Honey White Bread Recipe

This honey bread recipe produces a delicious & soft white bread with the natural sweetness of honey. Honey white bread is perfect for sandwiches or toast (as it is NOT a super sweet bread).

FYI – Many people like to use honey as a sweetener for their baked goods. Why? Because they see honey as a more natural ingredient and they do not want to use processed sugar.

1. Ingredients
2. Instructions
3. Helpful Tips

Your family will love the taste of honey bread and you will love how easy it is to make. This page is focused on an oven-baked honey white bread recipe. The oven version takes me a little longer to prepare (versus my bread machine version) and is more work (e.g. due to the shaping of the dough). Nevertheless, the end result looks nicer because you get a more “traditional” looking bread loaf (versus the typical bread machine “brick” shaped loaf).

Honey White Bread Dough Rising In Bread Pan

Ingredients

• 1 1/8 Cups – Milk (warm) – 266 milliliters
• 1/4 Cup – Honey – 58 milliliters
• 4 Tablespoons – Unsalted Butter (softened) – 57 grams – If desired, you can replace the butter in this recipe with olive oil.
• 3 1/2 Cups – Bread Flour – 420 grams
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons – Salt – 9 grams
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons – Instant Yeast (or Bread Machine Yeast) – 5.4 grams – This recipe does not use active dry yeast.

Servings – Roughly 18 slices

Equipment Needed – Measuring cup & spoons, flexible spatula, cutting board, 9×5 inch metal bread pan, oven mitts, oven, wire cooling rack and a bread machine.

Key Ingredient – Honey!!

Honey White Bread – Bread Machine Version

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).
• Soften the butter. FYI – I like to use a microwave to semi-melt the butter for better mixability.
• Pour the milk, honey & softened butter 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 the unplugged bread machine.
• Plug in the 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 “shaping 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 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 a lightly greased or nonstick 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).
• Optional – Brush olive 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 (e.g. rise faster in the summer & slower in the winter).
• Preheat the oven to 350 F (177 C) for 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 (177 C) 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 a digital thermometer to confirm that the bread has been fully baked. See tips below.
• Remove the bread from the bread pan and place the bread on a wire cooling rack. Wear oven mitts.
• Optional (but Recommended) – Right after removing the bread from the bread pan (while the bread is still very hot), brush on 1 tablespoon of melted butter on the top crust of the bread. This creates a more buttery top to the bread. Use a pastry brush to brush on the butter.
• Allow the bread to cool down on the wire cooling rack for 1 to 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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Tips

• The tips below are designed to help baking & bread making “novices”. Intermediate and advanced bread makers probably know most of these bread making tips.
• Click on this “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 my tips section. Please read the tips section in order to avoid common recipe problems.
• If you would like to make this bread completely in your bread machine (e.g. mix, knead & bake), please visit my Bread Machine Honey White Bread page.
• This recipe is part of Bread Dad’s series on Easy Bread Recipes such as extra soft white bread, multigrain bread and French bread.

• This recipe does NOT create a super sweet bread. Rather it uses honey to replace the sugar used in regular white breads. Therefore, my honey bread is a delicious white bread with a mild honey taste.
• FYI – This bread is known as honey bread, honey white bread, milk & honey bread, etc.
• I created this honey white bread recipe because some of my visitors prefer to use honey in their baked goods instead of sugars such as white granulated sugar, etc. They want to use a more natural sweetener versus processed sugar.
• Other bakers like to use honey in order to enhance the flavor of their baked goods. As you probably know, honey comes in many different flavors such as orange blossom honey, buckwheat honey, alfalfa honey and eucalyptus honey.
• FYI – This honey bread is great as toast… especially, when you spread some honey on the toast! Ha! Double honey bread??!
• Visitors – Why do you like to use honey instead of processed sugar? Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

• Do not add more honey than what is listed in my recipe. Extra honey means you will be adding extra liquid. Adding too much liquid to a bread recipe can throw off the liquid/dry ratio of a recipe. This can result in a greater potential for bread “collapses” or misshapen tops.
• FYI – As a Bread Dad (in other words a Bread Mad Scientist!!), I experimented with different amounts of honey when creating this recipe. I tried making this bread with 1/3 cup of honey as well as 1/2 cup of honey. Of course, those experimental breads were sweeter but IMO did not taste nearly as nice as the bread made with 1/4 cup of honey. You do not need a lot of honey to make a great sandwich bread.
• Have a problem getting the honey out of your measuring cup? Some people like to spray the interior of the measuring cup with cooking spray. This allows the honey to stick less to the sides of the measuring cup.
• Have a problem with honey coming very slowly out of its container? Some people like to place the entire honey container in a bowl of warm water. The water will warm the honey and improve its viscosity (making it more pourable).
• Visitors – What type of honey do you use to make your honey white bread (a generic supermarket honey or a specialty premium honey)? If you use a premium honey, do you think it improves the bread (e.g. adds a better flavor or higher level of ingredient quality & safety)? Or do you prefer the lower cost of generic supermarket honey? Please leave your honey thoughts in the comment section below.

