, the more potential for reducing nutritional value. Excessive heat can have detrimental effects on the nutritional value of honey. Heating up to 37°C (98.6 F) causes loss of nearly 200 components, part of which are antibacterial.

Does honey stop bread from rising? ›

Because of this, the yeast needs some kind of sugar to eat in order to produce the gas to raise the dough. You could use any kind of natural sugar, such as honey, corn syrup or any form of sugar. An artificial sweetener would not provide the food the yeast needs to ferment.

Can you use raw honey in bread? ›

Baking Bread:

Add raw honey, and stir well. Mix in whole wheat flour, salt, and avocado oil. Work all-purpose flour in gradually. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead for at least 10 to 15 minutes.

Do people eat honey with bread? ›

Honey on bread with butter

Something as simple as bread with honey & butter can taste sublime if you choose the best ingredients.

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