Vegan Sandwich Bread Recipe (Italian Herbs & Olive Oil)

This vegan sandwich bread recipe is delicious and contains no eggs, no milk and no butter. Your family will love this tasty “Italian-style” vegan bread. It is perfect for lunch sandwiches, breakfast toast or as a wonderful side dish (e.g. bread to dip in olive oil). Moreover, this vegan bread is made with simple ingredients such as bread flour, olive oil and Italian herbs. It is easy to make and tastes & smells great!

Vegan Sandwich Bread – See the Herbs in the Crust!

Recipe Sections

1. Ingredients
2. Instructions
3. Helpful Tips

Vegan bread is popular for people who do not want to eat animal-derived products (e.g. milk or butter) and/or who want to reduce the saturated fat in their diet. Even non-vegans will love this bread due to its flavor, aroma and lower saturated fat content (versus many breads made with regular butter & whole milk).

For this vegan sandwich bread recipe, you can use either instant yeast or bread machine yeast (which is a type of instant yeast). This recipe shows you how to easily make this vegan bread with either a bread machine dough setting or an electric stand mixer with dough hook. The bread will then be finished in an oven. FYI – You will also find a printable and “pin-able” recipe at the bottom of the page.

Sliced Vegan Sandwich Bread – Soft & Airy!

Ingredients – Vegan Sandwich Bread Recipe

• 1 1/2 Cups – Water (warm) – 345 milliliters
• 6 Tablespoons – Olive Oil – 90 milliliters
• 4 Cups – Bread Flour (not all purpose flour) – 480 grams
• 2 Tablespoons – Vegan White Granulated Sugar – 25 grams
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons – Italian Seasoning (dried herbs) – 3 grams – Optional ingredient – You can eliminate the Italian seasoning if you want to make a plain (non-herb) vegan bread
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons – Salt – 9 grams
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons – Instant Yeast – 5.4 grams

Servings – Roughly 18 slices

Equipment – Measuring cup & spoons, flexible spatula, cutting board, 9 x 5 inch bread pan, oven mitts, oven, wire cooling rack and a kneading machine to make the dough (either a bread machine or electric stand mixer with dough hook).

Ingredients Before Mixing – Yeast (in center) & Italian Herbs (on right)

Instructions for Making Dough, Shaping Dough & Baking in Oven

1. Creating dough with bread machine
2. Or creating dough with electric stand mixer & dough hook
3. Shaping dough & baking bread in oven

Instructions – Creating Dough with a Bread Machine

• Your bread machine should be unplugged.
• Remove the bread pan from the bread machine (so when you add the ingredients, they can not accidentally spill into the machine).
• Pour the water and oil into the bread pan and then add the other ingredients. Place the bread machine yeast in last and the yeast should not touch the liquid (until the bread machine is turned on and the ingredients start to be mixed together by the bread machine). Some bakers like to make a small indent on top of the flour to prevent the yeast from spilling into the liquids or mixing with the salt before the machine is turned on.
• Put the bread pan with ingredients back into unplugged bread machine.
• Plug in bread machine. Enter the “Dough” setting on your bread machine and then press the “Start” button.
• When the bread machine has finished making the bread dough, unplug the bread machine.
• Remove the bread pan from the bread machine.
• Now go to the instruction section below on “preparing the dough & baking the bread”. FYI – Ignore the instructions for the electric stand mixer below if you are using a bread machine to make your dough. Skip down to the preparing dough section.

Instructions – Creating Dough with an Electric Stand Mixer with Dough Hook

• Your electric mixer should be unplugged.
• Remove the mixing bowl from the electric mixer.
• Insert a dough hook into the electric mixer.
• Pour the water and oil into the mixing bowl and then add the other ingredients. Place the instant yeast in last and the yeast should not touch the liquid (until the electric mixer is turned on and the ingredients start to be mixed together). Some bakers like to make a small indent on top of the flour to prevent the yeast from spilling into the liquids or mixing with the salt before the machine is turned on.
• Place the mixing bowl back into the electric stand mixer.
• Plug in the electric mixer and use a low speed to mix the dough. Mix the dough for 8-10 minutes.
• Turn off the electric mixer and unplug machine.
• Remove the mixing bowl from the electric mixer. Pour the dough into a second large mixing bowl that has been lightly “greased” with olive oil.
• Loosely cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 60 minutes.
• After the dough has risen, go to the instruction section below on “preparing the dough & baking the bread”.

