Best White Bread Recipe

Birdie and Kathy are sisters and part of the Utah Avenue Insurance team. They love to work, play and bake together. They want to share some of their favorite recipes with you.

Baking with family is one of their favorite things to do. They've taught their kids the joy of cooking and it's one of Kathy and Jackie's favorite things to do with 'dolly' on play dates. Jackie keeps her Easy-Bake-Oven and Aunt Kathy's house so it's always ready.

Best White Bread recipe is simple and very versatile. Birdie and Kathy have used this for as long as they can remember. So much so, that this recipe card from their mom's book has been typed, re-printed and laminated a few times.

This bread recipe is good for loaves, dinner rolls, bread sticks and monkey bread. It's a great base that you can tweak to make sweet and savory. It's a fluffy bread that's always a hit at the dinner table. Here is Birdie and Kathy's special directions to make awesome bread dough.

Best White Bread

3 Cups Warm Water
2 Cups Milk
3 TBS Yeast
1/2 Cup Oil
1/4 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Honey
4 tsp Salt
10-12 Cups Flour

Bake at 350 for 30 Minutes for loaves 20 Minutes for rolls.

Spray pans with cooking spray or coat with oil

Birdie and Kathy's Directions

Now the real directions that make this the best bread recipe you'll ever use. FYI, this is a giant recipe that makes 8 loaves of bread. Kathy and Birdie usually only made the full batch at Christmas time when their mom would give out fresh hot bread and jam to all the neighbors. So we suggest you cut the recipe in half or so. Even half a batch is giant and makes 2 dozen rolls and 2 loaves of bread.

Here's the directions as if we are using half a batch:

First, the milk. This bread is much richer when you use more milk and less water. Since the recipe is cut in half, use 2 cups of milk and 1 cup of water. Scaled the milk. Three minutes in the microwave is usually gives it the right amount of skim on surface. Add this to your mixer.

Add 1/2 cup of ice, sugar and salt to you mixer. Measure out and add oil, then measure your honey in the same cup so it doesn't stick. (Note, Kathy's husband likes a more savory bread, so she leaves sugar out all together and only adds honey for sweetness)

In a separate bowl, lightly mix 1/2 cup of water with 2 heaping TBS of yeast and dash of sugar. Let rise. Usually start the yeast when the milk is microwaving.

Since we added ice to the hot milk, it should just the right temperature for the yeast. If it still feels a little on the hot side, add 1-2 cups of flour before adding the yeast mixture to our mixing bowl.

Add 1 cup of flour at a time until the dough is not sticky and pulls away from the edge of your mixing bowl. You'll be able to poke the bread dough and it won't stick to your finger and has a little bit of a bounce.

Let rise until double in size or your can poke with your finger and it doesn't bounce back. Knead dough with your mixer or by hand. You are now ready to make loaves, rolls, monkey bread or bread sticks. Let your dough rise a second time, the bake. You can tell when the bread is done when it is light golden brown on top and when you tap the middle and the bread sounds hollow.

Baking Secret:

This trick comes from Birdie and Kathy's mom. Heat your oven up to 400 degrees, put your bread in and lower temperature to 350 for baking. This will bake your bread at the right temp right from the start and give it a golden brown crust.

Mix it up!

To change up this recipe is easy and endless. When Kathy and Birdie use this recipe for dinner rolls, they mix in garlic, extra salt or sea salt, Italian seasoning and Parmesan cheese right to the dough. Then roll out the dough. Spread butter or olive oil over dough. Cut up into squares/rectangles, fold over and place in pan.

Cinnamon Bread: roll out enough dough for one loaf. Keep it the width of your pan. Spread butter over dough then sprinkle mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar and brown sugar. Roll up dough and place in pan. Place the open edge to the side or facing down.

Hope you enjoy this delicious bread and how wonderful it makes your house smell.

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