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
Has anyone made this bread at high altitude? I make this at home all the time. We will be visiting family in Colorado, and wondering what I need to change to make the same thing there. Thanks!
Hi Melissa, we wish we could help, but we have no experience baking at high altitude. Some readers have found this chart helpful: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html
Great recipe! It came out perfect the first time. Definitley use a thermometer towards the end to get it just right. I sliced and froze this loaf, and defrost and toast as needed. So good!
Ok wife and I love bread and this is by far the best everyday bread ever. Super easy to to make.
Make at least two a week. Slices thin and stays together. Not to dense, just right.
She could never get one to come out right but I made this one and she is in heaven!
Can’t wait to make more.
I’m so sad about how hard it has become to use this website. The ads have destroyed the functionality of scrolling.
I used to come here so much, setting up my iPad in the kitchen, and learning something new. It’s impossible now, the functionality nosedived and my experience is now frustration and not learning.
Very sad to lose such a great resource to online advertising degradation.
If you ever consider a clean website for subscribers it would be worth it.
Good luck.
Hi Mike, since the design elements update on 2/13, we have been adjusting many different layers of caching, how the page loads, the different features, and the ad placements. Fixes and updates were put in place yesterday, 2/27 and my tech team is still making adjustments. I sincerely appreciate the feedback. What you see now is not the final product where I want the site to be!
I’ve been making your bread and I love the flavor but for some reason I can’t seem to cut it with out it crumbling all over. I have tried both serrated and regular knives but I am not getting a nice clean cut. The dough doesn’t seem too dry when I put it in the oven either. Do you have tips for slicing?
Thank you 🙂
Hi Brittany, so glad you enjoyed this bread recipe! This is a soft bread, so a little crumbliness is normal. Over-baking can cause the bread to be dry/crumbly. Also make sure not to add too much flour to the dough (spoon and level or use a kitchen scale instead of scooping). Hope these tips help for your next loaf!
Can I make this recipe into 2 loaves in a 9×11 pan and put them in side by side? With just 2 people in the house we don’t eat it fast enough before it goes stale. Thinking freezing 1 would work better for us.
Hi Pam, we haven’t tested that method but fear without the side of the pan in the middle, the loaves would rise and bake into one another. It may be best to make the loaf as written, then slice it in half and freeze the other half for later. Let us know what you try.
I use sweetened almond milk in this recipe with great success. I read where someone asked if you could substitute for whole milk.
Not really even golden brown and it’s rock hard on the top at 30 minutes.
Be careful out there folks, 30 mins was the limit for me, and I probably should have shielded the top the entire bake and maybe added a pan of water in as well.
This is the first bread recipe that I’ve made that has turned out great. I added another 1/4 cup of milk and kneaded it with the dough attachment on my mixer in between rises. Thank you for the recipe!
I have a question about the post-refrigeration steps – The instructions say “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. ” Is the 1-2hr rise time a part of that 3 hours, or should I take it out, leave it for 3 hours, and then let it rise for 1-2 hours? Thanks!!
Hi Lola, the 3 hours includes the rise time, bake time, and the time to let it cool. Enjoy!
I was using my scale to measure the ingredients, and the yeast measured with spoons vs. the scale is almost double… I went with the 7g measurement since that’s a package like you mentioned, but that’s really misleading
I tried different bread recipes as I started using my bread machine. I only use the machine to knead and do some of the proofing, and then bake the bread in the oven. Myself and my family all agree that your recipe is the best! It is fluffy and soft and tastes amazing. It’s a nice tall good size loaf. I brushed a bit of butter on the top and it’s so good! Thank you so much and I will be checking your website for other great recipes:)
Hi! I just made this dough and found I needed nearly a cup more flour than called for; would higher elevation maybe be to blame for this? The dough was really really loose and sticky otherwise. It’s in the oven now… 🙂
Hi Camille, I wish we could help, but have no experience baking at high altitude. Some readers have found this chart helpful: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html Let us know how your bread turns out!
This is by far my favorite recipe! I always end up making about 4 loaves because it is just so good. I was wondering, is there anyway to make this recipe gluten free? Thank you so much!
Hi Emmorie, so glad you love this bread. 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.
