Buttermilk American Sandwich Bread – Homemade American Sandwich bread made with real fresh ingredients like buttermilk, honey and flour. This made from scratch dough makes a perfect slice for sandwiches and toast.
This is by far my favorite sandwich bread right now. Even though it rises and bakes up within 2 hours there is no sacrifice to taste or quality. It’s an excellent choice for your standard loaf.
I love the role that buttermilk plays in this recipe. It gives it this great flavor and aroma.
As I mentioned it is my favorite right now so I won’t be trying anything new for a little while as far as sandwich bread goes. It slices up so nicely compared to others I’ve tried that resulted in lots of crumbs or tearing.
This sandwich bread works excellent for peanut butter and jelly, grilled cheese, lunch meat and any other sandwich you can dream up. Who doesn’t love an all around awesome sandwich bread, right?
Do you know why I enjoy baking homemade bread? It totally beats all those preservatives in the bread. You’ve looked at the ingredients before. Totally alarming. I know. It’s hard to stay away from processed foods. I understand. And we do enjoy some here in our house. But if I can avoid buying sandwich bread over and over by all means that’s what I try to do.
It’s impossible to always steer clear for sake of time. But I try to bake 2 loaves at a time so that helps. So I use one and freeze the other. Also my kids don’t eat as many sandwiches as they used to so 2 loaves will usually last 2 weeks here. And my husband very rarely eats sandwiches.
Well, that’s fine with me because I could easily eat grilled cheese every other day. Yum!
Hope you get a chance to try this all around easy sandwich bread. You’ll be glad you did!
Til we meet and eat again friends,
Melanie
xo
Buttermilk American Sandwich Bread
Ingredients
- 1 cup buttermilk 110 degrees
- 1/3 cup warm water 110 degrees
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- 3 1/2 cups bread flour
- 2 1/4 teaspoons instant or rapid rise yeast
- 2 teaspoons salt
Instructions
- Heat oven to 200 degrees. Once temperature reaches 200, maintain heat for 10 minutes then turn oven off.
- In a 4 cup liquid measuring cup whisk together buttermilk, water, honey and melted butter. Using a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook combine flour, yeast, and salt on low speed. Slowly add milk mixture and let the dough come together about 2 minutes. Increase speed to medium and knead until dough is smooth, about 10 minutes. Scrape the bowl down as needed. Transfer dough to the lightly floured counter and knead by hand to form smooth, round ball.
- Place dough in large lightly greased bowl and cover with greased plastic wrap. Let rise in warm oven for 40 to 50 minutes until doubled in size.
- Grease 9 x 5 loaf pan. Transfer dough to lightly floured surface and press into a rectangle and 1 inch thick and no longer than 9 inches, long side facing you. Roll dough towards you into a firm cylinder, keep the roll tight by tucking it under itself as you go. Turn loaf seam side down in the pan, pressing gently into corners. Cover loaf loosely with plastic and let rise at room temperature for 30 minutes. The dough should barely spring back when poked gently.
- Keep one oven rack in the lowest position and place the other in the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Place an empty baking pan on the bottom rack. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a small saucepan. Pour boiling water into the empty pan on the bottom rack and set the loaf on the middle rack. Bake until crust is golden brown or a thermometer reads 195 degrees, 40 to 50 minutes.
- Transfer pan to wire rack and let cool 5 minutes. Remove bread from the pan, transfer to wire rack, and let cool to room temperature, about 2 hours.
- Slice and serve. (Bread can be wrapped in double layered plastic wrap and store at room temperature for 3 days. Wrap with an additional layer of foil and freeze up to a month.)
Recipe from: The Cook’s Illustrated Baking Book
Linked to: Time to Sparkle, Create Link Inspire, Lamberts Lately, Buns in My Oven, Marvelous Mondays,
Melanie, can I use my bread machine for this recipe?
Although I haven’t tried it myself….I’m sure you could Kathy. If you give it a try come back and let us know. Thanks!
Did it in the bread machine today. I stopped it about 15 minutes before the cycle was done, and I think it benefits from an extra T of water. The initial knead seemed just a bit pastier than my standard bread machine recipes. Very soft and chewy!
Thanks for the feedback! Have a wonderful day!
There is nothing like homemade bread! I love the Cooks Illustrated Baking Cookbook, but haven’t had a chance to try this recipe. Definitely need to try it soon and make some sandwiches for lunch with it!
It’s definitely a great cookbook. So glad I requested it for Christmas. 🙂
You have fully inspired me to try baking a loaf of bread! You recipe sounds so approachable. And there really isn’t anything better than freshly baked bread. Love that yeasty smell wafting from the oven as it cooks.
Awesome! So glad to inspire you to bake! wish I could come over and help you with the first one. 🙂
That bread looks so soft! I want to come eat a sandwich at your house 🙂
Come on over. Girl’s lunch. I’m game!
