If you're looking for an easy homemade sandwich loaf, this honey white bread is made with just a handful of simple ingredients and leans on active dry yeast, water (not milk) and a little melted butter to develop soft, rustic, flavorful slices.
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This Homemade White Bread with Honey Makes the Best Toast & Sandwiches
When I'm running around all day, sandwiches are my go-to midday meal, so I usually have a homemade loaf tucked away in my bread box. And while I love a hearty, chewy bread most days like my honey wheat bread, sometimes I crave a softer, airy texture instead. Which is exactly why I created this honey white bread! It's tender & fluffy, thanks to a generous amount of honey and a little melted butter.
Now baking with honey can be a little tricky, so I included tips from all my recipe tests for you! But I wouldn't have it any other way, since the honey makes each slice taste fresh and bakery-soft for several extra days. And while some honey white bread recipes are too sweet or too bland, I made sure that mine develops a rich flavor thanks to a slightly longer fermentation time and an optional brush of honey butter at the end. Yum!
Let's Gather Our Ingredients: all purpose flour, active dry yeast, salt, honey, water, and unsalted butter.
Let's Bake a Honey White Bread Loaf Together!
For the full step-by-step directions and ingredient quantities, scroll down to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Carissa's Baking Tip
The honey in this bread causes it to look brown on top before it's actually done baking, so I recommend folding a large piece of aluminum foil in half and loosely placing it over your bread halfway through baking, to protect it from the oven's direct heat.
My Tips for Baking Bread with Honey
- Texture: Honey binds to the water that would normally hydrate the flour in bread dough. In testing, I found that kneading it until it felt elastic but still a little tacky resulted in soft, fluffy bread later.
- Kneading: If your dough is sticking to your hands and counter, sprinkle a little flour on a clean counter and rub a bit of olive oil on clean hands. This works wonders to be able to knead without the dough sticking to my counter or hands.
- Yeast: I tested this bread with both active dry yeast & instant yeast, and active dry yeast was the way to go. Since honey slows flour absorption, so it needs more time to rest & rise.
- Liquid: After trying both milk and water as the liquid in tandem with honey, I personally prefer using water for a more open crumb and rustic wheat-forward flavor.
Soft Honey White Bread
developed & tested by:
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4½ cups all purpose flour
- 2¼ teaspoons active dry yeast (one packet)
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt (use either table salt or fine sea salt)
- ⅓ cup honey
- 1¼ cups warm water (between 100°F to 110°F or 38°C to 43°C)
- 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Topping (Optional)
- ½ Tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
- 1 teaspoon honey
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk the all purpose flour, active dry yeast, and salt. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, mix the honey and warm water until the honey is dissolved.
- Add the honey & water along with the melted butter to the dry ingredients and mix with a large spoon until it forms a sticky dough.
- On a lightly floured work surface, knead the dough by hand for 5 minutes, until the dough is soft, slightly tacky, and elastic. (If it's sticking too much to your hands and counter, lightly flour your counter and rub a little olive oil on your hands. Don't add too much flour though. It's normal for this dough is going to be a little tacky due to the honey.)
- Form the dough into a ball and place it in a clean mixing bowl. Cover it with a clean kitchen towel or dinner plate and let rise in a warm draft-free spot until it about doubles in size, after about 2 hours.
- On a clean work surface, shape the dough into an oval. Gently spread the top edges of the dough down the sides and underneath, to create tension and make it smooth. Make sure any seams are tucked underneath.
- Place the dough in a greased 9-inch x 5-inch loaf pan.
- Cover the dough again with a towel and allow it to proof for 30 minutes to 1 hour. The dough is done proofing once an indent made by your finger into the dough springs back after 2-3 seconds.
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Bake the loaf for 35 to 40 minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 190°F. If the bread is starting to look brown on top before it's done baking, tent a large piece of foil over the top.
- Allow the loaf to cool for 10 minutes, then remove it from the loaf pan. Optional: Mix the melted butter and honey for the topping and brush it on the top of the loaf.Allow it to finish cooling on a cooling rack for at least 1 hour before slicing.
Notes
- Storage: I have frozen this loaf and it still tastes great months later. I wrap mine tightly in plastic wrap then aluminum foil before freezing it.
- Topping: While the butter + honey brushed on top is optional, I definitely recommend it to add that last little bit of honey flavor.
I'm eggcited to hear from you :)