After Rolling Dough into a “Jelly Roll”, Place in Bread Pan & Let Rise for 60 Minutes

Instructions – Shaping the Dough & Baking the Bread

• Preheat the oven to 350 F.
• Sprinkle a little bit of flour onto a large cutting board.
• Remove the dough from the bread pan or mixing bowl and place the dough on the cutting board.
• Press down on the dough with your hands and create a “flattish” rectangle with the dough. The dough should be roughly 1 inch high.
• Roll up the dough into a tight “jelly roll”. FYI – Please see this short instructional video for more information on how to shape the dough if you haven’t shaped bread dough before. It is easier to watch & learn from this short video versus trying to explain the rolling technique step by step.
• Place the rolled up dough into the bread pan.
• Gently press down on top of the dough so the edges of the dough press out towards the sides of the bread pan. This should result in little or no gaps between the dough and the bread pan. This helps the bread to turn into a nice loaf shape without any misshapen edges. Make sure that the top of the pressed down dough is roughly level (so one side isn’t much higher than the other).
• Brush olive oil on top of the dough with a pastry brush.
• Loosely cover the top of the bread pan with plastic wrap. Set the covered bread pan aside for 60-90 minutes for the dough to rise into a loaf shape. Once the dough has risen 1 – 1.5 inches (2.5 – 3.8 cm) above the rim of the bread pan, the dough should be ready to be placed in the oven. FYI – You want the dough to fully rise during this stage. So don’t try to shorten this rising time. If the dough is still significantly rising while in the oven, you are more likely to see crust/seam cracks or “bursts” in the oven. In addition, the speed of the dough rise will vary in part based on the temperature of your kitchen (e.g. rise faster in the summer & slower in the winter). See the tips section below for more “proofing” information.
• Place the bread pan in the (preheated) oven to bake at 350 F for 37-42 minutes. Wear oven mitts when dealing with a hot oven. Place the bread pan in the middle of the oven.
• Rotate the bread pan in the oven after 15-20 minutes (in order to ensure an even browning of the bread).
• After the 37-42 minute baking period has finished, remove the bread pan from the oven. Wear oven mitts.
• Remove the bread from bread pan and place the bread on a wire cooling rack. Wear oven mitts.
• Allow the bread to cool down on the wire cooling rack for 1-2 hours before cutting the bread.

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Tips – Vegan Sandwich Bread Recipe

• The tips below are designed to help baking & bread making “novices” avoid common baking problems and to be more successful when making this bread recipe.
• Click on this “print recipe” link if you want to print out this recipe. It includes all of the recipe’s ingredients and instructions. However, the recipe print function does not include our tips section. Please read the tips section in order to avoid common recipe problems.
• This recipe is part of Bread Dad’s series on Easy Bread Recipes such as buttermilk bread, multigrain bread and soft whole wheat bread.

• Make sure to “grease” bread pan with olive oil, have a good nonstick bread pan, etc. You need to make sure the bread does not stick to the sides & bottom of the bread pan or you will have difficulty removing the finished bread from the bread pan.
• Be careful to not press your oven mitt thumb into the dough when moving the bread pan to the oven… cough, cough… I wonder who did that!!
• This vegan sandwich bread recipe uses Italian seasoning which is a blend of dried herbs such as rosemary, basil, thyme, oregano, sage and marjoram. You can find Italian seasoning in the spice sections of most major supermarkets.
• Optional – If you do not have Italian seasoning, you can use dried rosemary as a substitute when making this vegan bread.
• Optional – If you want to make a vegan white bread (non-herb bread), you can eliminate the Italian seasoning from this recipe.
• Also check out my Dairy Free Bread Recipe. It is an easy white bread made without milk, butter or eggs.

• Optional – Instead of using water to make this vegan sandwich bread recipe, you can also use soy milk, oat milk, rice milk, etc.
• This vegan bread recipe uses simple ingredients such as bread flour, olive oil & water. In contrast, most traditional non-vegan breads contain butter, milk and/or eggs for taste, leavening purposes, etc. Because our vegan bread does not use butter, milk and/or eggs, it contains less saturated fat than many traditional breads made with dairy products & eggs. As you probably know, some people try to reduce the saturated fat in their diet for health reasons.
• You might like to read this Wikipedia article because it shows you how much saturated fat is contained in each type of vegetable oil (e.g. olive oil, canola oil, corn oil, coconut oil, etc.).
• Be careful selecting what sugars to use when making vegan desserts. Look for vegan sugars because some “regular” sugars are filtered with bone char. For more on this issue, you might like to read the VegNews article “These 6 sugars are totally vegan (not every sugar is)” or the Treehugger article “Is Sugar Vegan? The Vegan’s Guide to Sugar“.

