It’s a myth that bread machine recipes require milk powder. You can use a dairy-free milk powder or substitute dairy-free milk beverage for the milk powder and water in the recipe. Or just start with this basic white bread recipe for bread machines. It contains just 6 ingredients, and it’s naturally free of dairy.
Tips: Basic White Bread Recipe for Bread Machines
Flour Options
This basic white bread uses bread flour, which has more gluten than regular all-purpose flour. It helps to give the bread a better texture as it rises and bakes. In a pinch, you can use all-purpose flour, but you might end up with a dense loaf, and the bread won’t be as tender. If you would like to sneak in some whole grains, you can swap 1 cup of the flour with whole wheat flour (but preferably use bread flour for the rest) or enjoy this recipe. Use ivory wheat flour if you don’t want the color to be affected too much. If you opt to use all-purpose flour or a higher ratio of wheat flour, it is best to add 1 to 2 tablespoons of gluten.
Bread Didn’t Rise
Your yeast wasn’t active, your water was too hot or too cold, and/or you substituted different flours for the bread flour. Make sure to pay attention to the first step to ensure the yeast is active. There is more than enough yeast in this recipe! And make sure it wasn’t the opposite problem, that your bread rose too much and collapsed …
Bread Rose Too Much and Fell
- If your bread is collapsing, then the yeast might be too much for your area, reduce it or change the order of how you add the ingredients. If the collapse was minor, you can reduce to 2 teaspoons. If it was big, reduce it by more.
- Also, bread machine recipes can be tricky at higher altitude. As a general rule, I reduce the yeast to 1 1/2 teaspoons above 4,000 feet when making a bread machine loaf. 1 teaspoon might even be enough.
- Use the ingredient order suggested by the bread maker. For some people, the recipe as written produces a better loaf, but for some, the bread maker instructions work better (usually involve adding the flour before the yeast and not proofing the yeast). It depends heavily on your maker, your climate, your ingredients, etc.
- And finally, consider increasing the salt to 1 1/2 teaspoons per the salt note. It does help to add structure as an added measure to prevent collapse.
Reader Raves
Thanks to Donna for sharing helpful feedback with us via Facebook:
I’ve made this recipe twice in our 1lb bread maker – first time with just white all purpose flour (all we had!) and the second with half strong white flour and half strong wheat flour and it was fabulous. Thanks for having such a great resource for people with dairy allergies!
Special Diet Notes: Basic White Bread for Bread Machines
By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, nut-free, peanut-free, soy-free, vegan, and vegetarian.
- 1 cup warm water (about 110ºF / 45ºC)
- 2 tablespoons sugar or your sweetener of choice
- 2¼ teaspoons (.25-ounce package) bread machine yeast
- ¼ cup neutral-tasting oil (like non-GMO canola, vegetable, or grapeseed)
- 3 cups bread flour
- 1 teaspoon salt (see Salt Note below)
- Put the water, sugar and yeast in the pan of your bread machine. Let the yeast dissolve and foam for 10 minutes. If it doesn't foam at all, you may have yeast that is no longer active. Get fresh yeast and start again.
- Add the oil, flour, and salt to the yeast.
- Select the Basic or White Bread setting (for a 1½-pounce loaf) on your bread machine and press Start.
Key Ingredients & Tools: Basic White Bread for Bread Machines
37 Comments
What length of time and temperature would one bake this at without a bread machine?
I understand that it would be important to knead the dough and proof it once or twice before baking. The short list of ingredients just makes it very appealing to try all in any case
I would back it at 350, and think it would take about 30 to 40 minutes.
mine didn’t rise properly, the recipes that came with my breadmaker say to put in the water first , then the flour, then the yeast. maybe that’s why. it taste great though. I’m going to try again without mixing up the water and yeast.
My grandson can not have wheat. When using wheat/GF flour would I need to change the amount for any ingredients? I have a GF cycle on my bread machine- I assume I would use that cycle?
Simply swapping gluten-free flour 1:1 for wheat flour doesn’t typically work with yeast-based bread recipes. I would use a gluten-free recipe specifically. Here is a gluten-free bread recipe for bread makers -> https://www.godairyfree.org/recipes/gluten-free-dairy-free-yeast-bread
Thank you for the recipe. In addition to wheat he is also eliminating egg. What would you suggest I substitute for egg in the recipe you sent?
