Five Real Loaves

Bread recipes that actually work, every time.

A classic white loaf, no-knead bread, wholemeal, a soft enriched loaf, and a proper rye. Exact quantities, a real method, and the reasoning behind every step, so you understand what you're doing rather than just following instructions.

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The Recipes

Five loaves, five different reasons to bake them

Every recipe below uses baker's weights (grams, not cups), because volume measures are where most home bakes go wrong before they've even started. If you want to understand the ratios behind any of these, the baker's percentage calculator breaks each one down.

1 loaf | About 3 hours

Basic White Loaf

Start here if you've never baked bread before. It's the recipe everything else on this page is a variation of: strong flour, yeast, salt, water, and a bit of patience.

Ingredients

  • 500g strong white bread flour
  • 10g fine salt
  • 7g fast-action dried yeast
  • 20g softened butter
  • 320ml lukewarm water

Method

  1. Mix the flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl, keeping the salt and yeast on opposite sides until combined, salt in direct contact can slow the yeast down.
  2. Rub in the butter, then add the water and bring together into a rough dough.
  3. Knead for 10 minutes on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic. It's ready when a small piece stretches thin enough to see light through without tearing.
  4. Cover and prove for 1 to 1.5 hours, until roughly doubled.
  5. Knock back, shape into a 900g tin, and prove again for 45 minutes.
  6. Bake at 220°C (fan 200°C) for 25 to 30 minutes. It's done when the base sounds hollow when tapped.

Tip: the windowpane test above is worth learning properly, it's the single most useful skill for knowing when to stop kneading, on this loaf and every enriched or wholemeal one after it.

Want to check your dough is actually ready to shape? The fermentation calculator gives you a proving timeline based on your kitchen's actual temperature.

1 loaf | 18 hours, mostly unattended

No-Knead Bread

No kneading, no stand mixer, barely any hands-on time. A long, slow, room-temperature ferment does all the gluten development for you. This is the one to bake on a Friday night before the pub and pull out of the oven the next afternoon.

Ingredients

  • 400g strong white bread flour
  • 8g fine salt
  • 1g instant yeast (about ¼ tsp)
  • 300ml room-temperature water

Method

  1. Stir everything together in a bowl until you get a shaggy, sticky dough with no dry flour left. It'll look far too wet, that's correct.
  2. Cover and leave at room temperature for 12 to 18 hours, until doubled and covered in bubbles on the surface.
  3. Turn out onto a well-floured surface, fold the edges into the middle a few times, then rest for 30 minutes under a tea towel.
  4. Meanwhile, preheat a lidded Dutch oven or heavy casserole dish inside your oven at 230°C for 30 minutes.
  5. Carefully lower the dough into the hot pot, put the lid on, and bake for 30 minutes.
  6. Remove the lid and bake for a further 15 to 20 minutes, until deep golden brown.

Tip: the lid is doing the real work here. It traps the steam the dough releases as it bakes, which is what a proper bakery oven does with an injection system. That trapped steam is why this gets a crackling, blistered crust with zero effort.

Unsure if 12 or 18 hours is right for your kitchen? The fermentation calculator adjusts for room temperature.

1 loaf | About 3 hours

Wholemeal Loaf

Wholemeal flour carries the whole grain, bran included, and bran is sharp enough to slice through developing gluten strands as you knead. Blending it with some strong white flour is the easiest fix, and gives you a proper rise without losing the flavour.

Ingredients

  • 350g wholemeal bread flour
  • 150g strong white bread flour
  • 8g fine salt
  • 7g fast-action dried yeast
  • 20g honey
  • 20g olive oil
  • 320ml lukewarm water

Method

  1. Mix the flours, salt and yeast, then add the honey, oil and water and bring together into a dough.
  2. Knead for 12 minutes, a little longer than a white loaf, since the bran fights against gluten development.
  3. Cover and prove for 1 to 1.5 hours, until roughly doubled. Wholemeal doughs rise a bit less dramatically than white ones, that's normal.
  4. Knock back, shape into a 900g tin, and prove for a further 40 minutes.
  5. Bake at 200°C (fan 180°C) for 25 to 30 minutes, until deep brown and hollow-sounding when tapped.

Tip: if you want to push towards 100% wholemeal without the rise suffering, adding vital wheat gluten compensates for the protein the bran disrupts. The VWG calculator works out exactly how much for your flour.

Going fully wholemeal? The vital wheat gluten calculator tells you how much to add to keep the rise you'd get from white flour.

1 loaf | About 3 hours

Soft Enriched Milk Loaf

Butter, egg and milk turn a plain dough into something closer to brioche, soft, slightly sweet, and it keeps a couple of days longer than a lean loaf thanks to the fat. Proper sandwich-bread territory.