We haven’t cut into it yet, but it made a lovely loaf. It was getting late and I wasn’t feeling so good, so I stuck the prepared dough in the fridge for the first rise. It rose beautifully in the cold. I then shaped it and allowed it to rise over a radiator.
I can’t wait to cut onto it! Thanks for the recipe!
First time bread maker here – thank you Sally! So easy and exactly as stated.
Question: I’ve only followed the recipe exactly. The rise times worked great for me, but I’m wondering if I could let it sit for another hour in the first rise? Just not sure I’ll be home in time and trying to make sure to cover all my bases and not mess up my perfect bread!
Hi Jenna, we’re so glad you enjoyed the bread! We don’t recommend extending the rise time, as it can cause the dough to over-proof and then collapse while baking. It would be best to follow one of the make-ahead options in the recipe notes.
Can you bake this in a Dutch oven or does it have to be a loaf pan x
Hi Clare, This dough really needs the walls of a loaf pan to bake up properly. Having said that, we haven’t personally tested it in a Dutch oven to be certain. We just fear it will be very flat. You might enjoy this artisan bread instead, which bakes wonderfully in a Dutch oven.
I’ve tried many different bread recipes for all types of bread….with no luck! I had made your soft pretzel recipe & LOVED it! So I figured I’d give this one a try. Happy I did! My whole family loved it! It was so soft & didn’t taste like yeast like other recipes I tried. It was perfect! I cannot have eggs or a lot of oil, which made this perfect for me. I made 2 loaves. One with all purpose flour & one bread flour. I was the only one to notice a difference, because it was so minuscule, that I decided to stick with all purpose. Thank you!
Same approximate time for a 1.5 lb loaf pan?
Baking time should be similar; maybe a few minutes shorter since it won’t be quite as tall in a bigger pan.
I love this recipe! So easy to make, and slices like a dream the next day. People at work couldn’t believe it was homemade, since it looked just like sliced sandwich bread. The taste was much better without all the preservatives.
This is so easy and so good!
Sally have you tried doubling the recipe for two loaves and it just doesn’t work? This is our favorite bread ever and it would be great to just double batch it LOL But if you say don’t I won’t !!
Hi Jen! We recommend making two batches of dough for best results here – so glad you love it!
We love this bread in our family and make it regularly! I’m wondering if I can use spelt flour as a substitute?
Hi Amanda, We’ve never baked with spelt flour so we can’t say for sure. However, spelt flour is more delicate so if you mix or knead it heavily it will break down faster causing crumbly bread. It’s best to stick with bread flour or all purpose flour for this particular recipe (see recipe notes) so you may wish to find a recipe that is written specifically for the types of flour you are using.
Would this work in a Pullman loaf pan
Hi Angel, We’re not completely sure if this recipe would work in a pullman loaf pan because we haven’t tested it ourselves. It *shouldn’t* be a problem to use it as is, but again—we haven’t tested it. Let us know if you do give it a try!
I was wondering if butter can be cut back just a little? What changes if any need to be made? I just feel it had a heavy butter taste? If I used maybe 2 Tb instead of the 4 Tb?
Hi Leila, You can reduce the butter down to 2 Tablespoons, but the bread may not be quite as soft.
Great Bread!. I tried so many white bread recipes, but they never came out. I had a hard time with rising, salt issues and taste. I followed your instructions, and it came out wonderful! I am going to try flatbread pizza next.
Tried for the first and it didn’t brown on top at all. Any ideas why?
Hi K, Exactly how the bread bakes will depend on your oven. You can try moving the pan to a higher position in the oven for more browning (especially during the last few minutes of baking). Hope it tasted good despite not getting brown on top!
Amazing, really!
The most flavorful,
Consistent, beautiful bread evah’!
Hello! This was my first time doing a yeast dough homemade bread. My first didn’t turn out, but I know why. I let the second rise go too long and it fell. I wasn’t discouraged! It still tasted amazing and it just didn’t look pretty. I tried again today and it turned out PERFECT! Thank you for sharing the recipe and all your tips and tricks!
I’m new to bread making. Was gifted a bread machine and I have been trying for 3 months to get a successful loaf to come out. This recipe is absolutely perfect!! I used the dough setting and after the first rise I removed and put in a loaf pan to rise for an hour. Baked for 35 minutes and it’s absolutely beautiful