Extra Soft White Bread Recipe (Sour Cream Bread)

This extra soft white bread recipe is very easy to make and it produces a delicious sandwich bread. This recipe is not your standard boring white bread recipe. It uses sour cream to “tenderize” the gluten in order to produce a very soft white bread.

Regular white bread recipes usually make their breads with just bread flour, milk/water, sugar, yeast, salt and butter/oil. These ingredients can create a nice white bread but the bread will not be extra soft. In order to get super soft white bread (without adding extra steps such as using gelatinized flour in order to make Japanese milk bread), you need to add a slightly acidic ingredient (such as sour cream, Greek yogurt or buttermilk) that breaks down the gluten in the white bread. This recipe uses sour cream to make very soft & great-tasting sour cream bread.

However, since this recipe uses sour cream, the bread has a slightly sour taste (sort of like a very mild sourdough bread). Therefore, if you do not like breads with a very mild sour flavor, you probably should not make this recipe.

Soft White Bread Recipe

For this soft white bread recipe, you will use your bread machine or electric stand mixer to mix & knead the ingredients. You will then finish the bread by baking it in your oven (and not in a bread machine).

Recipe Sections

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Helpful Tips

Ingredients

• 3/4 Cup – Sour Cream – 175 milliliters – Or you can use plain Greek yogurt
• 3/4 Cup – Milk (lukewarm) – 175 milliliters
• 4 Tablespoons – Unsalted Butter (softened) – 57 grams
• 3 1/2 Cups – Bread Flour – 420 grams
• 3 Tablespoons – Light Brown Sugar (packed) – 39 grams
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons – Salt – 9 grams
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons – Instant Yeast (or Bread Machine Yeast) – 4.5 grams – Not active dry yeast

Servings – Roughly 18 slices

Equipment Needed – Measuring cup & spoons, flexible spatula, cutting board, 9×5 bread pan, oven mitts, oven, wire cooling rack and a kneading machine to make the dough (either a bread machine or electric stand mixer with dough hook).

Key Ingredient – Sour Cream

Sour Cream in Measuring Cup

Instructions – Soft White Bread Recipe

• Creating dough with bread machine
• Or Creating dough with electric stand mixer & dough hook
• Shaping the dough & baking the bread in the oven

Instructions – Creating Dough with a Bread Machine

• Your bread machine should be unplugged.
• Remove the bread pan from the bread machine (so when you add the ingredients, they can not accidentally spill into the machine).
• Premix the sour cream before adding it to the measuring cup. This allows easier measuring & less “air pockets” in the measuring cup.
• Add the sour cream & milk to the bread pan and then add the other ingredients. Place the instant yeast (bread machine yeast) in last and the yeast should not touch the liquid (until the bread machine is turned on and the ingredients start to be mixed together by the bread machine). Some bakers like to make a small indent on top of the flour to prevent the yeast from spilling into the liquids or mixing with the salt before the machine is turned on.
• Put the bread pan with ingredients back into unplugged bread machine.
• Plug in bread machine. Enter the “Dough” setting on your bread machine and then press the “Start” button.
• When the bread machine has finished making the bread dough, unplug the bread machine.
• Remove the bread pan from the bread machine.
• Now go to the instruction section below on “preparing the dough & baking the bread”. FYI – Ignore the instructions for the electric stand mixer below if you are using a bread machine to make your dough. Skip down to the preparing the dough & baking the bread section below.

Instructions – Creating Dough with an Electric Stand Mixer & Dough Hook

• Your electric mixer should be unplugged.
• Remove the mixing bowl from the electric mixer.
• Insert a dough hook into the electric mixer.
• Premix the sour cream before adding it to the measuring cup. This allows easier measuring & less “air pockets” in the measuring cup.
• Add the sour cream & milk to the mixing bowl and then add the other ingredients. Place the instant yeast in last and the yeast should not touch the liquid (until the electric mixer is turned on and the ingredients start to be mixed together). Some bakers like to make a small indent on top of the flour to prevent the yeast from spilling into the liquids or mixing with the salt before the machine is turned on.
• Place the mixing bowl back into the electric stand mixer.
• Plug in the electric mixer and use a low speed (i.e. setting 2) to mix the dough. Mix the dough for 7-10 minutes.
• Turn off the electric mixer and unplug machine.
• Remove the mixing bowl from the electric mixer. Pour the dough into a second large mixing bowl that has been lightly “greased” with olive oil, melted butter, cooking spray, etc.
• Lightly coat the top of dough with vegetable oil in order to prevent dough exterior from drying out. Use a pastry brush.
• Loosely cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 60-90 minutes until it doubles in size.
• After the dough has risen, go to the instruction section below on “preparing the dough & baking the bread”.

