Subway Bread Recipe (Italian Herb and Cheese Copycat) (Italian Herb and Cheese)

Once you have a Subway Bread Recipe that actually tastes like the Subway bread–you’ll make unlimited homemade subs with all your favorite toppings for a fraction of the cost! This Italian Herb and cheese topping can easily beomitted to make classic Italian Bread like Subways!

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Subway bread isn’t the only choice to choose from when it comes to menu items! I’ve recreated my favorite sauce–Subway Southwest Chipotle Sauce for all the fans that love a good sandwich! And if your are not counting calories you need to try these Subway Peanut Butter Cookies to complete your meal!

Subway Bread

Is Subway Bread really Bread? Yes! I used to work at Subway back in my teen years and we really had to proof and bake the dough! The dough came frozen and with the help of equipment, the frozen dough would transform into fluffy bread within a short time! Fast forward to today–I would’ve never thought after so many years I would recreate one of my all-time favorite bread! But it happened, I used the best of my bread baking skills and some ideas of how a real Subway roll should look to recreate this genius copycat!

The Subway bread types have narrowed down over the years but I must say if you have a good Italian bread recipe (the foundation) you can build any bread from there! For example, omit the Italian Herb and Cheese topping to make the plain White bread. If you want to make wheat bread use whole wheat flour and roll in oats for the 9-grain honey oat bread. It’s pretty simple to customize the toppings to just about any flavor of bread if you have the base down.

However, even though Subway bread options are many, my favorite Subway Sandwich Bread is the Italian Herb And Cheese Bread! It’s just so aromatic and makes any sandwich taste 10x better! Just like my desire to recreate the Subway Southwest Chipotle Sauce, I was eager to recreate a grinder roll recipe like Subway’s! The addition of eggs and instant mashed potato flakes makes any bread recipe fluffier! Especially considering that these subs are homemade it is best to use a dough enhancer from ingredients that are easily available like eggs or mashed potato flakes. I’m a believer in simple ingredients but if you can grab some instant potato flakes please use them! (The bread will still turn out just won’t be as fluffy.)

Italian Herbs And Cheese Bread

Of course, Subway’s recipe is top secret since not even the employees would know, as the bread comes boxed and frozen. But with the help of listed ingredients right from the Subway nutrition section, I was able to get an idea of what Ingredients I needed. Furthermore, I knew I wanted to use a good amount of yeast as I did for my feather-light hamburger buns (a popular recipe) to create airy bread quickly.

The dried Italian Herbs came together after combining a few dried herbs and parmesan cheese. To my surprise it was AMAZING! I was literally whiffing my dried herbs to determine which flavors reminded me of a savory herb and cheese bread and to my surprise oregano and parmesan cheese did it! Italian seasoning blends weren’t doing it for me-it had to be seasoned right.

As a result, these sandwich rolls come together very quickly! Once you make the dough they only rise for about 10 minutes and then you shape them into 12-inch logs–spray them, dip them into the Italian herb mixture, score them, and then they rise one final time before they get sprinkled with freshly grated Monterey Jack cheese before they bake. If you add the grated cheese when the bread hasn’t risen yet it can weigh down the dough–remember these are super fluffy grinders, so it’s best to add it when they have tripled in size.

How Many Ounces of Dough Makes a 12-inch Sub?

This one was something I had to figure out on my own when my first attempt on this bread came out rather small. I started with 5-6 ounces of dough but that is more like a 6-inch in size. Upon my next batch, I looked at my dough quartered it into fours, cut off a piece, weighed it and it was 10 oz even! That looked like the right size to me and sure enough, every sub turned out perfect.

I made it even easier for the home cook because who wants to scale every bit of dough–unless you’re making a mass? I simply place my dough onto a work surface, cut it into 4 equal pieces, and each piece into 2 equal parts. Each piece should weigh about 10 ounces. You do not need to know Baker’s percentages to have successful results.Shall we bake some homemade Subway bread-like Subways?

Make Subway’s Southwest Chipotle Sauce

FAQ:

What Kind of Bread Does Subway Have?

Subway bread is one of the tastiest sub rolls for sandwiches! Baked fresh daily, these sandwich rolls come in different types of bread:

9-Grain Honey Oat
Wheat Bread
White Bread (Italian)
Italian Herb and Cheese Bread
Jalapeño Cheese
Monterey Cheddar
Parmesan Oregano
Roasted Garlic
Rosemary and Sea Salt
Rye Bread
Gluten-Free Bread* (not baked at the Restaurant)
Flat Bread

*Every Restaurant might have a certain selection to choose from not all locations carry all the flavors.

Making homemade grinder rolls is much more cost-efficient than buying a footlong at the Subway Restaurant! Each batch makes 8 footlong loaves that will feed 8-12 people easily! A footlong sub can cost as low as $7 for a plain cold cut like the black forest ham sandwich. That’s $56 for 8 footings! When you can make them at home for far less!

Frugal- so much cheaper than ordering at a Restaurant!
Easy Recipe– simple ingredients and you know what goes in!
Make-ahead for meal prep throughout the week or future meals.
Freezer friendly-Freeze the baked sandwich rolls for future sandwiches later.
Versatile- Top your sandwich with any toppings!

