With step-by-step pictures, a full video tutorial, and plenty of helpful tips, learn how to make simple white sandwich bread using a few baking ingredients like flour, water, yeast, salt, and milk. Bread flour promises a super soft interior with an extra chewy crust. This recipe yields 1 loaf, so it’s perfect if you only have 1 loaf pan.
If you’re new to working with yeast, reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs. This recipe is brought to you in partnership with Red Star Yeast.
Let’s make homemade sandwich bread. This is a basic staple in any bread baker’s repertoire, but it’s also a recipe that shouldn’t be overlooked. There’s nothing on earth quite like homemade bread and my recipe is loaf perfection—rising tall, tasting buttery-soft, and making the most epic sandwiches. It’s truthfully the best homemade bread I’ve ever tasted and it all comes from just 7 ingredients. And if you’re nervous to bake with yeast, I guarantee you will finally feel confident with this no-fuss recipe.
This Sandwich Bread Is:
- Soft white bread with an extra chewy exterior
- Crisp right out of the oven!
- Made from 7 easy ingredients
- Golden brown with a super impressive rise
- Extraordinary on its own or as the base of a sandwich
- Simple to make
- Easy to make ahead or freeze
Looking for a no yeast alternative? Here’s my no yeast bread.
Just 1 Loaf of Bread
Besides the simplicity of the process, you’ll appreciate that this sandwich bread recipe yields just 1 loaf. You don’t need a crazy amount of flour, multiple loaf pans, and you’re not left with 2-3 leftover loaves on your hands. (Which wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.) Just 1 loaf to prepare, rise, shape, and bake—convenient, approachable, and straightforward. My recipes for multigrain bread, homemade cinnamon swirl bread, and honey oat bread both produce just 1 loaf as well.
Overview: How to Make Sandwich Bread
- Make the dough. Continue below to learn more about this dough recipe.
- Knead the dough. Reference my How to Knead Dough video tutorial for extra help with this step.
- Cover the dough and let it rise. The dough rises in about 1-2 hours in a relatively warm environment.
- Punch down the dough to release the air.
- Shape the dough into a large rectangle, then roll it into loaf.
- Let the loaf rise for about 1 hour.
- Bake for 30-34 minutes until golden brown.
As shown in the video tutorial below, the dough comes together with a mixer. You can use a paddle attachment or a dough hook. You can also make the dough by hand, but it requires a bit of arm muscle. After the dough comes together in the mixing bowl, it’s time to knead. You can continue beating the dough with the mixer for this step or you can knead the dough by hand. If you’re new to bread baking, my how to knead dough post and video can help with this step.
Sandwich Bread Ingredients
You need 7 ingredients—practically the same as my homemade cinnamon swirl bread but less sugar. Likewise, they’re basically the same ingredients as my soft dinner rolls too, but in order to bake a bread that rises tall and has legitimate structure, we’ll leave out some of the fat. Swap some of the milk for water and leave out the egg.
- Water: Liquid activates yeast. I use mostly water in this dough because we need a bread that has structure. Using all milk, like I do for my dinner rolls, would yield a flimsy bread without much texture.
- Milk: To make a soft bread, you need fat in the dough so make sure 1/4 cup of the liquid is milk. Low fat milk works too, but whole milk produces phenomenal texture.
- Yeast: You can use active dry yeast or instant yeast. If using active dry, the rise times will be a bit longer. I recommend Platinum Yeast from Red Star, which is an instant yeast blended with natural dough improvers. It’s my go-to for all bread.
- Sugar: Sugar feeds the yeast, increases its activity, and tenderizes the dough.
- Butter: Butter promises a flavorful loaf. I tested this recipe with melted butter, softened butter, and even olive oil. We liked the loaf made with softened butter the best because it had pronounced buttery flavor and a softer (yet still sturdy) interior.
- Salt: You can’t make flavorful bread without salt!
- Flour: You can use all-purpose flour or bread flour. All-purpose flour is convenient for most, but bread flour produces a chewier crust. There are no other changes to the recipe if you use bread flour. For best taste, I highly recommend bread flour. It’s what I always use when I make artisan bread. If you wish to use whole wheat flour, follow my recipe for whole wheat bread instead.