• Always use FRESH ingredients for the best results. For example, if you use old yeast, the bread might have trouble rising properly. Or if you use old flour, the bread might taste stale or “funky”.
• If you do not have olive oil, you can use a neutral-flavored vegetable oil (e.g. canola oil) as a potential substitute. However, I prefer the taste of olive oil when making this vegan bread recipe.
• FYI – Vegetable oil is included in many vegan bread recipes because it helps to make bread softer and moister.
• This vegan sandwich bread recipe is also great for people who are looking to create a no butter bread or no egg bread. It does not contain some of the ingredients (e.g. dairy) that people might have trouble with.
• This vegan herb bread goes great with vegan sandwich ingredients such as tofu, lettuce, tomatoes, chickpeas, etc.

• You can use all-purpose flour to make this vegan bread recipe. However, I would strongly recommend that you use bread flour when making homemade bread. Bread flour has more gluten than all purpose flour and this means that bread flour has a greater ability to capture the carbon dioxide put out by the yeast. In turn, this means that bread made with bread flour is airier & fluffier than bread made with all purpose flour.
• One of my visitors (thanks Betsy!) likes to use organic bread flour when making this recipe. This helps to cut down on exposure to any pesticides, herbicides and GMOs that might be found in “regular” flour (non-organic flour).
• Try to keep your ingredients (e.g. flour) in airtight food containers in order to extend their shelf life. Airtight containers protect ingredients from moisture (in the air), pests, dust, etc.
• Old flour (when not stored in an airtight container) can absorb a lot of moisture from the air. This extra moisture throws off recipes and can lead to bread collapses, etc.
• This recipe will NOT work with gluten free flour. Gluten free flour differs significantly versus flours with gluten and requires you to use recipes specifically designed for the use of gluten free flour. If you use gluten free flour in this recipe, you are likely to have a baking disaster.

• Do NOT use cold water because that will inhibit the growth of the yeast. If you use cold water, your bread may have trouble rising properly. The water should be lukewarm in temperature. Of course, you should not make the water too hot because the bread yeast can be killed by high temperatures.
• This vegan bread recipe is based on using either a bread machine or electric stand mixer with dough hook in order to make the dough. A bread machine is great for single loaves (or if you don’t have room for a large mixer). In contrast, a large electric stand mixer with dough hook is probably better if you want to create larger amounts of dough (e.g. dough to make 2+ bread loaves at the same time). The capacity for most bread machines is generally smaller than the capacity of the mixing bowl included with a large electric stand mixer.
• The second rising of the dough (where the dough sits in the bread pan for 60-90 minutes) helps to reduce the potential of the bread top to crack. If you do not let the dough rise a second time, the top of your bread is more likely to burst or split in the oven (because the interior dough will continue rise while the exterior crust is hardening due to the oven heat). Don’t cheat and skip this second rising due to the lack of time… cough, cough… I have tried this before to my regret (as I was late to one of my son’s sporting events)!

• How do you know when the dough has risen enough in the second rise (when the dough is in the bread pan)? After letting the dough rise for 60-90 minutes (and when it is roughly 1-1.1.5 inches above the 9×5 bread pan), you can try the “poke test“. Poke your finger into the dough (going in about an inch). If the poke hole rebounds immediately, you need to allow more time for the dough to rise further (it is “under proofed”). If the hole doesn’t come back at all, the dough has risen too much (it is “over proofed”). If the hole slowly fills over 2-3 seconds, the dough is at the right stage of proofing.
• Unfortunately, the temperature of your kitchen can make the timing for this perfect poke result hard to predict (because there is a faster dough rise in hot kitchens and a slower rise in cold kitchens). Experience with “proofing” will make this easier (but it can be a problem for beginning bakers).
• If the dough is “underproofed” (hasn’t risen enough) when you place it in the oven, the bread is more likely to burst/crack when baked in the oven (as the still rising dough will push against the hardening crust and “burst” at the seams of the crust). Bakers try to get around this issue via testing for the right “proofing” level (e.g. use the poke test), “scoring” breads (slicing the top of the dough so the cracks occur where you want them), adding moisture inside the oven (so the dough doesn’t harden as quickly), using a dutch oven (in order to trap the dough moisture inside the dutch oven container & not spread out into the oven), etc.
• Don’t overproof the dough (let it rise too long). This occasionally happens when someone forgets about the rising dough and comes back hours later to check. Overproofed dough leads to deflated dough as well as flat and/or sunken bread tops. According to Wikipedia, “Overproofing occurs when a fermenting dough has rested too long. Its bubbles have grown so large that they have popped and tunneled, and dough baked at this point would result in a bread with poor structure.”
• If your dough is “over proofed”, you might like to read the King Arthur Baking article “How to save over-proofed dough” as it gives tips on how to save the dough.