Instructions – Shaping the Dough & Baking the Bread

• Sprinkle a little bit of flour onto a large cutting board.
• Remove the dough from the bread pan or mixing bowl and place the dough on the cutting board.
• Press down on the dough with your hands and create a “flattish” rectangle with the dough. The dough should be roughly 1 inch high.
• Roll up the dough into a tight “jelly roll”. FYI – Please see the short instructional videos in the tips section below on how to shape the dough if you haven’t shaped bread dough before. It is easier to watch & learn from these short videos versus trying to explain the rolling technique step by step.
• Place the rolled up dough into the bread pan.
• Press down on top of the dough so the edges of the dough press out towards the sides of the bread pan. This should result in little or no gaps between the dough and the bread pan. This helps the bread to turn into a nice loaf shape without any misshapen edges. Make sure that the top of the pressed down dough is roughly level (so one side isn’t much higher than the other).
• Brush vegetable oil on top of the dough with a pastry brush. This prevents the crust from drying out as the dough rises.
• Loosely cover the top of the bread pan with plastic wrap. Set the covered bread pan aside for 60-90 minutes for the dough to rise into a loaf shape. Once the dough has risen 1 – 1.5 inches (2.5 – 3.8 cm) above the rim of the bread pan, the dough should be ready to be placed in the oven. FYI – You want the dough to fully rise during this stage. So don’t try to shorten this rising time. If the dough is still significantly rising while in the oven, you are more likely to see crust/seam cracks or “bursts” in the oven. In addition, the speed of the dough rise will vary in part based on the temperature of your kitchen (i.e. rise faster in the summer & slower in the winter).
• Preheat the oven to 350 F about 20 minutes before you plan to put the dough in the oven. FYI – I like to set my timer to go off 40 minutes after I place the dough in the bread pan. Given variability in the dough rising time, this can be a little early sometimes (but better to be a little early versus being late!).
• Place the bread pan in the (preheated) oven to bake at 350 F for 37-42 minutes. Wear oven mitts when dealing with a hot oven. Place the bread pan in the middle of the oven.
• Rotate the bread pan in the oven after 15-20 minutes (in order to ensure an even browning of the bread).
• After the 37-42 minute baking period has finished, remove the bread pan from the oven. Wear oven mitts. Optional – Use digital thermometer to confirm that the bread has been fully baked. See tips below.
• Remove the bread from bread pan and place the bread on a wire cooling rack. Wear oven mitts.
• Optional – Brush melted butter on top of the bread with a pastry brush. This buttery “basting” helps to create a more golden & tasty crust.
• Allow the bread to cool down on the wire cooling rack for 1-2 hours before cutting the bread.
• Please read the tips section below for extra information on how to make this recipe successfully.

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• Bread Tools – Baguette pans, etc.

Soft White Bread Dough Rising in a Bread Pan

Soft White Bread Recipe – Bread Fresh from the Oven

Helpful Tips

• The tips below are designed to help baking & bread making “novices”. They will enable you to make better oven-baked breads. FYI – Intermediate and advanced bread makers probably know most of these bread making tips.
• Click on our “print recipe” link if you want to print out this recipe. It includes all of the recipe’s ingredients and instructions. However, the recipe print function does not include our tips section. Please read the tips section in order to avoid common recipe problems.
• This recipe is part of Bread Dad’s series on Easy Bread Recipes.

• Since this soft white bread recipe uses sour cream, the bread has a slightly sour taste (sort of like a very mild sourdough bread). If you do not like a mildly sour bread then you should not make this sour cream bread.
• “Regular” white bread recipes that use use bread flour, milk/water, sugar, yeast, salt and butter/oil do NOT produce super soft breads. They can create some very nice breads but they are not extra soft. They lack an ingredient to tenderize the gluten in the bread. As I stated at the top of the page, you need to use a slightly acidic ingredient to tenderize the gluten (such as sour cream, Greek yogurt or buttermilk).
• The acidity in sour cream comes from lactic acid bacteria. According to Wikipedia, “Sour cream (in North American English, Australian English and New Zealand English) or soured cream (British English) is a dairy product obtained by fermenting regular cream with certain kinds of lactic acid bacteria. The bacterial culture, which is introduced either deliberately or naturally, sours and thickens the cream. Its name comes from the production of lactic acid by bacterial fermentation, which is called souring.”