After you make and knead the dough, let it rise. Then, punch it down to release the air:
Roll it out into an 8×15-inch rectangle:
Roll it up tightly starting with the 8-inch side, so you have an 8-inch roll to fit into your 9×5-inch loaf pan. (Unlike cinnamon rolls where you roll up the dough starting with the larger side.) Let it rise until it’s 1 heaping inch above the rim of the pan:
Bake until golden brown, about 30-34 minutes.
Uses for Homemade Sandwich Bread
- Any sandwich. Like the Ross Geller’s Turkey Moist-Maker Sandwich 🙂
- BLT or grilled cheese
- Avocado toast or bacon & egg sandwiches
- Soup dipper
- Make croutons
- French toast or Blueberry French Toast Casserole
- Or in savory recipes like Breakfast Casserole and Sausage & Herb Stuffing
But our favorite way is simply warm toast with regular butter or honey butter & jam. Honestly, toast made from mass-produced bread doesn’t even compare. You can actually taste the soft and buttery toasty crumbs here. Or make an easy turkey sandwich—store-bought bread can’t make a sandwich taste as PERFECT as this.
I understand there’s a major convenience with store-bought bread and I’m not asking you to only make homemade bread for the rest of you life, but try it at least once. It takes a few hours one afternoon and most of the work is hands-off while the dough rises. Fresh-baked sandwich bread smells incredible, tastes even better, and I’m confident there’s no better baked good than this perfect loaf. You won’t regret trying this.
More Easy Bread Recipes
- Focaccia
- Multigrain Bread
- Artisan Bread
- Cheesy Breadsticks
- Pizza Crust
- Homemade Soft Pretzels
- Bread Bowls
- Homemade Breadsticks
- Olive Bread
- Cranberry Nut No-Knead Bread
Sandwich Bread
- Prep Time: 3 hours, 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 32 minutes
- Total Time: 4 hours
- Yield: 1 loaf
- Category: Bread
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
You only need 7 ingredients to make this simple sandwich bread. Soft and buttery with a chewy/crisp crust, this fresh loaf of bread will quickly become a staple in your kitchen. See recipe notes for freezing and overnight instructions. You can also reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (240ml) water, warmed to about 110°F (43°C)
- 1/4 cup (60ml) whole milk, warmed to about 110°F (43°C)
- 2 and 1/4 teaspoons (7g) Platinum Yeast from Red Star instant yeast (1 standard packet)
- 2 Tablespoons (25g) granulated sugar
- 4 Tablespoons (1/4 cup; 56g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons (9g) salt
- 3 and 1/3 cups (about 420–430g) all-purpose flour or bread flour (spooned & leveled), plus more as needed
Instructions
- Prepare the dough: Whisk the warm water, warm milk, yeast, and sugar together in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. Cover and allow to sit for 5 minutes.
- Add the butter, salt, and 1 cup flour. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a silicone spatula, then add another cup of flour. Beat on medium speed until relatively incorporated (there may still be chunks of butter). Add the remaining flour and beat on medium speed until the dough comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 2 minutes. *If you do not own a mixer, you can mix this dough with a large wooden spoon or silicone spatula. It will take a bit of arm muscle!*
- Knead the dough: Keep the dough in the mixer and beat for an additional 5–8 full minutes, or knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 5–8 full minutes. (If you’re new to bread-baking, my How to Knead Dough video tutorial can help here.) If the dough becomes too sticky during the kneading process, sprinkle 1 teaspoon of flour at a time on the dough or on the work surface/in the bowl to make a soft, slightly tacky dough. Do not add more flour than you need; you do not want a dry dough. After kneading, the dough should still feel a little soft. Poke it with your finger—if it slowly bounces back, your dough is ready to rise. You can also do a “windowpane test” to see if your dough has been kneaded long enough: tear off a small (roughly golfball-size) piece of dough and gently stretch it out until it’s thin enough for light to pass through it. Hold it up to a window or light. Does light pass through the stretched dough without the dough tearing first? If so, your dough has been kneaded long enough and is ready to rise. If not, keep kneading.
