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This Subway Bread Recipe is easy to make and tastes even better than the popular restaurant! Soft and chewy, it’s the perfect start to your favorite sandwich.
Featured with this recipe
A perfect sandwich begins and ends with the bread! This Subway Bread recipe uses real, actual, bread-making ingredients and tastes even better than what you can get at the restaurant. It’s soft, slightly chewy, with fresh, homemade flavor. You’re probably thinking, why go through all the trouble of making Subway’s sandwich bread at home when you can’t beat a $5 foot long or a cheap 6-inch sandwich? I’m with you there! But hear me out. This recipe is so fun to make at home. It’s ideal for parties, baby showers, picnics, whenever you want to serve delicious homemade sandwiches and wow your guests. My kids love to help shape the dough, watch it bake, then play “Subway” as they assemble all the sandwiches. Try this recipe and see how much fun it can be to create your favorite sub in your own kitchen!
Ingredients in Subway Bread
Making homemade bread isn’t as daunting as it may seem. Just a few pantry staples and you’re well on your way to delicious, fresh bread from your own kitchen. Here’s what you need for this recipe:
- Yeast – use active dry yeast, NOT quick rising yeast.
- Warm water – warm to the touch but not too hot. You don’t want to kill your yeast with hot water.
- Sugar – a couple tablespoons of white sugar helps to activate and “feed” the yeast, making light bread. You don’t need too much sugar – just enough to get that yeast nice and fluffy.
- Flour – regular all purpose flour for white bread.
- Vital Wheat Gluten – you can find this in a “Bob’s Red Mill” brand package at most grocery stores. See notes below for more on this “secret” ingredient.
- Cold butter
- Salt
Secret Ingredient for Subway Bread
What kind of food blogger would I be if I wasn’t honest with my readers. So here it goes: it took a few tries (four to be exact) until I got this Subway Bread just right. There is a little secret ingredient you need for it to be just right and that is Vital Wheat Gluten. I know that sounds intimidating, but it isn’t. It’s what you need to make the bread chewy and soft like real Subway bread and you can find it at your regular grocery store! I got mine at Winco in their bulk bins for about two dollars a pound. If you don’t have a Winco nearby, you can get it in a “Bob’s Red Mill” brand package at most grocery stores but it is a bit pricey. But this is the ticket to soft and chewy Subway bread.
Substitutions and Additions
- Use whole wheat flour to create whole wheat bread
- Add sesame seeds and a drizzle of olive oil to the top of your bread before baking
- For Italian bread or Italian herb bread, sprinkle Italian seasoning or some oregano to the top of your loaf.
- Make cheese bread by sprinkling shredded parmesan cheese to the top of the loaves before baking.
Frequently Asked Questions about Subway Bread
If you REALLY want to make it like Subway, you can use special “sub” bread mold pans. They will help the bread rise in the right direction and you will get that nice “Subway-ish” shape. If you don’t have special pans, you can just shape them as best you can with your hands. The more cylinder-shaped you can get them, the better.
The bread made at the restaurant has a high sugar content and artificial flavors that aren’t too healthy, so making it at home with wholesome ingredients is definitely a healthier option.
If you can’t find the Vital Wheat Gluten locally, you can get it on Amazon, here.
More Bread Recipes
As long as you have a few bread recipes in your back pocket, you will always have something nourishing and comforting to feed your family. Try a few of our favorites:
How to Make Subway Bread at Home
How to Make Subway Bread at Home
Video
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons active dry yeast
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 3 1/2 cups flour
- 2 tablespoons Vital Wheat Gluten see above notes
- 1 cup warm water
- 3 tablespoons butter cold
- 1/2 tablespoon salt
Instructions
- In a stand mixer mixing bowl, combine yeast, ½ cup warm water, and sugar. Stir until well combined and let stand for about 10 minutes until nice and foamy.
- In a separate mixing bowl, combine flour and vital wheat gluten. Set Aside. Add 1 c. warm water to the yeast mixture (in the stand mixer bowl) and add the flour/wheat gluten mixture until combined.
- Attach the bowl to the stand mixer and with the bread hook attachment, mix dough for about 3-4 minutes, adding a little flour if necessary- keeping it a little sticky.
- You want the dough to be sticky enough that it sticks to the bottom of the bowl a little bit, but not the sides.
- After 3-4 minutes, cut up 3 Tbsp. of cold butter into little cubes and add to the mixing bowl and add 1 Tbsp. salt. Mix an additional 5-6 minutes until butter is mixed in to the dough, pull the bread down off the hook if needed throughout the mixing process. Again, you want the dough to be slightly sticky and stretchy.
