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 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
I love your white bread recipe. I am new to bread making and after several tries I decided to watch your video and try again. Not only did my loaf come out perfect but it tasted awesome. Thank you again for yet another great recipe.
I’ve made it twice now, love the flavor. I have never seen such and aggressive yeast. The first rise is more than double in a little more than an hour. The second in about 45 minutes. My only issue is the bread comes out a little dense and crumbly. It doesn’t hold together very well after slicing. Could it need more kneading? I did the 3 minutes in the mixer with a dough hook and a couple minutes more because it seems so wet. Im using KA bread flour and the yeast you recommended.
Hi Mark, if the bread is overly crumbly/not sturdy, it’s possible it was over-baked a bit. Be sure to also weigh or else spoon and level your flour to ensure you aren’t adding too much. Both over-baking and over-measuring the flour can dry out the bread and make the slices a bit delicate. Hope these tips help for next time!
This is absolutely the best white sandwich bread recipe I have ever made, thank you! Not only is it so tasty but with sandwich bread around $8 a loaf here in Hawaii and the store an hour round trip away this $1.50 (premium flour and butter) loaf so nice.
I love this recipe, can I add raisins if yes how much would you suggest.
Hi Christa! Here’s our cinnamon swirl bread recipe. You can add raisins to the cinnamon sugar swirl.
This recipe is the best I have used and I have been baking bread for over 40 years.
I really love this recipe! It’s simple and easy to follow. I’ve been trying to make it weekly and am working out the kinks for what works best for my kitchen. Unfortunately I only have a glass pan and it’s just coming out not *quite* perfect. Do you think it’s the pan? Should I adjust the temp or time more? I’ve been baking it a little longer than your instructions and still not quite there.
Hi Sarah, glass pans take a little longer to cook through than metal pans. Some additional time should help, but if you find it’s still not there, you can tent the pan with foil to prevent the tops from burning while allowing the bread to continue baking through. So glad you enjoy this one!
Hi Sally! Just want to say a huge thank you for this recipe!!! It’s so delicious and amazing. I have made a lot of loaves of bread before, but this one is a game-changer! Thank you!!!
I just have 2 queries:
1. I use ceramic form to bake in. Shall the same time and oven temp be kept?
2. The next dat bread is very crumbling, is that the way it should be?
Hi Ray, we’re so glad you enjoy this bread recipe! You can certainly bake in a ceramic pan. Baking temperature will be the same, but you may find it takes a few minutes longer to bake through. The bread can be a bit crumbly, but make sure it isn’t over baked and that your flour isn’t over measured (spoon and level or use a kitchen scale), both of which can dry out the bread. Hope this helps!
Sally, can I uses Bob’s 1 to 1 Baking Flour for this recipe? Thanks!
Hi Rebecca, we haven’t tested this recipe with gluten free flour, so we’re unsure of the results. Let us know if you do give it a try.
I make a loaf almost every Sunday for my daughter to use in her school lunch for the week. She loves making sandwiches with fresh bread, and this single loaf recipe is so quick and easy — regardless of what kind of flour or milk I have on hand, it’s pretty much foolproof. I bake a lot of bread, but no loaf more than this one!
This is the first bread I made. Came out great each time and I think using bread flour definitely is better to use.
So good! I used bread flour because I had it on hand, and replaced one cup of it with white whole wheat flour. A lovely soft crust, great chew to the interior, made wonderful toast as well as sandwiches. I used the tip about heating a cup of water in the microwave for 3 minutes, removing it, and putting the dough in the warm, steamy microwave to rise. This definitely worked better for me than on the counter or in the oven. I feel like I never get a good rise, but this time I did. I also paid scrupulous attention to the temp of the water and milk. I think it took longer to bake fully, bc of the addition of the whole wheat flour. I’ll try it again, with and without, and see what happens. Delicious! And the step by step instructions, videos, pictures, tips etc are all very welcome to us nervous bakers. 🙂
Hi. I really want to try your recipe, but I don’t have a stand mixer. Am I still able to use your recipe without one?
Hi Katie, absolutely. If you do not own a mixer, you can mix this dough with a large wooden spoon or rubber spatula. It will take a bit of arm muscle, but it works!
I followed this recipe exactly and it’s by far the most perfect bread I’ve ever made. I’ve been trying to achieve this texture in bread for so long, and this nailed it! And it was easy. Thanks so much for this recipe!
