Homemade Subway Bread Recipe
on Jul 13, 2017, Updated Aug 21, 2024
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Perfect Homemade Subway Bread recipe, just like the restaurant. This recipes makes a perfect copycat loaf of Subway bread for sandwiches at home.
I love making homemade bread. It’s easier than you think, makes the house smell amazing, and provides that little extra something for your meal. Plus I can put on as many banana peppers as my heart desires, so I’ll also be making up a batch of easy refrigerated pickled banana peppers, too.
The homemade Subway bread was just perfect. It had a very soft crust (thanks to a little butter and letting it steam in a towel as it cooled) and a light middle, and it kind of smashed into nothing when you ate it. Just like the real thing.
Your family will be shocked and amazed at your mad skills, and you can wow them with an amazing cheese steak sandwich served on this perfect sandwich bread. Mom for the win!
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Soft crust and light as air in the middle – a perfect replica of Subway bread
- This is a great recipe to keep on hand for any future hoagie needs
- A simple bread recipe with basic ingredients you’ll likely find in your pantry
Recipe Ingredients
- Yeast – If buying yeast in the packets, you’ll need to open two to measure out the amount needed for this recipe
- Sugar – Plain old sugar to make the yeast happy!
- Olive oil
- All-purpose flour
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Popular Variation: Italian Herb & Cheese Bread
I have had a few people email me and say that just before baking they brushed the outside of the dough with olive oil or butter and then sprinkled on some Italian seasoning and some Parmesan cheese for a great homemade Subway Italian Herb and Cheese bread.
I can’t wait to try this myself on any number of creative sandwich recipes!
How to Make Homemade Subway Bread
- Mix wet ingredients with all dry ingredients except the flour. Let the mixture stand for 5 minutes.
- Add 1 cup of flour and mix for 3 to 5 minutes. Add an additional cup of flour and mix well, and then add rest of flour a little at a time, until a soft dough is formed. Knead until smooth.
- Place the dough in a bowl and cover. Allow to rise and then shape into 4 rolls, allowing these to rise again.
- Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, brushing with butter and covering when they come out of the oven.
Recipe FAQs
If you haven’t ever made a simple bread recipe before, the goal is to add just enough flour for it to be a soft but not sticky dough. If you add too much flour, you’ll end up with Subway bricks instead of bread.
No stand mixer? This recipe can be made by hand, just be sure to knead it for a full 8 minutes. That’s a long time but developing the gluten helps the bread to be soft.
This recipe works well with half whole wheat flour mixed with half all-purpose flour for whole wheat sub buns.
Expert Tips
- This bread froze just about as well as other breads. It was still soft but seemed a bit dryer after freezing. Fresh is best but they do freeze and thaw well.
- Do not skip rubbing with butter and covering the bread with a towel to cool. This is the key to the texture of this awesome bread!
- One of the awesome Bless this Mess readers, Kim, had great success using her bread machine to make this recipe. She let the bread machine run the full dough cycle, which is 1.5 hours long. After the cycle she shaped the loaves and let them rise for an hour before baking.
More Amazing Bread Recipes to Consider
Homemade Bread
100% Whole Wheat Bread Recipe
Homemade Bread
Soft Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
Yeast Bread Recipes
Brioche Bread
Yeast Bread Recipes
Challah Bread
Did you make this recipe? Leave a ⭐️ review and share it on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest!
Homemade Subway Bread Recipe
Equipment
- baking sheet These are a go-to that every kitchen should have.
- KitchenAid stand mixer This classic KitchenAid always gets the job done!
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm water, (110 degrees F)
- 1 tablespoon instant yeast
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 1/2 to 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, add the water, yeast, sugar, salt, and olive oil. Let the mixture stand for 5 minutes.
- Add 1 cup of flour and mix with the dough hook for 3 to 5 minutes. Add an additional cup of flour and mix until well combined. Continue adding the flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until a soft dough is formed. The dough should still stick to the bottom of of the bowl, but pull away from the sides. Let the dough mix for around 8 minutes total.
- When the dough has come together but is still sticking a bit to the bottom of the bowl, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. The dough should be very soft. Shape the dough into a ball and return it to the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise for a half hour.
- After the dough has risen, turn it out onto a clean surface and divide it into 4. Roll each piece of dough into a long skinny loaf that is about 9 to 10 inches long.
- Place the rolled loaves onto a baking sheet lined with parchment or a baking mat. Repeat with the rest of the dough. Allow at least 2 inches between each loaf on the pan.
- Cover the loaves with a greased piece of plastic wrap and allow the loaves to rise until doubled, about an hour.
- Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. When the loaves are ready, bake them in the preheated oven for 25 minutes.
- When the loaves come out of the oven, rub the tops with a stick of butter and cover them with a dish towel to cool.
- Let the loaves cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting down the middle and topping with your favorite sandwich fixings.
Notes
- Rubbing the loaves with butter and covering them with a towel to cool are part of what keeps them very soft, so be sure not to miss those steps
- If you don’t have a stand mixer, just mix the flour in a bit at a time, kneading very well after it’s all incorporated.
- Add seasonings to the dough to change it up, like garlic powder or Italian seasonings.
