How to Make Homemade Bread (with no eggs, milk, or butter)
on Jun 15, 2020, Updated Jul 17, 2024
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Life may have you wondering how to make homemade bread, even if you don’t have eggs, milk, or butter. It IS possible, and it’s entirely easy!
This is a great homemade bread recipe to have on hand when you need a simple loaf and don’t have a ton of groceries to do it with!
YES, it’s possible. No, it doesn’t taste awful! You can absolutely make homemade bread without eggs, milk, or butter, and you might be shocked by how easy, and delicious, it is! I love this recipe when my pantry is getting low on supplies, or when I just want to bake a loaf of homemade bread without having to prep a bunch of ingredients. I love to make this and serve it warm with butter and jam for breakfast, as sandwich bread for lunch, or to make grilled cheese for supper (with some soup to dip, of course)!
Even if you’re “not a baker” or stay away from bread recipes at all costs (because let’s be honest, we’ve all messed up bread at some point or another OR have heard horror stories from loved ones ending up with dense, brick-like loaves), you can handle this. Pinky promise. And you may even consider roping in some kiddo kitchen helpers to man the dough or set up your ingredients. It’s easy, it’s fool-proof, and it’s tasty! Can’t go wrong. Enjoy!
Table of Contents:
Table of Contents
Ingredients:
- Water: Water will be the liquid to form the dough together.
- Yeast: Yeast is what makes the bread rise.
- Honey: Honey gives the nicest subtle touch of sweetness.
- Oil: Oil will help the crust firm up and also keep the dough from being super sticky.
- Salt: A necessity with any and all bread making
- Flour: Flour is what brings the dough together; you can use all-purpose, bread, or whole wheat flour.
See recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities
Notes for making this bread:
- The type of oil you use is flexible — use canola, vegetable, avocado oil, or even melted butter.
- You can use all bread flour, all all-purpose flour, and even all whole wheat flour. My personal preference is a 50/50 split between a white flour and whole wheat flour or even a 2:3 ratio (2 cups whole wheat flour with about 3 cups white flour).
- I use instant yeast. If you don’t have it, just let the yeast rest with the water and honey in the bowl for 5 minutes. If it starts to get foamy on the top of the bowl, you know that they yeast is good to use and that it is now ready for you to move forward with the recipe.
- The size/type of bread pan doesn’t matter much. A smaller pan will yield a loaf that is more domed on top; a large pan will make a loaf that is wider and flatter. Use what you have; they’ll all work great!
Tips for making amazing homemade bread:
- Watch the video (below). I made the bread live and shared all my knowledge throughout the video. Plus, it’s good to see the dough and what it looks like at different stages.
- The video also shows you how to knead (spoiler alert: quarter turn and press forward with the heals for you hands) if you need a few pointers there.
- The key to using wheat flour is to add part of it first and stir well so that it has time to absorb the water. If you are using all whole wheat flour, you’ll want to add it slowly and stop adding it with the dough is nice and tender but still holds is shape well (you can see this in the video).
- You don’t need a stand mixer or anything to make this! Just be sure to knead it really well for a full 6 to 8 minutes. This will help to develop the gluten (which is especially important when using whole wheat products).
And to make this recipe even better, I did a free bread cooking class for it! You can view the video here which will help if you have questions about kneading or the size of pan to use. And don’t miss the blooper in the middle (spoiler alert: we dropped the camera!).
More Bread Recipes to Consider:
Muffin Recipes
Spice Up Your Morning With Gingerbread Muffins
Pancake Recipes
Stack ‘Em High: Golden Cornbread Pancakes
Cornbread Recipes
The Best Gluten Free Cornbread Recipe (Easy & Moist!)
Cornbread Recipes
Easy Jalapeño Cornbread Recipe – Ready in 30 Minutes!
Did you make this recipe? Leave a ⭐️ review and share it on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest!
How to Make Homemade Bread (with no eggs, milk, or butter)
Ingredients
- 2 cups warm water
- 1 tablespoons instant yeast, or 1 packet
- 1/4 cup honey or 1/3 cup white sugar
- 1/4 cup light oil
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 5 to 6 cups of flour, (all-purpose, bread flour, and whole wheat flour all work*)
Instructions
- Add the water, yeast, honey (or sugar), oil, and salt to a large mixing bowl.
- Add 2 cups of flour (if you are using part whole wheat flour, add it here so that the whole grain flour has more time to absorb the water), and stir to make a thin batter. Stir for one minute.
- Stir in the white flour, a cup at a time, until a smooth dough starts to form. You can use a stand mixer or your hands.
- If making this by hand, when the flour comes together in the bowl and is hard to stir, dump it on a clean well flour surface and knead to incorporate more flour.
- Knead the dough on a well-floured surface until the dough becomes soft and elastic and doesn’t stick to your hands. I like to knead this for 6 to 8 minutes by hand; it helps the end texture a lot to work the dough well!
- Let the dough rise in the bowl until doubled, covered with a heavy towel or plastic wrap. This should take about 30 minutes or so.
- Once the dough has risen, divide it into two pieces. Shape the dough into loaves and place them in 2 greased loaf pans.
- Let the dough rise in the pans until it is an inch above the rim. (If using large 9×5-inch loaf pans, the bread will come to the top of the pan and not be as tall.)
- Bake the bread at 350 degrees F. for 35 minutes. The crust will be golden-brown and you’ll hear a hollow sound when you tap the bread with your finger.
- Remove the bread from the oven, then remove the bread from the pans, and place the hot loaves on wire racks to cool. Rub a stick of butter on the top of the hot loaves.
- Allow the loaves to cool slightly or come to room temperature before slicing and serving.
- Store cooled loaves in an airtight container and use within 5 days. Freeze for much longer storage.
Notes
- *You can use all whole wheat flour (thought it won’t rise as much), half all-purpose and half whole wheat, all all-purpose, and even bread flour! I like to use 1/3 whole wheat and 2/3 all-purpose flour, but really, you can play with the ratios and use what you have on hand.
- To freeze extra loaves, simply let the bread cool completely. Store it in an old bread bag or wrapped well in plastic wrap and freeze. Let it thaw a few hours at room temperature when you’d like to use it. You can also slice it before you put it in the freezer to make thawing a little faster.
- No need to proof the yeast; it doesn’t need it.
- You can use just about any oil or even melted butter or shortening for this recipe.
So nice
I made this and it was amazing! Thank you for sharing! I do have a question though. I want to make single serving “loaves” for thanksgiving dinner (to replace dinner rolls). If I follow the recipe and place in muffin cups instead of a loaf pan, do you think it would still bake alright, and if so, what would you say the baking time would be? Thank you so much!
Ohh I bet that would be close to 12-15 minute bake time… I’d start there! Such a good idea!
I LOVE this recipe! I made it once exactly as is and once with an extra cup of wheat flour instead of all purpose and with butter instead of oil. SO YUMMY! I will use this recipe over and over!