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.
Just made this recipe. Bread turned out hard. Haven’t tasted them yet though – they are still cooling. Wish I had read these comments before I attempted. Also, wish I could post a picture of how they turned out.
Hhhmmm. I wish you could post a picture too! I wonder what went wrong. In my mind either the bread didn’t rise properly or your oven temp is off. What do you think? Were they edible?!
Made these last night and they were fantastic and so easy. Thank you, my new favorite recipe.
I have a bread machine, can I make this in that? I don’t have the handy dandy bread mixer you suggested?
I”m sure you could let the dough mix in there and then pull it out to shape the loaves… it might even be able to rise there! What do you think?? I say it’s worth a try 🙂
Loved them
I just wanted to thank you for this recipe.
I made this last night for Philly steak subs and they were phenomenal!
The bread is about twice as dense as Subway’s, but it is so good that this recipe is now my #1 sandwich bread.
Mmmm. That sounds wonderful! Thanks for the great comments.
Haven’t tasted mine yet but smells like subway and I just made our sandwiches for tomorrow. Unfortunately my oven temps r off so they were a bit dark but after sweating them under the towel they were super soft.
For people having a rising issue-combine the water sugar and yeast and let dissolve then add the oil salt and flour.
Thanks for sharing:)
I don’t have a mixer with dough hook. Could I make this in food processor?
Do you have the dough blade for the food processor?! If so, I sure think it would work fine. Let me know if you try it!
I was excited to make this & I followed the directions step by step….unfortunately they tasted nothing like Subway bread. I’m disappointed considering how long they took to make!!
That’s so sad… I wonder what the difference in our kitchens is?! I’ve made it a bunch of times and even had a “Subway” party (everyone brought toppings) and it was such a hit. Hope you can find what you are looking for.
Was looking for sandwich roll recipe for my bread machine and stumbled across this blog. I was a bit leery at some of the ingredient amounts as they were quite a bit off from my normal bread machine recipes. But I thought I’ll just go with it, and I did and they were fabulous! It came out of the machine quite sticky and feeling like mostly air, but I just lightly dusted my surface and the bread and rolled and formed them,sprayed the tops with butter spray and let them rise. I could not believe it when I cut open the finished rolls, they were so light and fluffy and the outer crust was firm enough to hold up to our fillings, but not too hard to bite through..perfect! Making this recipe again today, but turning it into cheesy breadsticks!
Such a great review, thank you for coming back to share your results.
I didnt read all the comments too many… Is there a recipe for the wheat bread?
Not yet… but I should! Thanks for asking though, just the motivation I need!
I love Subway bread it is so soft and my kids love it! This will be perfect for making sandwiches at home. Just pinned this winner recipe 🙂 Krista @ A Handful of Everything
Thanks for the pin love girl! Cute site BTW 🙂
1 1/2 tablespoon or teaspoon????
tsp. is teaspoon 🙂
I was wondering the same thing. I know that tsp = teaspoon, but your recipe calls for 1 1/2 tablespoons of yeast. I yeast packet is only 2 1/4 teaspoons, so this would be 2 packets of yeast. Seems like a lot for just 4 sub rolls.
It helps to make them fluffy! I use instant yeast most of the time but both work.