Easy Soft Sandwich Bread in a Loaf Pan (For Beginners)

Name: Easy Soft Sandwich Bread in a Loaf Pan (For Beginners)
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 165 min
Ingredients: 400 grams all-purpose flour; 8 grams salt; 7 grams instant yeast ((see notes for active dry yeast)); 236 grams warm water ((90°F)); 20 grams olive oil; 8 grams honey

4.89 from 78 votes

Published by Rebecca Eisenberg ⁠— February 27, 2024 (updated June 4, 2026) — 196 Comments

Jump to Recipe Jump to Video

This post may contain affiliate links

Making a homemade loaf of soft white sandwich bread is so easy, and this foolproof recipe makes a single loaf of bread using just six easy-to-find ingredients. It's a simple dairy-free and egg-free dough that comes together quickly whether you knead it in your mixer or knead it by hand. I've included instructions for both kneading options in my step-by-step instructions below!

This classic white sandwich bread is a taste of nostalgia, like childhood lunches and cozy mornings. The finished loaf is wonderfully soft inside with a thin, light golden brown crust, perfect for slicing for toast and sandwiches.

Try serving this soft white sandwich bread with crisp lettuce and my deli tuna salad or creamy yellow smashed egg salad.

A sliced loaf of soft sandwich bread sits on a light-colored surface with a checkered cloth, and a white potted plant with green leaves and white flowers is in the blurred background. — I can't believe it's not store-bought sandwich bread!

5 STAR READER REVIEW

“I've tried a few different beginner sandwich bread recipes and somehow can never get them to come out but I've made this one three times now and it's come out so delicious each time! I also love how simple it is”
—Nicole

Add your review →

This is My Best Easy Soft Sandwich Bread

I am so, so excited to be sharing my recipe for a classic soft homemade sandwich bread with you. I've got lots of homemade bread recipes on my site, but most of them are higher-hydration doughs that use longer, slower rise times to come together.

With this bread recipe, I wanted to give you the kind of bread-making experience most people think of when picturing making bread from scratch. Simple ingredients, kneading the dough, dusting it with flour, shaping it by hand, and baking it in a loaf pan. And it's a great beginner-friendly bread recipe too!

This dough can be kneaded in a mixer or by hand. It's easy to handle, not too sticky, and fun to work with. It's also a versatile base dough; I've used it to make everything from foolproof cinnamon swirl bread to cheesy pizza pinwheels!

A loaf of soft sandwich bread with two slices cut sits on a checked cloth. A knife rests nearby, surrounded by plants, a mesh cloth, and kitchen items on a light-colored surface. — This sandwich bread slices beautifully.

Where other white sandwich bread recipes use milk or eggs to create that soft texture, I use olive oil instead. Not only is olive oil a shelf-stable ingredient that's easier to keep on hand, but it also means my sandwich bread recipe is dairy-free and egg-free, if that matters to you.

A bowl of flour, small containers of olive oil, honey, and salt, a small bowl of yeast, and a pitcher of water are arranged on a white surface—each labeled as the perfect base for soft sandwich bread. — Just 6 simple ingredients are all you need.

Honey - I use honey to add a bit of sweetness to this sandwich bread and help with browning. If you don't have honey or would rather use sugar, you can use the same amount of sugar without making any adjustments.

Water - Warm water is crucial for helping this sandwich bread dough rise on time and give it its soft texture and just slightly open crumb. Aim for a temperature of around 90°-95°F. It should be decidedly warm but not hot, since truly hot water will kill the yeast.

A simple bread dough process

A metal mixing bowl containing flour with a well in the center filled with liquid ingredients, ready to be mixed for soft sandwich bread, viewed from above on a white surface.

Add the liquid ingredients to the middle of the dry ingredients.

A metal mixing bowl containing a ball of soft sandwich bread dough and a dough hook attachment, viewed from above on a light textured surface.

Mix on low speed until the dough just comes together.

A metal mixing bowl with a dough hook attachment is kneading a ball of soft sandwich bread dough. The bowl sits on a white, textured surface. — Kneaded

Knead on medium-low speed until the dough is smooth and elastic.

A smooth ball of soft sandwich bread dough sits in the center of a stainless steel mixing bowl on a light textured surface.

Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a lightly oiled bowl to rise.

Cover the bowl (I use these plastic hair processing caps as bowl covers) and leave it to rise somewhere warm until it doubles in size...about an hour.

A metal bowl filled with risen dough for soft sandwich bread sits on a white, textured surface. The dough is smooth and slightly domed, indicating it has been proofed and is ready for the next baking step.