- Place dough in a large greased bowl and roll around a little to get it greased all around. Cover and allow to rise in a warm place for about an hour.
- Punch dough down and divide into 3 equal pieces (flour your hands if the dough is too sticky for easier handling). Roll out each piece into a 12" long loaf.. The dough should be the same thickness all the way across. Place on a non-stick baking sheet (I used a molded silicon baking mat) or a bread form pan. Cover and allow to rise 40-60 minutes, until dough doubles in size.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake in oven for 15-25 minutes (check at 15 minutes) until bread is golden brown. Remove from oven and lightly run a little cold butter over the top(this will soften it up nicely).
- Allow loaves to cool completely, then serve with all your favorite sub sandwich toppings!
Notes
- Use whole wheat flour to create whole wheat bread
- Add sesame seeds and a drizzle of olive oil to the top of your bread before baking
- For Italian bread or Italian herb bread, sprinkle Italian seasoning or some oregano to the top of your loaf.
- Make cheese bread by sprinkling shredded parmesan cheese to the top of the loaves before baking.
- Our original recipe called for 3 cups of flour and 1 tablespoon salt. After reviewing comments and retesting the recipe, we’ve adjusted it to 3 ½ cups flour and ½ tablespoon salt.
- Please use a bread mold to get the perfect shape each time.
Can you please clarify for me the water measurements. The ingredients list asks for 1 cup water.
The instruction calls for 1 and half cups of water (step 1 and step 2) . Can you please help me with these two steps please. Thank you so much
There are two ingredient lines for water adding up to a cup and a half total. Hope this helps!
I’m questioning two tablespoons of active dry yeast for a 3 1/2 cup batch. Is that correct??
Yes that is correct!
I just made this…delicious. I do have a question, since it’s just myself and husband, I don’t need 3 loaves, can I freeze some of the dough?
I wouldn’t freeze the dough, I would bake it all and then freeze the baked bread! I have had better success with that.
Some days, I wish I’d never found this recipe! I say that because now my spoiled kids will not eat store bought bread any longer. Seriously!
Fortunately, it’s relatively easy to make. I already had the vital wheat gluten in my cabinet from other baking endeavors. It does make the difference. And do NOT skip the butter on top at the end – that makes or breaks the texture.
This is a recipe from which I never deviate at all- no need to mess with perfection!
We have a friend that owns a few subway franchises, and I keep wanting to take her some of the bread and someday, when I make them pretty enough, perhaps I will 🙂
Former Sandwich Artist from the late 90’s. This is damn close to what I remember. Making a meatball sub asap.
How can I store the baked breads?
Store it in an airtight container or plastic wrap at room temperature. Thank you for asking!
Very good flavor and texture! The outside was light brown and slightly crispy, while the inside was moist and airy. I made the loaves on a sheet pan and they didn’t hold their shape, but were still delicious. Like others commented, I also had to add more flour. I am going to get a sub pan and will definitely make this again!
Great texture but too salty! I’d try 1 1/2 teaspoons next time.
So good ! Only change is I put 1/2 tbsp of salt instead of 1 and I knead it by hand. It was perfect and very delicious !
So glad you liked it! Thank you for your comment and suggestions.
This was so good, just like my favorite bread at Subway and perfect for making at home when I can’t go out!
This was such an easy recipe. I expected it to be so much more difficult! My husband is a fan so we will definitely be making more! Yum!
When listing ingredients water is list as a total of 1 3/4 cups. In the directions it says a total of
1 1/2 cups.Which is it?
Thanks for catching that! Its 1 1/2 cups.
wheat gluten…any substitute for this, not found here..
We haven’t tested out any other substitutes for this recipe yet, sorry!
This recipe is so bad, I rate it ZERO stars! Tried making this twice thinking I must have made a terrible mistake the first time for it to turn out flatter than pancakes. But when the second attempt turned out just as bad, I decided it’s the recipe! Don’t waste your flour!
I am so sorry this didn’t turn out well for you! We will try to re-visit this recipe and see what could have gone wrong. :/
One thing is your water amounts are different in the ingredient list compared to the directions.
Maybe his yeast was bad/expired or even flour, many dont even know flour expires
Horrible! Been making bread for years..Not enough flour and way too much salt! Had to throw it all out!
Hi Penni- so sorry to hear that it didn’t turn out well for you. We haven’t had any complaints about it being too salty before, I will have to investigate this further and adjust the recipe if necessary
Might want to list the kind of salt you use. some salts are finer than others and that might be why some of saying its to salty.
Does Subway make their own pretzels? If so, can you please share the recipe.
Hmm that is a good question. I have never had their pretzels and don’t know if they make their own. :/ Sorry! Not much help here!