Brown Butter Sandwich Bread

This simple sandwich bread is flavored with aromatic brown butter, honey, and milk, for a freshly baked homemade treat!

a freshly sliced loaf of brown butter sandwich bread

99% of the time I grab a loaf of bread off the shelf at the grocery store, I can never manage to get it into my cart.

You see, I often feel a bit lazy about baking bread, and am tempted to grab a loaf and be done with it. But I also can’t help but look at the list of ingredients on those super shelf stable breads and get a little freaked out. How come these breads stay soft as ever and never get moldy after 2+ weeks? Something about that just peeves me out.

The other 1% of the time I cave and buy the shelf bread because it’s easy, but most of the time I give myself a mental kick-in-the-butt and resolve to go home and make my own because I know that most breads aren’t difficult to make. It’s just a matter of being patient with the yeast and blocking off a little bit of time.

This is a classic white sandwich loaf that has brown butter and honey added to it, and both give the bread great flavor and aroma. You can see the browned milk solids from the butter that’s been combined with milk here:

brown butter milk liquid ingredients for sandwich bread

To finish off the liquid ingredients for the bread, add some honey:

adding honey to liquid ingredients for fresh sandwich bread

Mix the liquid and dry ingredients together and knead with a stand mixer. Let it rise, then spread your dough out into an 8×8 inch square on a floured surface.

Rolling sandwich bread dough like a cinnamon roll

Roll up the square like you would a cinnamon roll, pinching the seam at the end.

With the seam on the bottom, lift the bread roll and gently place it in a butter greased loaf pan.

placing a roll of sandwich dough into a loaf pan

(Yes, that’s my big pink robe. Whoops. Just a little Saturday morning baking).

With your fingers, lightly press the loaf into the sides of the greased pan, but don’t push too hard and deflate the dough too much.

sandwich bread from scratch in a loaf pan

Let the dough rise for about 30 minutes in the greased pan, and it’s ready to be baked!

a freshly baked loaf of white sandwich bread


Print Pin
5 from 14 votes

Brown Butter Sandwich Bread

Course Side Dish
Cuisine American
Keyword butter bread, sandwich bread
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 40 minutes
Servings 10 (1 standard loaf)
Calories 219kcal


  • 3 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 3 tbsp honey
  • 2.25 tsp instant yeast
  • 2 tsp salt


  • Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. With the cup of milk standing by and ready to go, brown the butter very carefully for 1-2 minutes, being sure to watch diligently and swirl the pan often. Once the butter has browned, immediately add the cold milk (otherwise the butter will go from brown to burned). Add the water, and honey as well. Bring this mixture up to 115 degrees F, then stir in the yeast. Let this mixture sit for 10 minutes until bubbly and foamy.
  • In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk to combine the flour and salt. Fit the machine with the dough hook, and pour in the liquid ingredients. Stir the ingredients with a spatula to roughly combine, then turn the dough hook onto medium low heat (level 2) and knead for 10 minutes. The dough will be sticky, and that’s okay (adding more flour would make the loaf denser). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let the dough double in size, which should take about 1 hour.
  • Lightly flour your countertop and spread the dough into an 8×8 inch square. Roll the dough like a cinnamon roll, and pinch the seam closed. Grease a standard loaf pan* with butter, and place the bread roll seam side down into the pan, pressing the dough gently into the sides of the pan. Cover the loaf with plastic wrap and let it rise for 30 minutes. The dough will not rise visibly by much.
  • Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F, and place a sheet pan on the lowest shelf of the oven. Add enough boiling water to cover the bottom of the sheet pan, then bake the bread on the shelf above the water for 40-50 minutes until the inside registers 190 to 200 degrees on an instant read thermometer. Let the bread cool completely on a wire rack before slicing it. Enjoy!


*8.5"x4.5" for loaf pan size. Slight variations will work too.
Storing: since there are no preservatives, the bread will only keep for a few days at room temperature. I recommend freezing any unused bread.


Calories: 219kcal | Carbohydrates: 39g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 11mg | Sodium: 478mg | Potassium: 87mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 130IU | Calcium: 36mg | Iron: 2mg