Homemade Subway Bread Recipe
on Apr 18, 2022, Updated Apr 02, 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
Yeasted Breads
Brioche Bread
Yeasted Breads
Challah Bread
Yeasted Breads
Cinnamon Babka
Yeasted Breads
Chocolate Babka
Did you make this recipe? Leave a ⭐️ review and share it on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest!
Homemade Subway Bread Recipe
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.
Melissa, thanks a lot for this recipe. I made it this weekend end and was a success! I want to make a large quantity and I need to freeze the dough. Do you know if I must freeze it after the first (half hour) or second (one hour) fermentation?
I can tell you (as a former sandwich artist.. In high school) the process of baking bread at Subway. The dough comes in (frozen) in 10″ sticks. The night before baking, the frozen sticks are placed in pans with handy silicon dividers and thawed overnight in a refrigerator. Once thawed, they go in a proofer (warm, moist oven type machine) for about an hour. Then baked. It’s been 20 years so I can’t recall temp and time 🙁
So I would say to freeze the sticks of dough before the 2nd rise?
I sure wouldn’t unless you want to store them long term… I doubt the freezing does much to change the end ingredient. Long live the sandwich artist!
wow,thanks for the info will try it.and can u do the honey oat bread they do
Mine ended up hard as bricks!?!? I’m new to making bread did I miss something?
Was your yeast super old or you water too hot?! Both of those things will make the yeast no good…. bread making is a fun art to work on! I hope you don’t give up…
Yeast is brand new, I used thermometer for water…. I made a 2nd batch & they turned out the same way. I followed the directions STEP BY STEP….
Booo! That is so so frustrating isn’t it?! I’ve made this recipe at least 3 times since I posted it without a hitch… you much a bread demon in your mixer.
I just made this bread and it really didnt rise much at all. I am used to bread DOUBLING at least in size and this did not do that. Instead of having single loafs of bread I have thing breadsticks. They are still soft and taste good but i want actual subs bread to make sandwiches on. Any suggestions???? Also followed recipe to a T
Do you know if your yeast is fresh? I’d try adding more if you think it didn’t rise enough! Or sometimes I’ll make the loaves the size I want even if it makes less than a recipe calls for so that the end product is larger… does that make sense?!
Putting the salt and the yeast together at the same time will also kill the yeast. Try adding the salt with the flour.
Use 1 cup warm water and you’re good to go.
The recipe calls for 1 cup. Do you think that it needs 2? I’ve made it 4 or 5 times with the one cup and it’s ok for me. I’d gladly make it again though! What amount have you been using?
I know from experience it is best to let your yeast rise with the water and sugar before adding salt. Salt kills yeast so salt should be the last wet ingredient
Your yeast may have been bad even if new. I would proof it first before using it. I bought an expensive bag of SAF yeast from Amazon from a 3rd party seller. It was dead on arrival and was not expired. The 3rd party seller would not refund my money.
Melissa concerned about the first rise only being 30 minutes instead doubling in size. ? Thanks neurotic Terry
Terry, no worries! It’s just better to let it rise for a certain amount of time so that you don’t accidentally over rise it in the end or the yeast goes flat while baking.
i was curious to see how many people don’t like the bread and am amazed that people are actually trying to re-create it. it’s fake. the ready made ingredientes have been sitting in a disribution center for months. it’s part of the corporate food machine.
I think that is part of the appeal of making it at home… you control what goes in it 🙂 Never a bad thing in my mind!
I totally agree, Tom. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to make subway bread on purpose! Any good italian bread from a local bakery is vastly superior!
If I lived within 2 hours of any sort of bakery I’d so be there… but living in the middle of no where means you have to do things on your own 🙂
Well…if I was going to make bread from scratch anyway, I’d make real italian bread instead.
….well then go for it and stop with the snide comments, Rob.
First of all, Mere,
I never said that I was going to make the bread, I was suggesting that someone else should try real italian bread instead. It’s very delicious. Second, merely stating facts is not being snide.
What a troll. This bread look delish!
Because Subway is popular for a reason, and for a lot of people we like the light texture of Subway bread versus the heavyness of traditional Italian.
I just wanted to say that I absolutely love your blog. You are everything I aspire to be-so domestic and good at everything you put your hand to! I just pulled the bread together for dinner tonight. It’s rising now. My husband and I are so excited to have our own Subway sandwiches tonight. Thank you for sharing!
Thank u… Any advice for a student who does not have a mixer? Can I do this all by hand?
Of course! Just be sure you are watching the clock and knead, knead, knead. You are the one working the dough and the gluten and it takes a lot of work 🙂 Be sure to mix and knead for as long as it says and it will be great. And ask for a mixer for Christmas 🙂
i’m shocked you spent precious $$ on bread 😉 good luck! i want to heard more about how the $20/week goes.
?? I didn’t buy it, I made it! That’s why it made it so cheap 🙂
Ok, something isn’t working for me! The first batch I followed exact measurements and my dough was very strange (I might have killed the yeast?) and they baked ROCK hard. My second attempt last night I only used 2 1/2 cups flour and the dough worked much better. However, they didn’t puff up in the oven and we ended up with rather flat loaves. Everyone still gobbled them up, but I’m determined to get this right! I make homemade pizza dough once a week and never have a problem. I applied the same guidelines, as you mentioned also, that the dough should stick to the bottom but not the sides. At 2 1/2 cups the dough was a nice ball on my dough hook still stuck to the bottom….it kneaded very easily and doubled in size in the bowl and almost as loaves (they kinda spread out a little). It was a beautiful dough!!! I’m not giving up…but I am out of flour! LOL
Definitely sounds like a yeast issue to me on the first batch and maybe an over-rising issue on the second… is your yeast old?! An old yeast might not be able to handle the second rise and baking, resulting in flat bread when you are done. Hmmm. I’m so curious! I’ll pop over and we’ll make them together next time! Deal?!
DEAL! Im going to try this again for dinner tonight. This time I bought yeast in a jar and have been using it successfully for pizza crust. If it doesn’t work this time then It’s definitely user error!!
What speed and brand of mixer are you using to mix your dough with? If you are mixing the dough for 8 minutes at high speed, it could be that you are beating the dough too much. Perhaps, try mixing your dough at a lower speed. I used a Bosh Universal Mixer and followed the directions to a tee and the bread came out perfect; I mixed my dough on the lowest speed; had I mixed it on a higher speed with my mixer the bread would have performed exactly as you have described. Also, with my mixer depending on the room temperature, ingredients, and all other factors i; when the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl; I’m through mixing! Once the dough starts to pull away from the bowl, regardless of rather you are making your dough by hand or using a mixer that is your first sign that your dough is ready to be formed, and let rise…
Change your yeast
Could I make the dough in my bread machine then hand roll and bake it ?
For sure! Let me know how it turns out!
If you don’t have a stand mixer, does doing it by hand work?
Yes! Just make sure you spend the time kneading it because it will take longer to develop the gluten by hand – knead maybe 6-8 minutes by hand and it should do well!
Thanks so much! Can’t wait to try!