Greek Yogurt Bread (Soft White Bread)

This Greek yogurt bread recipe produces a soft white bread with the subtle flavor of your favorite Greek yogurt. Greek yogurt also adds protein and calcium to this delicious sandwich bread. Similar to how buttermilk works in buttermilk bread, the slight acidity of yogurt tenderizes the gluten in yogurt bread. This results in a soft & fluffy white bread which is perfect for sandwiches, dipping in soup, etc.

If you use plain Greek yogurt, you will create a very soft & slightly buttery white bread with this recipe. However, if you use a fruit flavored Greek yogurt (i.e. blueberry Greek yogurt), you will create a soft yogurt bread with a hint of your favorite fruit flavor. FYI – I prefer to use fruit flavored Greek yogurts when making this bread. Blueberry yogurt bread is delicious!

Greek Yogurt Bread

Greek Yogurt Bread With Butter “Basting”

For this soft white bread recipe, you can use either instant yeast or bread machine yeast (which is an instant yeast). While you can knead the dough by hand, my yogurt bread recipe shows you how to easily make this bread with either a bread machine’s dough setting or an electric stand mixer with dough hook. The dough will then be baked in your oven.

Recipe Sections

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Helpful Tips

Key Ingredient – Your Favorite Greek Yogurt

My Favorite For This Bread – Blueberry Greek Yogurt

Ingredients

• 3/4 Cup – Greek Yogurt (plain or fruit flavored) – 175 milliliters – I recommend trying blueberry Greek yogurt but plain Greek yogurt is fine too!
• 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 – 7.5 milliliters
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons – Instant Yeast (or Bread Machine Yeast) – 7.5 milliliters – 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).

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Greek Yogurt Dough While Rising – It is A Smooth & Soft Dough

Instructions

• Creating dough with bread machine
• Or Creating dough with electric stand mixer & dough hook
• Shaping dough & baking bread in 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 yogurt (esp. if it is yogurt with fruit on the bottom of the container).
• Pour the yogurt & milk into 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 yogurt (esp. if it is yogurt with fruit on the bottom of the container).
• Pour the yogurt & milk into 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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Other Bread Dad Sections

• Bread Machines – My favorites
• Bread Machine Cookbooks
• Bread Mixes – Ingredient kits
• Bread Tools – Baguette pans, etc.
• Ingredients – Yeast, flour, etc.

Helpful Tips

• The tips below are designed to help baking & bread making “novices” avoid common baking problems and more successfully make this soft white bread recipe.
• 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.

• Try using your favorite fruit flavored Greek yogurt when making your bread. This will give the yogurt bread a slight taste and smell of your favorite fruit. When making this bread, I really enjoy using blueberry Greek yogurt. I love the smell of blueberry yogurt bread! FYI – When I tried making this recipe with strawberry flavored Greek yogurt, I did not taste or smell any strawberries. Blueberry flavored Greek yogurt was the more “effective” (in my tests of strawberry vs blueberry yogurt) in achieving a hint of fruit flavor & aroma. Of course, this may vary based on the yogurt brand.
• You can also use plain Greek yogurt in order to make a soft & fluffy white bread without any extra flavoring.
• As I said at the top of the page, the slight acidity of Greek yogurt “tenderizes” the gluten in the flour and this results in a softer bread.
• Greek yogurt tends to be a little more sour than regular yogurt. This sourness is caused by the lactic acid in Greek yogurt. This acidity gives Greek yogurt its classic taste and helps to tenderize the bread. However, since Greek yogurt tends to be more sour than regular yogurt, please be aware that this bread has a mild sour flavor. So remember to use your favorite Greek yogurt when making this bread. If you don’t like the flavor of Greek yogurt then you should probably not make this bread.

• FYI – The 3/4 cup of Greek yogurt mentioned in the ingredient list is based on a MEASURING CUP (and not on 3/4 of a small Greek yogurt container). If you do not use the correct measurement then your bread will not come out super soft.
• If you want to mix, knead & BAKE this bread only with your bread machine, you should try our Extra Soft Bread Machine Bread. It is the bread machine “version” of this recipe and it also uses Greek yogurt to tenderize the bread.
• If you like Greek yogurt in your baked goods, you should also try out Bread Dad’s extra moist Greek Yogurt Banana Bread recipe.
• If you do not have Greek Yogurt but you do have sour cream, you should try our Soft White Bread Recipe. It is very similar to this Greek yogurt recipe but it uses sour cream to tenderize the gluten. Of course, that bread lacks the hint of fruit flavor provided by the use of fruit-flavored Greek yogurt.

• Greek yogurt differs from regular yogurt as Greek yogurt is thicker, creamer and has more protein. According to Wikipedia, Greek yogurt (strained yogurt) “includes additional steps compared to conventional yogurt, where fermented milk is strained after coagulation to remove liquid whey and lactose, yielding higher protein content”.
• Greek yogurt has generally twice the amount of protein when compared to many regular yogurts. However, always read the label to confirm how much protein is in your Greek yogurt (as amounts vary between brands and types of Greek yogurt).
• Greek yogurt also usually has a lot more protein than dairy-based milk.
• While Greek yogurt has probiotics, the probiotics are probably completely destroyed during the baking process for this yogurt bread.
• Since the yogurt softens the gluten, your dough will look a lot smoother and softer than the dough for regular homemade breads.