That loaf looks so amazingly fresh, Melanie. I have got to get into some bread-making pronto! You’ve most definitely inspired me!
You definitely do. That’s the second girl I’ve inspired. Woo-hoo! 🙂
Pinning this to try later!!! Homemade bread has been on my list for a while, and I love that it comes to together so quickly.
Awesome! Thanks for pinning. Hope you get a chance to try it!
Homemade bread it the best! I love the way my house smells when it is baking. I need to get baking!
It is. I totally agree!
Your bread looks absolutely amazing!!! It looks so soft and fluffy on the inside! I LOVE baking different breads, it’s one of my favorite things to bake! This looks fantastic!!!
Me too Maria! There’s something so satisfying about baking a loaf of bread all by yourself. Thanks for stopping by!
I am new to bread making, but this looks awesome, and I think it will be first attempt. Who doesn’t want sandwich bread?
Definitely give it a try Rach. This is such an easy one to start with! Thanks for dropping by!
This looks incredible, Melanie. I’ve been making my own bread for years now and have always used my bread machine. I’ve been on the hunt for a recipe that would allow me to bake it in the oven and yours looks absolutely perfect. Can’t wait to try it sometime!!
Hope it works out well for you Kathi! This one is super easy in my humble opinion!
you need to make a cookbook on bread, it is seriously your calling!! this looks absolutely wonderful 🙂
You’re so kind Christine! Maybe some day. 🙂
This bread looks seriously perfect Melanie! Pinning!
Thanks for pinning Trish! Glad you stopped by. 🙂
This looks delicious, Melanie! I love making bread at home. You’re spot on about the creepy chemicals that are usually found on the labels of storebought sliced bread. Besides, I just plain love saving money by making my own bread. Would love to try this this weekend. When you bake two loaves do you just double everything?
Yes I do. Hope it works out well for you! I just made a double batch last week.
This looks delicious! I love trying new bread recipes. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you Kelley! So glad you stopped by. 🙂
I’m confused by step 4. Could you explain that part some more? As I understand you put a baking stone with a pan of water on the lowest rack then put the loaf pan with dough on another rack? Thanks.
I’m updated the directions Kendra. I hope this helps any confusion. Good luck baking!
Thanks! I got it now! About to put it in the oven. It already smells great in the kitchen.
I hope it tastes great!
im putting this together right now. I measured the flour, then weighed it and it says 16.5 oz. I wanted to double-check to make sure 19.25 is correct. Thanks.
I’m sorry that I couldn’t answer your email sooner. Did you finish making the recipe? I can’t believe I had that as incorrect. It should be 3 1/2 cups. Hope it worked out for you!
Hi Melanie,
The bread turned out great! I’ve made it several more times since. I noticed the original recipe calls for AP flour, so I switched to that, and I really cannot tell any difference. I love how moist the inside is and STAYS that way for several days. It doesn’t seem like “day old bread” after a day or two like my regular white bread. Super easy to slice too, and never gets crumbly. I have to say that I’ve been using the same oven for 15 years and it doesn’t run hot – but if I baked it for 50 minutes it would be ruined. It’s done in 30 minutes, and the crust is dark brown, possibly even darker than the photos up there. I am so glad I tried this recipe. It’s definitely a keeper.
Thanks for the feedback Marianne! I really appreciate hearing from my readers and how they made out with the recipes. Good to note. Original recipe stated 40-50 minutes so I keep with that knowing that ovens vary.
So glad you enjoyed the bread. It’s definitely delish!
I made this yesterday and it is a big hit! absolutely delicious. I am going to try using this recipe to make rolls today. It should work. Lol
I appreciate the feedback Barbara! It’s always nice for other readers to see that a recipe was successful so that they’re willing to try it as well.
Thanks for taking the time to let me know. Hope the rolls turn out well too. Have a beautiful day!
This is comfort food at its finest! This bread is so so good. I’ll be making it again this week to share with a friend who just had a baby. But of course I can’t just make one for her- we need some too ????. Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
That’s great Whitney! So glad you enjoyed this Sandwich Bread. Thanks for the positive wonderful feedback. 🙂
Aloha Melanie! This recipe sounds amazing and I love the wonderful reviews!
I just purchased the kitchenaid pro 6500 6 dt glass bowl mixer and this recipe will be my first in using it.
I live in Hawaii and bread is nearly $7 per loaf so I am very excited to make my own. Aloha
I have MS and arthritis in my hands so I cannot knead the dough. So I use my dough cycle on my bread machine. It works great. Will be making this again and again.
That is great to know. I’m so glad you still get to enjoy making bread despite your hardships. Enjoy the bread again and again. Have a wonderful day!
Hi! This looks great! I have been making sour dough for a while now and just tried making potato bread this week. Does this recipe need bread flour or can you use AP flour instead? Thanks!
Yes, all purpose flour is generally an acceptable substitute for bread flour. I haven’t tried it personally for this recipe but it should work. Let us know how it goes, Debbie!