How to Make Homemade Bread (with no eggs, milk, or butter)

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 9x5-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.