Ingredients

  • 500g strong white bread flour
  • 10g fine salt
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 7g fast-action dried yeast
  • 1 egg
  • 60g softened butter
  • 220ml warm whole milk

Method

  1. Mix the flour, salt, sugar and yeast, then add the egg, butter and milk and bring together into a dough.
  2. Knead for 12 to 15 minutes, enriched doughs take longer than lean ones, since the fat coats the flour and slows gluten formation.
  3. Cover and prove for 1 to 1.5 hours, until doubled. It'll feel noticeably softer and more pillowy than a plain dough.
  4. Knock back, shape into a 900g tin, and prove for a further 45 minutes.
  5. Brush the top with a little extra milk or beaten egg, then bake at 180°C (fan 160°C) for 30 to 35 minutes, covering loosely with foil if it browns too fast.

Tip: for an even softer, longer-lasting crumb, replace 50g of the flour and 60ml of the milk with a tangzhong (a cooked flour-and-milk paste stirred in before kneading). It's the same trick behind Japanese milk bread.

Want to try the tangzhong version? The tangzhong calculator works out the exact roux for any flour weight.

1 loaf | About 2.5 hours, plus full cooling

Rye Bread

Rye flour has very little of the gluten-forming protein wheat has, so this isn't a dough you knead hard or expect to rise like a white loaf. Dense, malty, and genuinely one of the better things to put smoked fish or a strong cheese on.

Ingredients

  • 300g rye flour
  • 200g strong white bread flour
  • 10g fine salt
  • 7g fast-action dried yeast
  • 1 tbsp treacle or molasses
  • 350ml lukewarm water

Method

  1. Mix the flours, salt and yeast, then add the treacle and water and bring together into a dough. It will be noticeably sticky, resist the urge to work in extra flour.
  2. Knead briefly, 4 to 5 minutes is plenty, since rye has little gluten to overdevelop.
  3. Cover and prove for about 1 hour. Rye doughs rise less than white ones, don't expect a dramatic double.
  4. Shape into a batard or tin loaf and prove for a further 30 to 40 minutes.
  5. Bake at 220°C (fan 200°C) for 35 to 40 minutes, until deeply coloured and hollow-sounding.
  6. Cool completely, ideally a few hours, before slicing.

Tip: the full cool isn't optional. Cut into rye while it's still warm and the crumb seems gummy even when it's perfectly baked, the starch is still setting. Patience pays off more here than on any other loaf on this page.

Curious how much of the rise comes from gluten versus yeast in a low-protein flour like this? The flour protein calculator shows the difference blending makes.

Frequently Asked

Questions about baking bread at home

  • What's the easiest bread recipe for a total beginner?

    No-knead bread, without much competition. There's no kneading technique to learn and no stand mixer required, just stirring four ingredients together and leaving it alone for most of a day. The basic white loaf above is the next step up once you want to understand kneading and shaping properly.

  • Why is my homemade bread dense instead of light and airy?

    Almost always one of three things: under-proofing (the dough needed longer to rise than you gave it), working too much extra flour in during shaping, or flour that's too low in protein to build proper gluten structure. Wholemeal and rye loaves are naturally denser than white ones, that's the grain, not a mistake.

  • Can I use plain flour instead of bread flour?

    You can, but the result will be softer and less chewy, since plain flour carries less protein than bread flour and builds a weaker gluten network. It works fine for the enriched milk loaf, where softness is the goal anyway. For the white, wholemeal or rye loaves, strong bread flour gives a noticeably better rise and structure.

  • How long does homemade bread keep?

    Two to three days at room temperature in a paper bag or bread box, since there are no preservatives doing the work shop-bought bread relies on. The enriched milk loaf keeps a day or two longer thanks to the fat content. For anything beyond that, slice and freeze, then toast straight from frozen.

  • Do I need a stand mixer to knead bread?

    No. Every recipe above is written for hand kneading, and the no-knead loaf skips kneading entirely by using a long, slow ferment to develop gluten instead. A stand mixer with a dough hook saves time and effort, but it's a convenience, not a requirement.

  • What's the actual difference between bread flour and plain flour?

    Protein content. Strong bread flour runs 12 to 14% protein, which builds the tight gluten network that traps gas and gives bread its rise and chew. Plain flour sits around 9 to 11%, better suited to cakes and pastry where you want a softer, more tender crumb rather than structure.

  • Why do some recipes use a tin and others a free-standing shape?

    Softer, more enriched doughs like the milk loaf need a tin to hold their shape while proving and baking, since they're too slack to stand on their own. Firmer, lower-hydration doughs like the rye loaf have enough structure to hold a free-standing batard shape, which also gives more crust, the best part.

Get The Ratios Right

Every recipe above, scaled to your kitchen.

Hydration, fermentation timing, and baker's percentages, worked out for any of these recipes at any batch size. Free to use, no sign-up required.

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