• Make sure to stir up the sour cream before adding it to the measuring cup. This will improve your ability to accurately measure the amount in the cup (as this helps to reduce the potential “air pockets” between the sour cream scoops that you have placed in the measuring cup).
• Use FRESH ingredients (i.e. flour) for the best results. Ingredients that have been sitting in the pantry for months can become stale or pick up weird smells & flavors. Try to keep your ingredients (i.e. flour) in airtight food containers in order to extend their shelf life.
• Airtight containers also help to prevent ingredients (i.e. flour and sugar) from absorbing moisture from the air. This extra moisture can throw off recipes (as it can disrupt the liquid-to-dry ingredient ratio in the recipe) and shorten an ingredient’s shelf life.
• If you do not have any sour cream, you can also make our Greek Yogurt Bread. The Greek yogurt bread recipe is very similar to this bread recipe. However, that bread has a slightly fruity flavor as it is targeted towards using fruit-flavored Greek yogurt.
• Or you can make our Buttermilk Bread recipe which uses buttermilk instead of sour cream. It also creates a very soft white bread.
• If you do not have sour cream, Greek yogurt or buttermilk, you can try making our oven-baked buttery White Bread Instant Yeast and/or buttery Bread Machine White Bread recipes.

• This soft white bread recipe uses instant yeast or bread machine yeast. It is not based on using active dry yeast.
• Nevertheless, you can also use active dry yeast to make this sour cream bread but the active dry yeast must be pre-activated first. This tip is geared towards bakers who are experienced with using active dry yeast.
• Active dry yeast is different from instant yeast & bread machine yeast. Instant yeast & bread machine yeast are added directly to the recipe’s ingredients and does not need to be pre-activated. In contrast, active dry yeast must be pre-activated in water/milk before being added to a recipe’s ingredients. Many bakers find it quicker & easier to use instant yeast because you just add it to the dry ingredients. With active dry yeast, you need to spend roughly 10 minutes “proofing” (activating) the yeast with a liquid & sugar.
• I decided to make this soft white bread recipe without active dry yeast because many bread machine users & novice bakers only have bread machine yeast or instant yeast at home. Moreover, there are plenty of good recipes for white bread with active dry yeast but not so many white bread instant yeast recipes.

• If you are having problems shaping your dough, you should watch the “how to” instructional videos below. These are links to bread dough shaping videos on Youtube.
• King Arthur Baking
• San Diego Artisan Bread School
• Father Dominic – a slightly different method versus the videos above
• Don’t worry if you are a beginner and the bread top comes out a little lopsided. The bread will still taste great. It takes a little while for new bakers to learn how to shape a bread consistently. 

• Do not use cold milk because that will inhibit the growth of the yeast. If you use cold milk, your bread may have trouble rising properly. The milk should be lukewarm in temperature. Of course, you should not make the milk too hot because the bread yeast can be killed by high temperatures.
• This soft white bread recipe is based on using either a bread machine or electric stand mixer with dough hook in order to make the dough. A bread machine is great for single loaves (or if you don’t have room for a large mixer). In contrast, a large electric stand mixer with dough hook is probably better if you want to create larger amounts of dough (i.e. dough to make 2+ bread loaves at the same time). The capacity for most bread machines is generally smaller than the capacity of the mixing bowl included with a large electric stand mixer.
• Kneading dough by hand for 10-15 minutes is too much work for me!!! I prefer the bread machine or electric mixer to do the hard stuff. Also hand kneading can be occasionally thrown off recipes as people often use extra flour to prevent the dough from sticking to their hands & kneading surface (i.e. cutting board). This extra flour can hurt the final results of the bread making (as it throws off the liquid-to-dry ingredients ratio of the recipe).

• The second rising of the dough (where the dough sits in the bread pan for 60+ minutes) helps to reduce the potential of the bread top to crack. If you do not let the dough rise a second time, the top of your bread is more likely to burst or split in the oven (because the interior dough will continue rise while the exterior crust is hardening due to the oven heat). Don’t cheat and skip this second rising due to the lack of time.
• This white bread recipe calls for the use of a 9 x 5 inch bread pan. You can also use a 8.5 x 4.5 inch bread pan but the “crown” of the bread might come out too tall (or overflow) if your yeast is very active.
• The flattening & shaping of the dough and the press down of the dough in the bread pan is the “punch down” phase.
• If you don’t do this punch down phase, your bread will have large air pockets (trapped bubbles produced by the yeast). Large air pockets are fine for ciabatta-type breads but not ideal for sandwich bread.

• It takes roughly 15-20 minutes to preheat most ovens with some variability due to the size of the oven, planned baking temperature (hotter takes longer), etc.
• Optional – Consider using an extra oven thermometer inside your oven as your expected oven temperature may be different than reality. Some ovens can be 25-50+ degrees F hotter or colder than the number you set with your oven dial. An oven thermometer (which usually costs less than $10) is an easy way to measure the actual temperature inside your oven. I like to use the ones that hang from the oven racks.
• Optional – Use a digital bread thermometer to test if your bread is completely done. The interior temperature of the bread should be 190-200 degrees F. This inexpensive tool can save you from underbaked breads.
• Optional – If you want to create a more golden & tasty bread “top”, you can brush melted butter on top of the bread (with a pastry brush) after you have removed the bread from the bread pan and while the loaf is still hot. The crust will absorb the melted butter. I like to use only a modest amount of melted butter during each stroke of the pastry brush (otherwise excess melted butter will run down the sides of the bread).
• You should let your bread cool down for 1-2 hours on the wire cooling rack before you cut any slices (or the slices will be “gummy” and not taste as good as expected). Excess interior moisture is released (via steam) during the cooldown period.