• Greek yogurt bread is a great alternative to buttermilk bread. It can be sometimes difficult to make buttermilk bread because liquid buttermilk is often hard to find in many supermarkets. In contrast, there are a billion Greek yogurts in most supermarkets. Both buttermilk bread and Greek yogurt bread are soft & fluffy white breads as the slight acidity of buttermilk & Greek yogurt help to tenderize the bread.
• Optional – If you want to add more fiber to this yogurt bread, you can replace 1 cup of bread flour with 1 cup of whole wheat flour or old fashioned oat flakes.
• Optional – You can “baste” the top of the finished yogurt bread with melted butter right after you remove it from the oven. This creates a shinier & buttery bread loaf top.

• Optional – If your family likes herb breads, you can add a 1 tablespoon of Italian seasoning to the recipe. Turn your bread into a herb Greek yogurt bread! However, this only works with plain Greek yogurt. IMO – Herbs & fruit flavored yogurt generally does not work well together.
• Use lukewarm milk (i.e. warm it in the microwave, etc.). Cold milk will slow the growth of the yeast.
• Whole milk adds the most flavor to this yogurt bread but you can also use skim milk if desired.
• If you do not have milk, you can use water. However, your yogurt bread will be less flavorful.

• 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. They also help to prevent exposure to pests, dust, etc.
• This 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. This helps to squeeze out any large bubbles produced by the yeast in the dough.
• If you don’t do this punch down phase, your bread will have large air pockets. Large air pockets are fine for ciabatta-type breads but are not ideal for sandwich bread. The punch down & second rising helps to create a lighter & chewier bread. It also creates a more uniform & tighter bread texture which is better for sandwich breads.
• This recipe was designed for Greek yogurt (and not regular yogurt). Regular yogurt is a little more liquidy than Greek yogurt. This extra moisture may throw off the recipe if regular yogurt is used as a substitute for Greek yogurt.

• 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. 
• If you like, you can knead the dough by hand. However, kneading dough by hand for 10-15 minutes is too much work for me!!! I prefer the bread machine or electric stand mixer to do the hard stuff.

• 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 “under proofed” (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 “over proofed”, 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?“.

• This yogurt bread recipe uses instant yeast or bread machine yeast. It is not focused on active dry yeast. This recipe is targeted towards instant yeast & bread machine yeast as many of our visitors are bread machine users.
• Active dry yeast is different from instant yeast & bread machine yeast. Instant yeast & bread machine yeast are added directly to the recipe’s ingredients. In contrast, active dry yeast must be activated in water/milk before being added to a recipe’s ingredients. Many bakers find it quicker 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.
• 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.

• 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.

• 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 – Use an oven thermometer 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.
• 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.

• 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.
• If you have not made bread in a long time, please buy some NEW bread machine yeast or instant yeast before making your bread. Old yeast can die or lose its potency and this will lead to bread that does not rise properly. Yeast is not likely to be viable if it has been sitting in your pantry for years.
• Once you have opened the container that contains the yeast, the yeast will last longer if you store the bottle in the refrigerator or freezer. Just make sure the bottle is sealed tight (as yeast will deteriorate quickly if exposed to air, moisture and/or heat).
• Like making dough in your bread machine and finishing it in the oven? Then you might also be interested in our Buttermilk Bread, Cranberry Walnut Bread, Flaxseed Bread, Multigrain Bread, Oatmeal Sandwich Bread, Soft Whole Wheat Bread or White Bread (Extra Buttery) recipes. Similar to this Greek yogurt bread recipe, these oven-baked recipes help you to create delicious homemade breads… where you make the dough in your bread machine (or electric mixer) and finish it in your oven.

• 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).
• With this white bread, you can make great ham & cheese sandwiches, roast beef sandwiches, grilled chicken sandwiches, etc. Visit Bread Dad’s sandwich meats section if you need some high-quality meat to go with your homemade bread.
• Always wear oven mitts/gloves when dealing with a bread machine, hot oven, hot bread pan, etc.
• For more easy bread ideas, please check out Bread Dad’s sections for Bread Machine Recipes and Homemade Bread Recipes.
• Did you make this recipe? Did it come out great? We would love to see a picture of your baking masterpiece! Please post a photo of it on Instagram and tag it with @BreadDadRecipes

If you liked this recipe, please leave a comment below & give us a 5 star rating. It is ALWAYS great to hear from someone who has enjoyed our recipes! Jump to comment section

More Bread Dad Recipes

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

Yogurt Bread Questions & Answers

How do I make my bread light and fluffy?

You can make your bread light and fluffier by using yogurt or buttermilk when making white bread. The slight acidity of yogurt and buttermilk tenderizes the gluten in white breads. Therefore, yogurt breads and buttermilk breads tend to be soft & fluffy white breads.

In case you are interested in learning about other soft white bread recipes, you might also want to check our oven-baked Buttermilk Bread Recipe.

What does yogurt do for bread?

The slight acidity of yogurt helps to break down and relax the gluten in bread flour. In turn, this results in a softer & fluffier white bread. You can see similar results in soft white breads made with other slightly acidic ingredients such as buttermilk.

In addition, yogurt can impact the taste of the bread by adding some of its “tangy” yogurt flavor as well as any fruit flavor contained in the yogurt.

Reference Sources

• Wikipedia, Bread
• Wikipedia, Bread Machine
• Wikipedia, Greek Yogurt

Your fantastic comments motivate us to write more easy & delicious recipes. Also beginning bakers learn a ton from your helpful suggestions, tips and amazing recipe variations. Thank you!

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• Buttermilk Bread
• Cranberry Walnut Bread
• Flaxseed Bread
• Oatmeal Bread
• Multigrain Bread
• White Bread (Extra Buttery)

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