See our egg sub guide -> https://www.godairyfree.org/food-and-grocery/how-to-substitute-eggs-vegan
But I would lean toward aquafaba -> https://www.godairyfree.org/food-and-grocery/aquafaba
That said, when you take away both gluten and eggs, it makes a very unstable yeast bread. You might need to change other things, like adding more binder (gum). It’s hard to say. Here is a yeast gluten-free bun recipe that works fine with an egg sub -> https://www.godairyfree.org/recipes/skinny-gluten-free-hamburger-buns – it might be a better base recipe.
I appreciate the information. We have had a lot of dense, flat (yet yummy) bread this week. A lot of experimenting.
Yes, gluten-free, egg-free bread is tricky!
I found this recipe incredibly bland. Neither of my kids would touch it. We’ve made white and French breads in the bread machine before with success. I don’t know what was off, the texture was good, but the zero flavor just didn’t work for us.
Hi Sarah, that’s very odd. I know what you mean by bland bread, but we haven’t had that issue with this formula. You can increase the salt up to 1 1/2 teaspoons, but I wouldn’t go higher than that. Sorry it wasn’t your perfect loaf!
We bought a bread machine yesterday and tried this recipe late last night. It turned out great. So happy to be able to make fresh bread whenever I want. Thanks!
Glad it worked out so well for you Lita and thank you for the feedback!
I’ve made it a few more times since, but switched up the order of ingredients…
I put water, oil, sugar, salt, flour – made a little hole in the flour and put the yeast inside.
It resulted in a bigger loaf with the same amount of ingredients! I thought I’d share this discovery:)
That’s a fantastic discovery! Thank you for sharing this Lita.
my husband is lactose intolerant I’ve used this recipe but he doesn’t like the oil added any suggestions as an alternative thanks
You can try an oil substitute, if desired. Or add more liquid.
Hi there, I have this too dry for my bread maker it just makes a hard dough in the middle. Any tips?
Hi Nicola, It sounds like your dough collapsed. Did you use the delay setting? The order of the ingredients can be problematic if you do this, since the yeast will activate too early. For where you live, this might be too much yeast. I would reduce the yeast.
Nothing better than homemade bread – especially the smell! This loaf would last about 1/2 day at our house! 🙂
Hi can this recipe be use on the timer, so it’s ready for breakfast.
If that is how your machine works, then it shouldn’t be a problem.
can you tell me if this a one pound loaf or two?
I believe it is about a 1 1/2 pound loaf Lydia.
Made this today for the first time. It is so delicious! Making a second loaf now. I mix and prove the dough in the bread maker then put it in a bread tin and bake in the oven.
Wonderful! Thank you for the feedback!
As a home distiller and conassuer of beers I have to question, or perhaps inform you that everything I have learnt about alcohols state anything over 90 will kill your yeast and make it inactive. 110 degree water seems to completely contradict my 15 years of education on that matter……
Hi Art, I believe you are using Brewer’s Yeast, which isn’t the same as live active yeast used in bread baking. Very warm, bordering on hot water (not too hot, but 110º is normal) is typically used in baking yeast-based breads for best success. I’ve been baking boisterous loaves this way for years!
If I am using rapid rising yeast do I still need to put it in the pan and let it foam for 10 minutes? Or can I just use the rapid bake cycle on my bread machine which is meant for rapid rising yeast?
The time for letting it foam is just to see if the yeast is still active (that it hasn’t fizzled out or you didn’t get a bad batch), it isn’t really dependent on the type of yeast you use. If you’re confident in your yeast, then you can skip waiting the 10 minutes and jump into the rest of the recipe. In terms of the cycle, that would depend on your bread machine, but that sounds right!
Tried your bread came out really well my grandson is allergic to dairy , egg and nuts.
And he really liked the bread.
Thank you
Fantastic! Thanks for sharing your feedback Janet.
What is the weight in kg for 3 cups of flour please ?
It’s about 360 grams according to a quick search on google. I haven’t measured it myself!
Many thanks x
Tried this recipe and came out great, tasted amazing. Thank you ?
Awesome! Thanks for the feedback Casey.