- Instead of shaping the dough into loaves for Hoagie-style bread, make it into whatever shapes of sandwich rolls your family likes. Note that smaller shapes may need a shorter baking time.
I made this today. Huge success, followed the recipe to the letter. I lightly greased with olive oil the subs before baking because that’s what we do in Greece?. I still buttered after baking and did the towel trick. Next time I’m doubling it for sure. Thanks! So much better than store bought
Congratulations!!!
I’ve made the dough in the bread machine with the half white/half wheat flour. It was great! Would I have to change the recipe for all wheat? We grind our own wheat flour. Thanks!
I’d knead it a good long time, I have a hard time getting all whole wheat breads to be very fluffy.
We have gluten, would adding some help? Not good at bread?. Thanks!
Hi Melissa do we need to adjust anything in the receipe if I use whole wheat flour only ?
And also any change in receipe if I use half and half whole wheat and all purpose flour ? I prefer whole wheat.
You’ll just want to adjust the flour as needed so that the dough is still light. It takes less whole wheat flour because it absorbs more water!
Do the same with this recipe, half white/half wheat or even one third wheat flour. Never use all whole wheat flour or you will end up with very dense bread.
I made these last night. I followed the recipe exactly – had to cook about 8 minutes longer. They were perfection! We had leftover steak and didn’t know what to do with it.
I sliced it very thin, added caramelized onion and cheese – then put the whole thing under the broiler for a quick crisp,,,
My only comment would to be careful adding salt to the water and yeast. I have read that salt can slow down the yeast process. I mix it in with the flour first.
Thanks for a great recipe!
Would I be able to use sourdough starter for this? I’ve been making these weekly and love them but we’re running out of yeast and I want to make a starter anyway, thank you
I think you could in theory but it’s a bit jump in recipe so I couldn’t tell you off the top of my head what you could do. I’ll play with it!
I wanna try this out for myself
Please adjust the prep time and total time on this recipe. You have it listed as 50 minutes and 1 hr 15 min. In actuality it is prep time: 1 hr 40 minutes and total time is 2 hr 35 min.
what Kind of yeast does this recipe call for? Does yeast mean ADY, instant, fresh? Just want to make sure I convert it right.
I use instant, rapid, or quick yeast, it’s all dry. I have no idea what fresh yeast is.
Im new to baking bread and wanted to know if your using instant yeast do you have to wait 5 mins as it says in step 1.
No but it doesn’t hurt either.
Hi Stephanie.
As promised I made the bread today, but although I’d said I would try Bread flour, I didn’t. I used KA AP flour. Following her recipe it does seem that there’s not enough flour. I found it was very tempting to add more flour. I ran my stand mixer a lot longer than I usually do (at a higher speed as well) and the dough was very ‘tacky’. It cleared the side of the bowl, but stuck to the bottom. Using a dough scraper, I removed it onto a very, very lightly floured board and kneaded it for a couple of minutes. I followed the rest of the recipe regarding proofing times and baking times and I created 4 perfect sandwich rolls. My only nuance is that when I’m ready to make multiple loaves or rolls, I always weigh the final dough and figure out how many grams I should portion for each. I made 4 almost duplicate sandwich rolls from this recipe. What was amazing is that each roll was lighter than a commercial hamburger bun. This a great recipe.
Thank you for getting back to us! So helpful!
My bread tasted very floury and dense, not at all like subway. But I thought the recipe was followed. Could we have mixed too long or not enough???
Generally not enough or your yeast didn’t work well.
Try using Bread flour for making it more chewy. It has more gluten. Adding vital wheat gluten just increases the gluten in the AP flour that Bread flour might already contain. I always use King Arthur flour because their AP flour contains more gluten than most other brands’ Bread flour.
Re sweetness, experiment by adding more sugar. I have a french bread recipe using twice the flour but calls for a full 1/2 cup of sugar.
I’ve made this recipe twice in the past and the bread tasted great. I can’t compare it to Subway, because I haven’t eaten there but twice in my life.
I returned to this recipe tonight because today I cooked a 3 lb eye-roast for 4 people and I have too much left over. (Not a very good cut, btw).
I want to salvage the leftovers and makes steak sandwiches tomorrow.
I’ll use Bread flour instead of AP on your behalf and let you know how it’s received.
I’ve only been baking bread for the past five years. The irony is that I don’t eat it. It’s become a hobby and I’ve become obsessed with making all kinds of bread and learning everything I can about it. Family and friends provide me feedback and so far I’ve been making them all happy. It’s not as simple as many believe.
Thank you for all the tips!
for a more tender eye round set oven to 500 F. cook roast 7 minutes per pound (ex 3 lb roast cooks for 21 mins). turn oven off BUT DO NOT open oven for 1 hr. It will come out med rare.
I rarely eat the bread that I bake either. My SO tells me if he likes it or not, along with why, and I adjust it in the future. I do, however, occasionally, Cut the end off of a not cooled loaf, butter it, and sometimes add honey. I know that it’s best to wait until the whole loaf is cool. But I’ve been doing that for over 50 years. It was a tradition in my family. In fact, my family rarely had a loaf that cooled completely, because we all did it. The other loafs were cooled though.