• Do NOT use cold milk (or super hot milk) to make this recipe or the yeast may have trouble growing properly. Yeast is sort of like Goldilocks – it doesn’t like things too hot or too cold. Ideally, the liquid temperature should be around 100-110 F.
• Refrigerator cold milk will slow the yeast’s growth and this will result in a denser/less soft bread.
• I like to use whole milk when making this bread because it adds a richer flavor. However, skim milk or plant-based milk (e.g. soy milk or oat milk) is okay too!
• Optional – If you want to create an even SOFTER honey white bread, use buttermilk instead of the milk called for in the recipe. Buttermilk is acidic and this helps to “tenderize” the gluten in the flour. Buttermilk is a great way to soften homemade bread.
• Optional – If you want to reduce the saturated fat in this honey white bread recipe, you can replace the butter in the recipe with olive oil on a 1:1 basis. Some of my Bread Dad visitors like to use olive oil (instead of butter) in order to make healthier breads.
• Optional – I like to brush on 1 or 2 tablespoons of melted butter (with a pastry brush) on the top crust of the bread right after the bread is baked (while the honey bread is still hot). This adds a nice buttery top to the honey white bread.
• Visitors – Do you like to add any extra ingredients to this honey white bread recipe (e.g. dried cranberries, seeds or chopped walnuts)? Please leave your honey white bread suggestions & variations in the comment box below.

• Use FRESH ingredients (e.g. 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 (e.g. flour) in airtight food containers in order to extend their shelf life. Airtight containers help to prevent your ingredients being exposed to to pests, moisture, dust, odors, etc.
• Flour (if stored in an open bag and not in an airtight container) can absorb a lot of moisture from the air. This extra moisture throws off recipes and can lead to bread collapses, etc. FYI – Extra moisture disrupts the liquid-to-dry ingredient ratio in the recipe.
• This recipe calls for the use of bread flour. If you are out of bread flour, you can use all purpose flour in a pinch. However, an all purpose flour bread will be less airy and fluffy (when compared to honey bread made with bread flour).
• Make sure to level off the ingredients in your measuring spoons & cups. No “mountains” of ingredients in your spoons & cups!! If you add too much of an ingredient, you can have a baking problem. FYI – I like to level the ingredients in my measuring spoons & cups with the back of a butter knife.

• 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.
• 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 Video
• San Diego Artisan Bread School Video
• Father Dominic Video – 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. 

• 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 x 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 (e.g. 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.
• The oven-baked version of this bread recipe calls for the use of a 9 x 5 inch metal 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.
• To prevent your bread from sticking to the bread pan, you should consider using a nonstick bread pan or either “greasing” the bottom & sides of the pan with butter, vegetable oil, a cooking spray, etc. Even if you’re using a nonstick pan, you should also consider greasing it (as some nonstick pans become more “sticky” as they age). 

• This 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 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.
• I would recommend NOT reducing the salt in this recipe. You generally want to keep the salt-to-yeast ratio at a 1:1 basis in most bread recipes (1:1 based on teaspoons to teaspoons and NOT grams to grams). The salt moderates the growth of the yeast. If you cut the salt (and disrupt this 1:1 ratio), the yeast will grow faster than expected. In turn, this leads to more bread collapses (because the yeast rises too high and then craters in the middle) and/or results in “slack” less manageable dough. In addition, less salt will impact the flavor and browning of the bread.
• If you like white bread, you should also try my recipes for buttery Bread Machine White Bread, Bread Machine Honey White Bread & Bread Machine Buttermilk Bread.
• Or try my oven-baked Buttermilk Bread, Greek Yogurt Bread & Sour Cream Bread recipes.

• 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 (e.g. 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.
• If your bread comes out too dense, you should read Bread Dad’s Why Is My Bread Machine Bread So Dense? page. It covers potential reasons & solutions in order to prevent dense bread. Most of the reasons & solutions apply to oven-baked bread as well as bread machine-baked bread.
• It takes roughly 10-20 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 to 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).
• If you like baked goods made with honey, you might also like to try out Bread Dad’s recipes for Bread Machine Honey Oat Bread, Bread Machine Honey Wheat Bread & Bread Machine Honey White Bread.
• Or my oven baked recipes for Honey Banana Bread and Honey Oat Bread.

• FYI – According to Wikipedia, “Honey is sweet because of its high concentrations of the monosaccharides fructose and glucose. It has about the same relative sweetness as sucrose (table sugar)… It has attractive chemical properties for baking and a distinctive flavor when used as a sweetener”.
• Moreover, according to Wikipedia, “Typical examples of North American monofloral honeys are clover, orange blossom, sage, tupelo, buckwheat, fireweed, mesquite, sourwood, cherry, and blueberry. Some typical European examples include thyme, thistle, heather, acacia, dandelion, sunflower, lavender, honeysuckle, and varieties from lime and chestnut trees. In North Africa (e.g. Egypt), examples include clover, cotton, and citrus (mainly orange blossoms). The unique flora of Australia yields a number of distinctive honeys, with some of the most popular being yellow box, blue gum, ironbark, bush mallee, Tasmanian leatherwood, and macadamia”.
• To learn about some potential benefits of honey, you might like to read this Smiley Honey article.

• You can also use this homemade bread to make one of Bread Dad’s hot & toasty Grilled Cheese or Panini Sandwich Recipes such as air fryer grilled cheese, chicken paninis and ham & cheese paninis.
• My recipes are based on US ingredient measurements (e.g. US cups & tablespoons). However, as a courtesy to our European visitors, I have also included some very ROUGH European equivalents (e.g. 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 (e.g. for XYZ ingredient, milliliters are more commonly used versus the grams information listed in the recipe).
• Always wear oven mitts/gloves when dealing with a bread machine and/or oven. Both can get very hot!
• For more easy bread ideas, please visit Bread Dad’s sections on Bread Machine Recipes and Homemade Bread Recipes.

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Reference Sources

1. Wikipedia, Bread
2. Wikipedia, Bread Machine
3. Wikipedia, Honey

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