What Subway Bread is Healthier?

The healthiest Subway bread choices are Whole wheat rolls or a 9-grain Honey Oat due to the whole grains. You can select multi-grain flatbread if you wish but homemade bread from grains is the healthiest!

I prefer, Prairie Gold 100% Whole Wheat flour (white whole wheat) if using already ground pre-packaged wheat flour. If you wish to use freshly ground wheat flour from wheat berries, you may need to add part store flour to achieve a soft dough unless you add vital gluten or dough enhancers.

Ingredients Needed?

Bread Flour-King Arthur Special Patent Flour was the kind of bread flour that I used, it’s unbleached.
Water-to activate the yeast. Needs to be warm.
Yeast-Instant dry yeast by Red Star is the kind I use.
Sugar-to give the bread fantastic flavor.
Oil-preferably a mild kind without a strong aroma. I like to use soybean oil but canola or vegetable will work.
Salt-makes any bread taste right.
Eggs-works as a dough enhancer.
Herb Seasoning-a blend of dried herbs such as parsley and oregano leaves.
Cheese- Colby Monterey Jack Cheese is the shredded cheese to be sprinkled over the subs. Parmesan cheese is added to the herb seasoning.

How To Make Subway Bread Step-By-Step:

Subway bread is a white bread recipe that you cut and roll into logs. Once the dough is formed the bread gets sprayed with water and dredged in an Italian Herb and cheese blend before it hits the silicone bread molds. It then gets scored and rises until tripled in size then bakes.

In the bowl of a stand mixer whisk together the yeast and water. Whisk in the sugar, oil, salt, and eggs.
Add the flour and knead for 6 minutes over low speed.
Rest the dough for 10 minutes.
Transfer dough onto a floured surface and cut into 4 equal pieces. Cut each piece in half again to make a total of 8 pieces.
Gently pat and roll into a 12-inch log. Spray the tops with water and dredge into the Italian Herb Blend.
Place rolls onto a sub roll silicone baking matand, score the tops (3-4 slashes.)
Allow dough to rise until tripled in size (up to 1 hour if rising in a warm place.)
Sprinkle the tops with shredded Colby and Monterey Jack Cheese.
Bake for 15-18 minutes at 375°F. Cool in molds before removing.

Note: you need an 18×13 baking sheet to use these silicone mats. This recipe calls for 2 mats and 2 large baking sheets as it makes 8 subway rolls.

How to Freeze?

You can freeze baked and cooled bread the same day for best results. If you freeze the same day make sure you cool the bread completely to prevent any frost. I haven’t experimented on freezing the dough sticks but from my experience, anything that stays longer in the freezer seems to rise very poorly afterward so I’d bake and freeze the bread which works great!

Prepare and bake the bread as directed.
Cool completely. This helps minimize the vapor from condensation and can help with frost build-up.
Place into bags and freeze for up to 3 months or deep freeze for up to 6 months.
To reheat, thaw and defrost overnight.

Storing Bread: baked bread can keep up to 3 days. Anything longer should be frozen.

How To Make-Ahead?

If you wish to make ahead simply prepare and bake all the bread. Follow the freezing instructions to maintain all the freshness of the bread (preferably freeze the same day you bake.) Thaw completely before assembling the sandwiches.

Bread Variations:

Honey Oat-use honey instead of sugar and whole wheat flour for the bread flour. Spray with water and roll in oats.
Wheat-use whole wheat flour instead of white flour.
White Italian Bread-Omit the Italian Herb and Cheese blend.
9-Grain Wheat-use whole wheat flour as the base and add 1 tbsp of different ground grains. Omit 1/2 cup of wheat flour to compensate the grain addition.

How to Make Subway Sandwiches:

Our favorite Subway sandwiches are the Subway melts (turkey, ham, and bacon) and Black Forest Ham. Although I do love the steak and cheese or roasted chicken subs I order just about any sandwich from Subway with Southwest Chipotle Sauce! Which I’ve recreated too!

How Many Subs Does this Recipe Make?

This recipe makes 8 footlong subs. A 12-inch sub should weigh at about 10 oz to make a footlong.

Tools Needed:

Here are the tools I used:

Sub Roll Silicone Baking Mat-this recipe needs two 5-mold mats to make 8 subs.
Measuring cup
18×13 sheet pan-use 2 to accommodate the 2 silicone bread molds.
Kitchen-Aid Mixer(professional-grade)

BEST Tips for Sub Rolls:

Use a lot of yeast to get airy bread! It works quickly and wonderfully!
Spray the dough with water for the toppings to stick. Even if you’re not adding any toppings.
Bake in the silicone mats for even subs and perforated bottoms.
Score the tops using a razor before the bread rises.

Family-Favorite Sandwich Recipes:

Popeyes Chicken Sandwich (Copycat Recipe)
Reuben Sandwich Recipe (Little Georges Copycat)
Frontega Chicken Panini Sandwich Recipe (Panera Bread Copycat)
Asiago Cheese Bagel Sandwich Recipe
Manhattan Bagel Breakfast Sandwich

How to Make Subway Bread:

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