Great bread but flour ratio off (for me). I used King Arthur AP flour with addition of 2 tbsp of vital wheat gluten, all ingredients measured by weight and I still had to add almost a full cup of flour to get the dough to come together. It baked up beautifully but I wonder about the ratios. Next loaf I’ll try with half whole wheat flour.
Great recipie! I used heavy whillping cream for the milk & it was so incredibly soft & the crust perfectly crisp!
This was so good! Could I make this into sub rolls too?
Hi Jen, sure! In step 6 punch down the dough, form into individual rolls, and continue with second rise. We’re unsure of the bake time needed. Or you could work with our bread bowls recipe.
The best bread recipe I’ve ever made!!!! Now a weekly baking item!!! Thank you!!!
Can’t wait to make it again!
Hi,
I’m sorry but what just happened
I’m a massive bread snob, and being English I thought that no way this recipe would be that nice. I thought it’ll be dense because there’s not enough kneading. I thought it’ll be way too sweet (I did in true English fashion reduce the sugar to 1tsp but that seems to be perfect for me so yes would have been too sweet had I stuck to the original) but even so, I thought it won’t rise as it’s too wet and hasn’t had time to produce enough gluten but wow was I wrong. It’s absolutely the best loaf of bread I’ve ever made: I’ve had to stop myself after having 3 slices with butter tus evening so I have enough for sandwiches tomorrow. Thank you! Finally a recipe I can use continuously for sandwiches so I don’t have to buy the mass produced additive filled loaves from the supermarket: so easy too. Amazing.
We’re so glad you gave this recipe a try!
This is one I’ll make time and time again, no more store-bought sandwich bread for me!
We made the recipe for the very first time. It was our first time making bread ever actually. My kids wanted to try it out and we just picked your recipe and it turned out 10/10 perfect and so delicious! Thank you so much.
This is absolutely the best white bread recipe I’ve ever used and it will be the last recipe I use! What size of pans would I use if I divided the recipe in two? I would like to freeze half and use half. Cutting the 9×5 loaf in half works, but I think separate loaves would work better. Thank you for your help – you are amazing!
Hi Tammy, so glad you love this sandwich bread! I don’t have loaf pans smaller than 8×4 inches, so I can’t test this, or really be certain of the exact size pan and the bake time. If you try anything, let me know.
I found this recipe to not work for me. I’m not sure what could be the problem if others had a good result. All measurements were made by weight, yeast was new, flour was new. The dough never came together and only got sticker as I tried to knead. I tried using the stand mixer first for the stated time and let it go about 2 mins more with no success. I turned the dough out and tried to knead by hand with no success. At this time I would not recommend this recipe.
Sounds like it’s a possible hydration issue with your flour. What type of flour did you use? What is the protein content? I ran into a similar problem with a different bread recipe and when I adjusted to hydration of 60% for the protein of 10% seemed to work better.
I have made this loaf multiple times now and it always comes out perfect. I’m a beginner bread maker so I’m so happy with how good this bread tastes with so little skill! I did use bread flour and I think that helped too. This bread makes THE BEST toast.
If you’re looking for the PERFECT sandwich bread recipe like I was…this is IT! Easy to follow recipe with great tips and clear directions for beginners. It rose like a DREAM despite it being a slightly cooler day. I did a terrible job shaping my loaf as the dough was nice and soft and I was in a rush, yet it still looked beautiful after rising and baking. It came out SO soft and tender and airy, even if your family is picky they won’t be missing store bought sandwich bread at all. Made mine yesterday and it’s still super soft today. I used honey 1:1 instead of sugar and oat milk instead of dairy milk. I seriously want to share this recipe with everyone I know. Thank you so much!
Amazing!
Wonderful recipe, so delicious and soft. I used a bread machine so even easier! I did need to increase the amount of flour by around 60-70grams for the dough to have a good consistency in the machine. I use the sage bread machine and it worked beautifully. Wet, fats, dry and yeast last.
Perfect recipe as usual. I try other recipes and always come back to yours. I did try another recipe first and it was very dense. So came back to look for a bread recipe here. I have made it 4 times and it has turned out great every time. I always search for recipes I can do in my KitchenAid stand mixer and you never disappoint!
Is it ok to use 1 percent milk in the place of whole?
Absolutely, that works.