- 1st Rise: Lightly grease a large bowl with olive oil or nonstick spray. Place the dough in the bowl, turning it to coat all sides in the oil. Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise in a relatively warm environment for 1-2 hours or until double in size. (I always let it rise on the counter. Takes about 2 hours. For a tiny reduction in rise time, see my answer to Where Should Dough Rise? in my Baking with Yeast Guide.)
- Grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan.
- Shape the bread: When the dough is ready, punch it down to release the air. Lightly flour a work surface, your hands, and a rolling pin. Roll the dough out into a large rectangle, about 8×15 inches. It does not have to be perfect—in fact, it will probably be rounded on the edges. That’s ok! Roll it up into an 8 inch log and place in the prepared loaf pan.
- 2nd Rise: Cover shaped loaf with aluminum foil, plastic wrap, or a clean kitchen towel. Allow to rise until it’s about 1 inch above the top of the loaf pan, about 1 hour. (See video and photo above for a visual.)
- Adjust oven rack to a lower position and preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). (It’s best to bake the bread towards the bottom of the oven so the top doesn’t burn.)
- Bake the bread: Bake for 32-36 minutes or until golden brown on top. If you notice the top browning too quickly, loosely tent the pan with aluminum foil. (I usually add aluminum foil over the loaf around the 20 minute mark.) To test for doneness, if you gently tap on the loaf, it should sound hollow. For a more accurate test, the bread is done when an instant-read thermometer reads the center of the loaf as 195–200°F (90–93°C).
- Remove from the oven and allow bread to cool for a few minutes in the pan on a cooling rack before removing the bread from the pan and slicing. Feel free to let it cool completely before slicing, too.
- Cover leftover bread tightly and store at room temperature for 6 days or in the refrigerator for up to 10 days.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Prepare recipe through step 6. Place shaped loaf in a greased 9×5-inch loaf pan or disposable loaf pan, cover tightly, and freeze for up to 3 months. On the day you serve it, let the loaf thaw and rise for about 4-5 hours at room temperature. Bake as directed. You can also freeze the baked bread loaf. Allow the bread to cool completely, then freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature, then reheat as desired.
- Overnight Instructions: Prepare the recipe through step 6. Cover the shaped bread tightly and refrigerate for up to about 15 hours. At least 3 hours before you need the bread the next day, remove from the refrigerator, keep covered, and allow to rise on the counter for about 1-2 hours before baking. Alternatively, you can let the dough have its 1st rise in the refrigerator overnight. Cover the dough tightly and place in the refrigerator for up to 12 hours. Remove from the refrigerator and allow the dough to fully rise for 2 more hours. Continue with step 5.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Stand Mixer or Large Glass Mixing Bowl with Wooden Spoon / Silicone Spatula | 9×5-inch Loaf Pan | Rolling Pin
- Yeast: Platinum Yeast from Red Star is an instant yeast. Any instant yeast works. You can use active dry yeast instead. Rise times will be slightly longer using active dry yeast. Reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
- Flour: You can use all-purpose flour or bread flour. All-purpose flour is convenient for most, but bread flour produces a chewier loaf of bread and I highly recommend it. The bread is still soft no matter which you use. Either flour is fine and there are no other changes to the recipe if you use one or the other. I don’t recommend whole wheat flour because it doesn’t have the same baking properties as white flour or bread flour (the gluten levels are different). If you wish to use whole wheat flour, try my recipe for whole wheat bread instead.
- Doubling this recipe: For best results, I recommend making two separate batches of dough. However, if you want to double the recipe all in 1 mixing bowl, double all of the ingredients except for the yeast and butter. Use 3 and 1/4 teaspoons yeast and 6 Tablespoons of butter.
- Bread Machine Questions: I don’t own a bread machine so I have not tested it, but some readers in the comments section have had success.
