Round White Bread Recipe

Prep: 25 mins
Cook: 45 mins
Rise Time: 105 mins
Total: 2 hrs 55 mins
Servings: 8 to 10 servings
Yield: 1 loaf

Sometimes you just want a good old-fashioned white bread—but one that is made with simple ingredients and warm from the oven, not pre-sliced and packaged from the store. This recipe proves how easy it is to make a delicious homemade white bread without many special skills or tools. Perfect for the beginner baker, get the feel and flavor of artisanal bread for the dinner table or holiday buffet in only a few hours.  

Round White Bread

The Spruce / Cara Cormack

"This is a nice bread recipe and it is one that even novice bread bakers can handle. It will fill the dish or pan that it’s baked in and conform to that shape. It’s quite delicious; soft, nicely flavored, and with a moist, dense crumb." —Colleen Graham

Round White Bread Tester Image
A Note From Our Recipe Tester

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups warm water, about 95 F to 110 F

  • 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (one package)

  • 1/2 cup milk

  • 1 tablespoon sugar

  • 2 teaspoons salt

  • 1/3 cup canola oil

  • 4 1/2 cups (540 grams) bread flour, more as needed

  • 1 cup milk

  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients.

    Round White Bread ingredients

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  2. In a large bowl, mix the warm water and yeast.

    In a large bowl, mix the warm water and yeast

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  3. Add the milk, sugar, salt, and oil and stir to combine. 

    Add the milk, sugar, salt, and oil to the yeast mixture and stir to combine

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  4. Add in enough bread flour to make a dough that follows the spoon around the bowl.

    Add enough bread flour to the yeast mixture to make a dough

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  5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it for 8 minutes, adding more bread flour as needed until the dough is firm and smooth to the touch.

    knead dough on a floured surface

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  6. Place the dough in a medium greased bowl. Turn dough over in the bowl so that the top is also lightly greased.

    dough ball in a bowl

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

    dough rising in a bowl

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  8. Punch down the dough.

    punch down the dough

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  9. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it for about 5 minutes or until the bubbles are out of the bread.

    knead the dough on a floured surface

    The Spruce / Cara Cormack

  10. Shape the dough into a round loaf and place it in a greased 1 1/2-quart round casserole dish.

    dough ball in greased casserole dish

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  11. Cover and let rise in a warm, draft-free place for 45 minutes or until doubled in size.

    dough rising in a casserole dish

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  12. Preheat oven to 375 F. With a sharp knife or razor, slash the top of the bread.

    slash the top of the dough with a knife

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  13. If desired, brush an egg white on top of the loaf for a glossy top. Alternatively, brush the loaf with milk to produce a dark, shiny crust. 

    brush the dough with egg whites

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  14. Bake the bread for 45 minutes or until the bread sounds hollow when the top is tapped.

    baked white bread dough

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  15. While still hot, brush the loaf with melted butter to produce a soft crust.

    baked white bread dough brushed with butter

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  16. Remove the bread from the casserole dish and let cool completely on a rack before slicing. 

    Round White Bread on a cooling rack

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  17. Serve and enjoy.

Tips

  • This is a wetter dough than many bread recipes. Add about 4 1/2 cups of flour in the bowl, then keep adding small amounts while kneading to keep it from sticking to the board and your hands. You should only need about 5 cups in total.
  • You can use both the egg white or milk options and the melted butter on the same loaf.
  • Bread-making ingredients need to be stored properly to stay fresh. Keep yeast stored in an airtight container and in the refrigerator. Heat, moisture, and air kills the yeast and prevents bread dough from rising. Also, make sure you store flour properly to keep it from spoiling. Once the bread is baked, store in a plastic bag to keep the bread soft.

Recipe Variations

  • Bread flour has a higher amount of gluten than all-purpose flour which means that bread made with bread flour will rise higher. You can make your own bread flour by adding 1 1/2 teaspoons gluten to each cup of all-purpose flour you use in your bread recipe.
  • If you'd like to use dry milk powder instead of milk, use this conversion table to figure out how much dry milk to add to the water when replacing the milk in the recipe.

What Is the Best Dish For This Bread Recipe?

Unlike some round bread, the dough for this recipe will not maintain the perfect round shape you form during the second rise. Instead, it grows to conform to the dish or pan that it's baked in. It does require sides to keep it contained. The best choice for a casserole dish is about 8 inches in diameter and only an inch or two deep. Choose one that has sloping sides or the bread will grow tall and look more like a round cake than a loaf of bread. In a pinch, a pie plate works perfectly. If you switch from a glass or ceramic dish to a metal pan, the baking time may vary slightly.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
292 Calories
10g Fat
43g Carbs
8g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 8 to 10
Amount per serving
Calories 292
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 10g 12%
Saturated Fat 2g 8%
Cholesterol 5mg 2%
Sodium 451mg 20%
Total Carbohydrate 43g 15%
Dietary Fiber 2g 5%
Total Sugars 3g
Protein 8g
Vitamin C 0mg 0%
Calcium 56mg 4%
Iron 1mg 3%
Potassium 118mg 3%
*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.)