• If you are having problems shaping your dough, you should watch the following instructional videos:
• King Arthur Baking
• San Diego Artisan Bread School
• Father Dominic – a slightly different method versus the videos above

• Remember to coat the dough with olive oil when doing this second rising. This helps to prevent the dough from hardening & forming a crust during the second rising. This will help reduce potential cracks during the baking process.
• Cooler home temperatures in the winter can cause rising problems for bread dough. Ideally, your room temperature should be around 75-80 degrees F. Colder winter room temperatures can significantly delay the rise of the dough.
• Conversely, dough can rise faster than expected in a very hot kitchen.
• Other factors that can impact the rise of the dough include old or expired yeast, contaminated yeast (e.g. the yeast was left in an open jar & air moisture contaminated it), water that is too cold or too hot, using heavily chlorinated tap water, placing salt next to or on top of the yeast (salt can kill yeast or inhibit its growth), not covering the dough during the rising period (as the exterior of the dough can dry out & limit the ability to rise), etc. Thanks Jaime for bring up this issue!

• FYI – The dough setting on bread machines lasts for roughly 1:30-1:50 hours. For example, on my Sunbeam 5891, the dough setting lasts for 1:30 (one hours & 30 minutes). However, on the Zojirushi Breadmaker BB-PAC20, the “regular dough” setting lasts for 1:50. Check your bread machine manual to see how long the dough setting lasts on your particular bread machine model.
• You should let your bread cool down for 1-2 hours on the wire cooling rack before you cut any slices (or the slices will be “gummy” and not taste as good as expected). Excess interior moisture is released (via steam) during the cooldown period.
• Examples of instant yeast that can be used for this bread recipe include Fleischmann’s Bread Machine Yeast, Fleischmann’s Instant Yeast, Saf Instant Yeast, Red Star Instant Yeast, etc. This recipe is not designed for active dry yeasts such as Fleischmann’s Active Dry Yeast, Red Star Active Dry Yeast, etc.
• If you want to mix, knead & bake this bread in your bread machine (and not use an oven), I would suggest using the following bread machine settings – 2 lb loaf, light color crust and the “basic” bread setting (usually setting 1 on most machines).

• This vegan bread recipe uses instant yeast or bread machine yeast. It does NOT use active dry yeast.
• Active dry yeast is different from instant yeast & bread machine yeast. Instant yeast & bread machine yeast are added directly to the recipe’s ingredients. In contrast, active dry yeast must be activated in liquid (e.g. water) before being added to a recipe’s ingredients. Many bakers find it quicker to use instant yeast because you just add it to the dry ingredients. With active dry yeast, you need to spend roughly 10 minutes “proofing” (activating) the yeast with a liquid & sugar.
• I decided to make this vegan bread recipe without active dry yeast because many bread machine users & novice bakers only have bread machine yeast or instant yeast at home.

• If you have not made bread in a long time, please buy some new bread machine yeast or instant yeast before making your bread. Old yeast can die or lose its potency and this will lead to bread that does not rise properly. Yeast is not likely to be viable if it has been sitting in your pantry for years.
• Once you have opened the container that contains the yeast, the yeast will last longer if you store the bottle in the refrigerator or freezer. Just make sure the bottle is sealed tight (as yeast will deteriorate quickly if exposed to air, moisture and/or heat).
• My recipes are based on US ingredient measurements (e.g. US cups & tablespoons). However, as a courtesy to our European visitors, I have also included some very ROUGH European equivalents (e.g. grams & milliliters). Since I rarely use European measurements when baking, please let me know in the comment section below if any of the European ingredient measurements need to be changed (e.g. for XYZ ingredient, milliliters are more commonly used versus the grams information listed in the recipe).
• Be safe! Always wear oven mitts/gloves when dealing with a oven, bread machine, hot bread pan, etc.
• For more easy bread recipes, please visit Bread Dad’s main Bread Recipes or Bread Machine Recipes sections.

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Reference Sources

1. Wikipedia, Bread
2. Wikipedia, Olive Oil
3. Wikipedia, Saturated Fat
4. Wikipedia, Veganism

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