- Adapted from Homemade Cinnamon Swirl Bread
Reader Comments and Reviews
This recipe is excellent. It’s was the best sandwich bread loaf that I have made. I’m printing this recipe. It’s most definitely going to be my go to
Made this bread and it is absolutely delicious. Will be my go to bread for my husband. I make sourdough sandwich bread for me weekly, and he won’t eat it. So I made this for him and we both absolutely loved it. Thank you so much for sharing.
Do we need to use Platinum Yeast from Red Star? I only have fleischmanns instant yeast
Hi Abigail, you can use any brand of yeast here.
This bread is delicious! Recipe is also easy to follow – I’m a beginner bread maker and it came out perfectly the first time I tried it. I’ve started replacing one cup of flour with King Arthur Golden Wheat Flour too, still super soft.
Absolutely wonderful taste and slices beautifully. I recently got a bread machine and used this recipe but it didn’t work, I then persevered on the dough making cycle following your recipe exactly. The dough came out perfectly and the final rise and cook in the oven was so easy. This is the tastiest bread I have tried so far. Thank you. I just tweaked the cup and tbs measurements as I am in Australia.
Can this recipe be made into hamburger buns?
Hi Jennifer, You can definitely use this dough to make hamburger or hot dog buns, we’re unsure of the yield. This recipe for bread bowls works well for hamburger buns, too.
Thank you! I was looking for a recipe on the website but didn’t know about this one. I will give one a try soon!
Just did my first attempt and it smells delicious coming out of the oven. Inside is reading at 198! Only issue is it’s concaved in the middle slightly, which I noticed while it was proofing. Is this probably because of how I rolled it?
Hi Maura! This is a sign of over-proofing, usually. Try a shorter rise time next time, or a cooler spot.
Even as I try to leave a glowing comment on this recipe, your website is rendered impossible to use because of full page covering advertisements (the same one from Amazon) that blocks the entire page EVERY 30 seconds to 1 minute. Even multiple times while trying to leave this review. This makes your website entirely impossible to navigate or use. The ad completely covers the page with no ability to navigate away from. I regularly use this recipe for a weekly bread and this is a new occurrence. I know you aren’t in control of ads… but I think this is something you might want to look in to. If this is how ads are now run on your site, I will not be returning.
Hi Sarah, Website ads are frustrating, there’s no doubt about it. We are always testing new placements and campaigns, so it’s really helpful to hear when it’s just too much or too distracting. We do not allow placements to cover up content, and we do not allow pop-ups. However, we are aware of a spammy campaign that made it way to our site recently and it should be gone now. Please let us know if it’s not and we are sorry for any trouble!
Would this recipe work with an 8”x4” loaf pan by just adjusting the time, or would the ingredient amounts need to be adjusted as well?
Hi Molly, that size pan should work just fine. Roll the dough out to be a little smaller than 8×15 inches in step 6. The loaf will be taller and require a little more time in the oven. Let us know how it goes!
Made this bread for the first time. Tastes delicious so I know it will go fast! I was hoping for a softer crust with sturdier inside. The crust is just a little hard and the interior seems to be too soft. It doesn’t hold up for sandwiches like I hoped it would. I kneaded with the mixer for 3 minutes and by hand for 3-4 minutes. Passed both kneading tests. Any tips? Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Joni, we’re happy to help troubleshoot. This is a soft bread, so a little crumbliness is normal. Over-baking can cause the bread to be dry/crumbly and not hold up as well. Also make sure not to add too much flour to the dough (spoon and level or use a kitchen scale instead of scooping). For a slightly sturdier loaf, you might like this whole wheat sandwich bread instead. Let us know if you give it a try!
I made this recipe. It was easy and the bread smells and tastes great. However, I have a crack on one of the side, why?
Hi Veronica, it sounds like your dough may have been under-proofed. Did it rise properly? Dough can crack if it hasn’t risen enough prior to baking, with the heat causing it to rise rapidly and crack through the surface. An easy fix for next time!
I have made this recipe at least a dozen times.
