This easy, homemade sandwich bread recipe is perfect for beginners! If you’ve never worked with yeast before but are wanting to try your hand at baking homemade bread, give this recipe a try! I went into full detail below on exactly how to bake perfect loaves. But don’t hesitate to reach out with questions!
Note: this recipe makes 2 loaves of homemade sandwich bread! Keep scrolling below if you’d like to read my tips and tricks for the recipe!
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Homemade Sandwich Bread
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cup very warm water
- 2 1/4 tsp (1 packet) active dry yeast
- 1/4 cup (+ 1 heavy pinch) sugar
- 1 tbsp salt
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 5-6 cups all purpose or bread flour
- 1-2 tbsp melted butter for brushing after baking (optional)
Directions
- Add warm water, yeast, and pinch of sugar to your large mixing bowl and give a little stir. Wait 5-10 minutes for the yeast to activate. It will bubble/foam it when it’s ready.
- Add sugar, salt, oil, and 4.5 cups of flour and mix until well combined. You can use a stand-mixer or stir it by hand…I’ve done both!
- Knead for about 2-5 minutes in your mixer or turn out onto a clean, lightly floured counter space and knead by hand for about 10 minutes. Add more flour as needed, 1/4 cup at a time so you don’t add too much. The dough should be a little sticky but not so sticky that it sticks to your hand. Stop kneading when your dough is smooth, only slightly sticky, and bounces back quickly.
- Roll your dough into a ball and place in an oiled bowl. Cover tightly with plastic wrap or a dishtowel. Let it rise until it’s doubled in size, about 1 hour.
- After rising, punch the dough down and let it sit for a few minutes. Then turn it out onto the counter and separate into 2 equal pieces.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll each half of the dough out into a long rectangle, about 8 inches wide. Then roll the dough tightly, starting at the short edge. Repeat with remaining half.
- Fold the edges under and place each loaf seam-side down into a greased bread pan. Cover them with plastic wrap and let them rise for about another hour or until the dough has risen about 1 inch over the top of the pan.
- Preheat the oven to 350 when the dough is almost done rising. When it’s risen, remove the plastic wrap and place in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes. The loaves are done when they are a light golden brown. You can give the top a little tap, they should sound hollow when they’re done.
- Brush with some melted butter if you’d like, then remove the bread from the pan. Try to let them cool before slicing.
I was so nervous to make homemade sandwich bread but this recipe has been a success from my first try! It’s pretty full proof if you follow the instructions. But don’t get discouraged if it takes a few tries! Kneading and proofing can take some practice. Once you get it down, there’s a good chance you’ll never go back to store bought!
All About the Ingredients:
Yeast: I use active dry yeast! They have individual packets but I get the jar and keep it in the fridge so it’ll stay fresh. You want to make sure your yeast is alive and well, so make sure it bubbles up before you add the rest of your ingredients. If the yeast is old or if your water is too cold/too hot, it will not activate and your bread will not rise. Yeast needs pretty warm water and a pinch of sugar to come alive!
Flour: You can use bread flour or all purpose flour! Bread flour has higher protein content than all-purpose so it makes the bread a little chewier. But honestly, most of the time I use all-purpose because it’s cheaper and I can buy it in bulk at Sam’s. All-purpose still gives you a great tasting loaf!
Start with adding 4 cups of flour then add a little at time so you don’t add too much. The dough should be slightly sticky to the touch, but not so much that it sticks onto your hand.
Tips on Kneading:
Kneading can take a little practice to know when the dough has had just enough work. And know it’s very hard to OVER knead when you’re doing it by hand.
You can knead in your stand mixer but I prefer to knead by hand. It’s very easy to over-knead in a mixer and I’ve never done it successfully. It only takes a few more minutes to knead by hand and it’s much easier to tell when the dough is done. PLUS, there’s just something so very satisfying to knead your own dough by hand 🙂 But if you choose to knead in your mixer, it will only take a couple of minutes. So stop and check your dough often.
I add 4 cups of flour to my mixer when I’m mixing the ingredients, then I add the rest of my flour while I’m kneading so I can tell when it has enough flour and when it’s done kneading.
When your dough is done, it’ll be smooth, just slightly sticky to the touch, and it’ll bounce back quickly when you push it out. When it’s done, it’ll start to get a little more difficult to push out and knead!
Fold it into a little ball and place in your oiled bowl. I just use the same mixer bowl. No need to wash it, just oil it and it’ll be just fine when you pull the dough out after the first rise! No need to have extra dishes to wash 😉
Tips on Proofing your Homemade Sandwich Bread:
Over-proofing and under-proofing can both result in your bread becoming dense.
You want to watch your dough, not the clock, to tell when it’s done rising.Air temperature will greatly affect how long it takes your dough to rise. Warmer air will make it rise faster and cooler air will make it take a little longer.
I turn my under-cabinet lighting on and leave my dough under it on the counter. I’ve also put it right outside my kitchen window on a mildly warm day. After about an hour, I give my dough a little touch: if it quickly bounces all the way back, it needs more proof time! If it doesn’t bounce back at all, it’s over-proofed. And if it bounces back halfway, it’s just right!
Once it’s proofed, I punch down the dough to release air bubbles and let it sit while I grease my two bread pans and lightly flour my counter space. Turn the dough out of the bowl and divide it in two. Roll it out into a long rectangle then roll it up tightly and fold the edges under and place in your pan. Then repeat with the other half!
Notes on the second rise:
My second rise tends to take a little longer, about 1.5-2 hours. I let it rise till it’s about 1 inch over the top of the pan.
Keep an eye on it and preheat your oven to 350 when the dough is almost done rising.
Bake for 30-35 minutes. I know it’s done when it’s light golden brown and has a hollow sound when you tap the top!
I brush my loaves with some melted butter as soon as they come out of the oven. It softens the crust a little and it tastes amazing. Then I take them out of the pan and let them cool on a little cooling rack.
Tips on Slicing and Storage:
It’s best to wait until your loaves are cooled to slice. It keeps the steam from being released and your bread from drying out. But it’s SO hard to wait lol so I am guilty of slicing while it’s still nice and warm.
It’s also best to use a long, serrated bread knife. My favorite knife to use to slice my bread comes in this knife set on Amazon (https://amzn.to/3nHq2N7). The whole set is amazing for everything but I especially love it for my bread because I can get the thinnest, cleanest slices. The tip to slicing is to use very little pressure. Use a short back-and-forth sawing motion and essentially just the weight of your hand to slice down.
I used to slice my loaves before storing them, but recently I’ve found it’s even easier to slice after it’s been in the fridge, so now I just slice as I need it.
How to store:
A loaf of homemade sandwich bread will stay fresh at room temperature for a few days…just store it in a bread bag or an airtight container. It will stay fresh for about a week in the fridge. These bread bags are great (https://amzn.to/3Ue51Wr). You can also double wrap and store them in the freezer.
I store one loaf in the fridge to eat on during the week. The other loaf I double wrap in plastic wrap and aluminum foil and store in the freezer until we need it. It thaws relatively quickly in the fridge!
I was so intimated to bake my own homemade bread when I started last summer. But now I use this easy, homemade sandwich bread recipe every single week and we don’t even buy store-bought anymore. There’s just nothing like home baked bread 🙂
Baking homemade bread is so much easier than I thought, especially once you get the hang of it! So give it a shot! Save this recipe to your Pinterest, give it a try and let me know what you think!
