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 haven’t tried this recipe yet but I did manage a subway back in the late 90’s. Of course their bread came in frozen sticks and were placed on racks to thaw and stretched and twisted while rotating them until they were at the full length then misted with water and placed in a proofer to finish rising. Do you think that if making several loaves in one big batch that the dough could be frozen and allowed to raise later even if you had to use the oven on the lowest setting with a bowl of water inside as a proofer?
You for sure could play around with that! Let us know how it goes!
I made this in the bread machine, came out great!! I added the full 2-3/4 cups of flour all at once. Add all the ingredients and hit the “dough” cycle, then pick up the recipe at the point of rolling out the loaves.
I made 3, 12-inch sub rolls instead of 4, 8 or 9-inch rolls. I cooked mine on a silicone sub roll mold. I also used spray margarine instead of rubbing on butter. The 25 minute cook time seemed too long. Mine were great after about 15 minutes.
What did you click for the pounds 1.0, 1.5 or 2.0?
Very easy recipe and it turned out good.
Family raved about these sub rolls! They started brainstorming how else we could modify the recipe for other uses as well. This one just became a staple in my meal planning rotation.
Have made this twice and love it as my son and I are learning to make bread. My question is in step 2 it say 8 min total in the mixer. Does that include the 3-5 min in the beginning of step 2? Thank u in advance for your help!
Can I add my sourdough into this recipe? If so what would you recommend?
Thanks!
Loved this recipe. I topped mine with a little oil, shredded cheese, and oregano before baking. Making for the second time tonight.
This was so delicious! We made them twice in the first week we found it. Highly recommend! Thanks for the scrumptious recipe!
How about trying to make a real Subway multigrain bread. For a start whole wheat means whole wheat, all whole wheat and nothing but the whole wheat 🙂 and then additional seeds.
Is there a way to make this without the salt? Or can you use No Salt?
Bread made without salt tastes really really bland, I don’t recommend it. It’s not “needed” for the recipe, it would still turn out but it doesn’t taste great.
Mixing salt and yeast together in the begging will kill the yeast correct?
Nope it’ll be fine.
I realized when I read your comment that I forgot the salt! Baked the sub rolls and they turned out great. We made turkey and cheese sandwiches, but we didn’t notice the flavor was off or anything with the bread. I worried the yeast would over rise but nope everything was fine.
Salt balances the yeast so the dough doesn’t explode. Maybe less yeast if you don’t use salt. Flavor will be affected, however
Thank you for sharing this recipe. It turned not perfect the first time. And what a great sandwich it made. I just had to watch a video on kneading bread, I don’t have a machine. That was pretty fun too.
I made this bread and it rose nicely and is SO soft. Havent eaten it yet as it just came out of the oven but i assume it’ll be delicious! It was so easy to make!! I wish i could post a pic!!