I live at a senior living apartment building that furnishes breakfast and dinner for the residents. Unfortunately, if you ask for dinner rolls you get microwaved hot dog buns most days. That had to stop, so I dragged out my bread machine that I brought with me when I moved in.
I combine all the ingredients in the breadmaker and set it for the dough cycle. When it has risen I cut the dough into 12 pieces, shape them like a roll, and put them in a 9 x 9 pan to rise. I bake the rolls in a 375 degree oven until they are at 195-200 degrees in the center.
I let them cool, break them apart and put them in a bread basket so I can take them down to dinner.
The most frequent comment I get is “These are the best dinner rolls I have ever tasted.”
I would agree.
Thanks for the recipe.
I’ve made this bread twice and it is delicious!!!! It’s so easy! I don’t think I’ll buy store bread again!!!
Thank you so much! I can’t wait to try more of your recipes!
Hi, I have made the bread twice and it is soft and tastes good. My only problem is while slicing the bread is tearing apart. I let it cool overnight as well.
Hi,
My bread has been turning out very nicely — perfectly slicable — for a couple of years. I thought I had this recipe — the only one I use for sandwich bread — down pat.
But the last couple of times its has baked too soft to slice. What might the problem be, please? (Same ingredients and tools, same recipe, feels fine and like normal during proofing and rising stages.) I’m kind of tearing my hair out!
Thanks for any help.
Hi Hajrah, we’re happy to help troubleshoot! The weather can play a big role in how yeasted breads perform. If the texture is feeling a little too soft, there are a few small tweaks you can try next time. You can bake it a few extra minutes for a slightly sturdier crumb. You can also switch to all water instead of mostly water and some milk. And/or you can reduce the butter a bit. Let us know if you try it again with any tweaks and if we can help troubleshoot further!
Would I be able to use almond milk, or is whole milk necessary?
Hi Christine, almond milk will work in a pinch, but the bread may not be as soft and tender.
Can you use whipped cream for the milk?
A novice here, and I am afraid I may have made some mistakes. First of all, it’s incredibly humid, so I went lighter on the liquid ingredients. I have no idea whether or not this was the right thing to do, but that seemed to be the online consensus. I followed all the other instructions to the letter and used a new package of instant yeast. I did the kneading by hand, and after 8 minutes the poke test didn’t work. The dough stayed indented. So I kneaded for probably about 13 minutes total and there was o change. I decided to let it rise anyway, and after only about 1/2 hour, it was doubled in bulk, but the poke test now indicated over proofed. The indentation didn’t spring back at all. Just because I can’t bear wasting ingredients. I shaped it and it does seem to be rising in the loaf pan, but obviously something has gone wrong here and I would love some feedback since I am really keen on learning to do this. Help, please!
Hi Alice, we’re happy to help troubleshoot! It sounds like your dough was sufficiently kneaded. It will slowly bounce back and not quite all the way. As long as it wasn’t sticking to your finger at all, it should be good to go. Kneading it to 13 minutes may have cause it to become over kneaded at that point. How did the final baked bread turn out? If it seemed to collapse after baking, then over kneading was likely the culprit. As for the humidity, we’d recommend keeping the recipe as-is and then adding more flour as needed. There’s nothing wrong with adding just a little more flour to bring the dough into a less sticky and knead-able consistency, adding about 1 Tablespoon of flour at a time. If you’re new to bread baking, we’d recommend reviewing our How to Knead Dough and Baking with Yeast Guide as well. We hope this helps for next time!
This is a question about the poke test for readiness after kneading. I am a novice and just want to be sure I am understanding whether I am heading in the right direction. When I poke the dough, it springs back somewhat, but there is still some indentation. I kept kneading after 8 minutes because I thought the dough should spring back all the way. However, I couldn’t get the fingerprint to spring back completely. I did watch your video, but am still confused about this. Advice?
Hi Alice, we’re happy to help! It sounds like your dough was sufficiently kneaded. It will slowly bounce back and not quite all the way. As long as it wasn’t sticking to your finger at all, it should be good to go. If you’re new to bread baking, this How to Knead Dough post and video will be a helpful resource to review. We hope you enjoyed the bread!