Although my Best KitchenAid Bread Recipe is my everyday standby, sometimes I want something slightly different, such as when I want a nice white loaf to accompany a pasta dish or a soup or stew (although, the “Best” recipe is also an excellent choice for breads and stews, and when formed into rolls it makes excellent dinner rolls, too).
For those times, I turn to this delicious, reliable, and easy KitchenAid or stand mixer French Bread recipe. Like my standby, it uses instant or rapid rise yeast (bread machine yeast is the same thing and works, too), requires no hand kneading, and requires only one rising period, so it sets up fast. Start it before you start your main course and by the time you get through prepping your main dish you’ll be ready to bake and serve this loaf along with it.
You’ll find the recipe here along with 12 other recipes (from that excellent Everyday White Bread to whole grain breads, wheat, crescent rolls, bread bowl instructions….). Every one of them use the same VERY simple stand mixer bread method; this is not just the same old traditional recipe put through the KitchenAid, this is actually a different recipe with different (shorter!!) instructions designed especially for the stand mixer. For under three bucks you’ll have a solid, reliable, simple collection of breads that you can use every day – as easy as using a bread machine but better because it is real oven-baked bread that doesn’t have that “machine” flavor.
This recipe makes two sizable loaves, but if you don’t think you can use that much bread you can freeze the dough once shaped (before baking) for use another day. You could also bake the bread and freeze the baked loaf. Or you could shape the second half of the dough into personal-sized loaves for sandwiches or grinders. Or you could cut the second loaf into cubes to make homemade croutons.
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I don’t buy bread anymore. I make all the bread we eat here. There are six of us, so that means I make homemade bread just about every day. That may sound like a lot but we really like good bread around here. I also think we tend to go through quite a bit just because it’s homemade, and it’s so good! (Please allow me to say so myself–I’m not trying to brag, but it’s homemade bread, and it’s hard for that not to be good 😉 ).
I’ve been making all of our bread for a number of years now…probably at least three. I don’t really remember the last time I bought bread. Up until about six months ago I relied heavily on my bread machine. I hardly ever actually baked the bread in the machine. We all liked it so much more if it was baked in the oven and had that more traditional flavor. Most often I would use the “dough” setting on the machine, then take it out and let it rise, then bake it in the oven. It was pretty darn good stuff, but not exactly like Grandma made. That process did take quite a bit of time, too, and only made one loaf at a time. Most days I was doing it twice to have enough bread to feed the family. Still, it was so much better than bread from the store shelves, and I always knew its exact age and exactly what I did and didn’t put into it.
Then one day towards the end of the summer, right before school started and my busiest bread-baking time of the year commenced, my bread maker gave up on me. I had put it through its paces but still I had only had it a couple of years, so I was kind of on the fence about investing in a new one. Bread machines are quite handy, but expensive. I already owned a Kitchenaid mixer (a hand-me-down from my mother-in-law, bless her, which had lasted through years of her ownership, professional cake-making, and at least 10 years with me…I don’t even know how old it is!). I had made bread with it before, but never seemed to quite get the knack enough to make it a simplified, everyday process. My sister told me to forget the bread maker and just use the Kitchenaid like she did, but I didn’t want to give up the “set it and forget it” routine I’d developed with my bread machine and the dough cycle.
I figured what I really needed was a reliable stand mixer bread recipe that didn’t have too many steps and that could still be done in a relatively short amount of time, without a lot of floury kneading. Like I said, I was (am) making bread just about every day of the week, and I didn’t have time or patience for dealing with or cleaning a flour-dusted surface every day, for multiple kneading and rising steps, or for remembering far enough ahead of time to begin such a process.
To cut to the chase of the story, I played with some bread recipes but then finally figured out that what makes bread machine bread simple is the fast-acting yeast (sometimes called instant yeast, sometimes called rapid rise, and all the same thing as the bread machine yeast). Fast acting yeasts actually let you cut out an entire rising, punching, and kneading process. When I figured this out and combined the method for rapid-rise yeast with a good bread recipe I had, I came up with a real winner that is the absolute heart of our meals here at home.
What I ended up with was an excellent kitchen aid recipe for white bread (or stand mixer bread recipe if you don’t have the Kitchenaid brand–we’re not snobs here 😉 that takes only a few minutes of active time to make, that is excellent for everything from toast to sandwiches to French toast and more, and that I can let my mixer whip up and knead for me while I cook supper or muddle through the dishes. Incidentally, it’s a versatile recipe that you should have no trouble cutting part whole grain, oats, or whole wheat flour into, too. And today, I share it here with you!
Best Kitchenaid Bread Recipe - My Everyday Standby
Author: Mary Ward
Recipe type: Yeast Bread
Cuisine: Traditional White Bread
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 2 loaves
Finally! An excellent, easy KitchenAid or stand mixer bread recipe that really allows the mixer to do all the mixing and kneading for you.
Ingredients
6½ Cups All-Purpose Flour
3 Tablespoons Sugar
1 Tablespoon Salt
3 Tablespoons Lard (can substitute shortening)
1½ Tablespoons Instant Yeast (Rapid Rise or Bread machine yeast may be substituted in equal amounts)
2½ Cups Very Warm Water (around 120F to allow the yeast to act)
Instructions
Place all dry ingredients and the lard in the KitchenAid mixer.
Using the flat beater attachment, mix dry ingredients and lard through. Use the "stir" or lowest setting, for just 1 to 2 minutes until the dry mix looks uniform.
With the mixer still running, pour in the water and mix just until dough is wet through, shaggy, and sticky--just 30 seconds to a minute.
Stop, remove the flat beater, and place the dough hook onto your stand mixer.
Set to speed 1 or 2 and let the mixer run, kneading the dough, for 6 to 8 minutes.
After kneading, stop, remove the dough hook and let the dough rest in the Kitchenaid mixer bowl for 10 minutes.
Grease 2 bread loaf pans. Shape dough into 2 loaves*, place in pans, and cover with a clean, damp towel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled/about an inch above the rim of the pan.
Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.
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*I find this bread rises best and has the best texture if it is pressed out flat on a floured surface and then rolled up, starting with one short end, and then shaping the rolled ends to loaf shape. Now, I know I complained about daily flour messes, but I keep an old cookie sheet on hand dusted with a bit of flour just for quick things like this. I happen to stash it in an unused wood cook stove, but a long tupperware with a cover or a covered jelly roll pan or something similar could easily accomplish the same thing and be stored with your pans or baking goods.
…And so long as you are flattening the dough, take one of the loaves and before rolling cover the flat surface with a good dose of cinnamon sugar (heavy on the cinnamon), then roll it up, pinch/shape the ends and Voila! You have a delicious cinnamon-swirl loaf for morning toast, too. Now that you have this easy stand mixer bread recipe, you, too can have fresh homemade bread your way, every day!
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dish or a soup or stew (although, the “Best” recipe is also an excellent choice for breads and stews, and when formed into rolls it makes excellent dinner rolls, too).
This recipe makes two sizable loaves, but if you don’t think you can use that much bread you can freeze the dough once shaped (before baking) for use another day. You could also bake the bread and freeze the baked loaf. Or you could shape the second half of the dough into personal-sized loaves for sandwiches or grinders. Or you could cut the second loaf into cubes to make homemade croutons.
or a