• Cooler home temperatures in the winter can cause rising problems for bread dough. Ideally, your room temperature should be around 75-80 degrees F. Colder winter room temperatures can significantly delay the rise of the dough. You will need to raise the temperature of your kitchen (if you like a cold house in the winter) or find a warm spot for the dough to rise. I often put my dough (covered of course) next to a heating vent in the winter to make sure it is getting enough heat.
• Conversely, dough can rise faster than expected in a very hot kitchen. You will need to keep an eye on the dough during the summer so it does not “overproof”.
• Kitchen humidity can also impact a recipe. A winter kitchen tends to be drier due to your heating system drying out the air. In contrast, a kitchen in the summer can be much more humid. This change in humidity impacts baking as flour can soak up humidity from the air. Therefore, you might have to add 1-2 teaspoons of liquid in the winter if the dough is looking too dry. Or you might have to add 1-2 teaspoons of flour in the summer if the dough is looking too wet. If your kitchen is very dry or humid, you might have to add even a little more (but start with 1 teaspoon at a time until you achieve the right consistency).
• Of course, excessive kitchen humidity or dryness can impact a recipe at any time during the year (not just in the summer & winter)!
• Other factors that can impact the rise of the dough include old or expired yeast, contaminated yeast (i.e. the yeast was left in an open jar & air moisture contaminated it), water that is too cold or too hot, using heavily chlorinated tap water, placing salt next to or on top of the yeast (salt can kill yeast or inhibit its growth), not covering the dough during the rising period (as the exterior of the dough can dry out & limit the ability to rise), etc.

• How do you know when the dough has risen enough in the second rise (when the dough is in the bread pan)? After letting the dough rise for 60-90 minutes (and when it is roughly 1-1.1.5 inches above the 9×5 bread pan), you can try the “poke test“. Poke your finger into the dough (going in about an inch). If the poke hole rebounds immediately, you need to allow more time for the dough to rise further (it is “under proofed”). If the hole doesn’t come back at all, the dough has risen too much (it is “over proofed”). If the hole slowly fills over 2-3 seconds, the dough is at the right stage of proofing.
• Unfortunately, the temperature of your kitchen can make the timing for this perfect poke result hard to predict (because there is a faster dough rise in hot kitchens and a slower rise in cold kitchens). Experience with “proofing” will make this easier (but it can be a problem for beginning bakers).
• If the dough is “underproofed” (hasn’t risen enough) when you place it in the oven, the bread is more likely to burst/crack when baked in the oven (as the still rising dough will push against the hardening crust and “burst” at the seams of the crust). Bakers try to get around this issue via testing for the right “proofing” level (i.e. use the poke test), “scoring” breads (slicing the top of the dough so the cracks occur where you want them), adding moisture inside the oven (so the dough doesn’t harden as quickly), using a dutch oven (in order to trap the dough moisture inside the dutch oven container & not spread out into the oven), etc.
• Don’t overproof the dough (let it rise too long). This occasionally happens when someone forgets about the rising dough and comes back hours later to check. Overproofed dough leads to deflated dough as well as flat and/or sunken bread tops. According to Wikipedia, “Overproofing occurs when a fermenting dough has rested too long. Its bubbles have grown so large that they have popped and tunneled, and dough baked at this point would result in a bread with poor structure.”
• If your dough is “overproofed”, you might like to read the King Arthur Baking article “How to save over-proofed dough” as it gives tips on how to save the dough.
• For more information on dough proofing, please read this MasterClass article “Baking 101: What Is Proofing?“.

• My recipes are based on US ingredient measurements (i.e. US cups & tablespoons). However, as a courtesy to our European visitors, I have also included some very ROUGH European equivalents (i.e. grams & milliliters). Since I rarely use European measurements when baking, please let me know in the comment section below if any of the European ingredient measurements need to be changed (i.e. for XYZ ingredient, milliliters are more commonly used versus the grams information listed in the recipe).
• Be safe! Always wear oven mitts/gloves when dealing with an oven, bread machine, hot bread pan, etc.
• For many more easy bread recipes, please explore Bread Dad’s Homemade Bread Recipes or Bread Machine Recipes sections.
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More Bread Dad Recipes

• Bread Machine Recipes
• Bread Recipes
• Banana Bread Recipe
• Quick Bread Recipes – Pumpkin bread, cranberry bread, etc.
• Cookie Recipes

Reference Sources

• Wikipedia, Bread
• Wikipedia, Sour Cream
• Wikipedia, White Bread

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