When the dough has doubled in size, gently deflate it and turn it out onto a clean, lightly floured work surface.

A hand presses down into the center of a round piece of raw dough with the top folded to a point and two sides folded in on textured white surface.

Fold the top two corners into make a point, then fold the edges in slightly to even them out.

Roll the point at the top toward your body, and continue rolling in that direction, tucking the sides in as needed to form a nice neat log of dough.

A hand folds the top point of the dough down to begin rolling a log for soft sandwich bread on a lightly floured white surface. — Roll the point forward.

A hand presses down on a rolled log of dough for soft sandwich bread on a lightly floured white surface. — A log of dough with the edges tucked in.

When the dough is ready, it will be crowning just slightly over the top edge of the pan. When you press a lightly floured fingertip into it, the indentation should fill back in slowly and remain visible.

the shaped dough in a metal loaf pan. it doesn't fill out the whole pan. — Before rising.

after rising the dough fills out the whole pan. there is a long score mark down the middle with a bread lame nearby. — After rising and scoring.

a baked loaf of sandwich bread in a loaf pan. a bread lame sits next to it.

When the bread is done, carefully turn it out of the pan and onto a cooling rack. This allows air to circulate around the loaf so that the crust doesn't get soggy.

I know it's super tempting to cut a slice of freshly baked sandwich bread while it's still warm, but resist that urge! If you slice the bread before it's cooled and the starches haven't set yet, the steam still inside the bread will turn the starches to mush. No one wants mushy bread!

Yes, You Can Knead This Dough By Hand

Use a dough whisk or a spatula (heck, even your hands) to mix the dough ingredients in a bowl until a sticky, messy dough forms.

Then turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface or countertop and knead by hand, folding the dough over itself and rocking it forward, then rotating and repeating that motion, until the dough is smooth, elastic, and slightly tacky to the touch. Kneading by hand can take 8-10 minutes, be patient! Set a timer!

Dust in additional flour lightly only as needed to keep it from sticking to you and the counter. A little clinging is fine, but it should pull away cleanly from you and the work surface at the end.

I use a 9x5" Loaf Pan

This recipe is scaled to bake in a 9x5" loaf pan, which is a 1.25 lb loaf pan. If you have a smaller loaf pan, I recommend scaling the recipe down by about 20%.

USA Pan Bakeware Aluminized Steel Loaf Pan, 1.25 Pound

Dimensions: 9 x 5 x 2.75. Durable construction with corrugated surface for optimal airflow. Non-stick finish is PTFE, PFOA and BPA free.

Amazon

Crate & Barrel

Sur La Table

As always, I recommend using a metal pan rather than glass, ceramic, silicone, or stoneware. If you're using a glass pan, you may need to adjust the baking time and temperature!

close up of a slice of soft sandwich bread.

If your sandwich bread deflated during baking...

There are a few things that could have caused this but the two most likely culprits are:

The dough overproofed during the second rise. Dough overproofs when the yeast has eaten all of the available sugars in the dough and doesn't have enough energy left to support the dough during baking. Your dough was ready to bake before the final hour rise was done — check it using the fingerprint test (see above).
Your oven temperature is off! If your oven temperature runs cool, the bread won't rise as much as it should during baking and will be dense and sunken. Get an oven thermometer!

💭 Have More Baking Questions?

I've rounded up answers to common baking questions and how-to guides, including:

Ingredient swaps and FAQs
Why my recipes are written in grams and not cups
How to quickly bring eggs and butter to room temperature
Ingredients I use (salt, flour, yeast, etc.)
Step-by-step guides for bread and baking techniques

See my baking techniques & troubleshooting guide and ingredient swaps and FAQs for more!

Want this recipe, only smaller?

A cookbook titled Small-Batch Breads by Rebecca Eisenberg, featuring various loaves, buns, flatbreads, and rolls on the cover. The book promises 50 recipes made with one cup of flour.

Find it in my Small-Batch Breads cookbook, available for pre-order now!

Featuring fifty easy-to-follow bread recipes made using 1 cup of flour.

Pre-order Now!

TL;DR — Recipe Summary

Mix the dough ingredients together until a sticky, cohesive dough forms.
Knead the dough until it is smooth, elastic, and slightly tacky.
Shape the dough into a ball, place in a lightly greased bowl, cover and rest until doubled in size.
Deflate the dough, shape into a log, then place in a lightly greased loaf pan. Cover and let rest until doubled in size.
Score the top of the loaf and bake for 30 minutes at 350°F.
Turn the loaf onto a cooling rack to cool completely before slicing.

📖 Recipe