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.
Hi Amy, I’ve not made these before, but something similar. This recipe looks like the dough will be much too moist to hold it’s own shape without the use of an appropriately shaped pan. I would suggest either using a shaped pan, or adding more much more flour, mixing it in a 1/4 to 1/2 cup at a time.
As a reference, when I make regular white bread using a pan, I’m mixing 1.5 cups of liquid to 4+ cups of flour, and even that’s not stiff enough to hold its own shape.
I made these 2 nights ago and they held shape just fine..I did knead the dough by hand and added MAYBE an extra 1/4 cup of flour, if that, to prevent the dough from sticking to my hand while kneading, but perhaps you should try actually making the recipe first before putting up a critique.
Amy, you didn’t mention which rise was flat and bubbly. If the first rise was ok, it wasn’t the yeast and you probably over-warmed the second rise or you made the fatal mistake of covering the buns with something that stuck to them and caused them to collapse. I use parchment paper but frankly haven’t found any compelling; reason to cover the rises at all other than to keep the flies off, lol.
If the problem happened in the first rise, then, as Melissa suggested, you probably overheated the yeast on proofing. Just keep everything barely warm and DON’T cover your rises with a damp tea towel or you will end up with not only a deflated bun but also a deflated ego and, even worse, a McDonald’s burger for lunch!!
You should cover dough with a damp towel or plastic wrap while proofing. This provides a stable atmosphere as well as prevents the dough from drying out and forming a skin on top.
Hmmm. Yes, do you know if your yeast was fresh? And sometime if your water is too hot it can kill your fresh yeast.
I made these yesterday and was very happy with the results. One caution — I doubled the batch using the calculator included with the recipe. The calculator doubles all the numbers in the recipe, including the temperature of the warm water. This could be a problem for a beginning baker.
I was about to say something. I tripled the batch and got 330 degrees… For the beginner baker or less experienced, making this this recipe anything over 120 degree water will likely kill your yeast. especially if you follow the doubled or tripled temperatures. Just make sure your water is between 100 and 110 degrees and you will be fine.
Are you using fresh yeast or active dry?
Active dry
I’ve used this recipe several times and it’s a winner!
I am unable to get browned subs, otherwise they taste perfect! Any tips?
You can brush them with an egg white mixed with 1 tablespoon of water before baking to improve the color if you’d like.
To brown the buns preheat the oven to 400F, then turn down to 375F (so the burners don’t come on while baking) and bake the buns UNCOVERED for about 8 minutes. Then reduce heat to 350F, COVER the buns with foil and bake another 8 minutes. Then turn off the oven and leave in for a final 6 minutes.
I haven’t tried this particular recipe but I’ve used this browning method for 30 years and it works every time. For a typical bread loaf, increase the baking times to 12/12/8.
Happy baking!
Yep yep. I do the same thing. My aunt who was the old fashioned houswife from the 1940s on did the same thing and taught me to do this as well. I have never had a non browned peoduct yet.
I love this recipe because I finally get to use my butterin’ towels
Hello there I’m just about to try and bake these but the oven temp is written is degrees is that Fahrenheit or centigrade sorry if it’s a silly question not the best baker
All temperatures on my site are F. I’m working on getting the recipes updated to reflect that!
Just made it and it was perfect