The best bread doesn’t have to come from a fancy bakery and you certainly don’t have to bake it yourself. No way. Not when there’s so much great bread just waiting to be tossed in your cart at your local grocery store. Much like Oprah Winfrey, we. love. bread. And we’ve tried a lot of it in our taste tests to find everything from the best bagels to the best biscuits to the best gluten free bread you can buy. The best sliced bread for sandwiches? We have you covered there, too, whether you want white or wheat. So set aside your carb aversion and let’s talk about the best store bought bread.
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- Nature’s Own Perfectly Crafted Thick Sliced White Bread
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Nature’s Own Perfectly Crafted Thick Sliced White Bread tops our list of the best bread for sandwiches. It’s also the best white bread we tasted. It’s super soft and squishy, lightly sweet but a little savory, and has a mild flavor that won’t overpower your sandwich fixings. This bread goes well with peanut butter, banana, and honey. It suits a grilled cheese or a tuna salad sandwich. You can put pretty much anything between two slices of this bread and it’s going to taste good, but this stuff is good on its own, too. The Sporked crew swears by this bread and we think you’ll agree that it’s some of the best store bought bread, period.
Read the full ranking of the best white bread
Credit: Sarah Demonteverde / Instacart
- Nature’s Harvest Stone Ground 100% Whole Wheat Bread
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White bread who? Nature’s Harvest will make you forget other types of bread exist, especially if you prefer wheat bread in the first place. Nature’s Harvest is pleasantly squishy but still has enough structural integrity to be stacked with all sorts of sandwich fixings, from meats to spreads to veggies. This bread’s best quality is a pleasant sweetness that adds depth and character that most other store bought bread lacks. This is the best bread for a big ol’ deli turkey sandwich with sprouts, but it’s equally suited to something rich like peanut butter and bacon or fatty corned beef and thousand island dressing. The best sliced bread at the grocery store is versatile and this one definitely is.
Read the full ranking of the best wheat bread
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- Sunflour Bakery Jewish Rye
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Unlike most of the rye we tried in our rye bread taste test, this bread comes frozen rather than fresh, but it seems to be a good strategy. We love that Sunflour Bakery’s Jewish Rye is “chewy, dense, aromatic, seeded, and just lovely overall.” This is the best bread for a fat stack of pastrami and pickles. Or just toast it and slather it with butter and grape jelly for a diner-style side.
Read the full ranking of the best rye bread
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- Sun-Maid Cinnamon Swirl Raisin Bread
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Cinnamon raisin bread should have a lot of cinnamon and a lot of raisins, and that’s what made Sun-Maid Cinnamon Swirl Raisin Bread the best store bought bread in its class. The sweet, squishy and raisins are the perfect complement to fragrant and spicy cinnamon swirl. We also like that this bread is sturdy but still tender. This is the best bread for a zhuzhed-up French toast, but it’s equally good toasted and buttered for a quick morning meal.
Read the full ranking of the best cinnamon raisin bread
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- Max’s Dutch Crunch Bread
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If you’re not familiar, Dutch crunch is a style of white bread roll that’s topped with a paste of rice flour, sugar, water, and yeast that gets all crackly when the bread is baked. It’s popular in sandwich shops in California’s Bay Area, but it’s also not a thing you typically keep around the house. That makes our research even more important! If you’re looking for the best bread that’s a little sweet and a little crunchy, try Max’s Dutch crunch. Yeah, you have to order it online, but the cost of shipping will be worth it when your lunch is gently scraping the roof of your mouth.
Read the full ranking of the best Dutch crunch bread
Credit: Liv Averett / Dutchcrunch.com
- Kroger White Hoagie Rolls
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Good hoagie rolls aren’t easy to find at the grocery store, but these Kroger rolls will get the job done the next time you’re making at-home cheesesteaks, spiedies, or Italian beefs (just don’t forget the good giardiniera). They’re super soft and squishy—perfect for absorbing meat juices—but they develop a nice crust if you toast them in the ol’ countertop oven. The best store bought bread might not exactly resemble what you’d find at a sandwich shop, but these rolls are tasty and sturdy enough to get the job done.
Read the full ranking of the best hoagie rolls
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- DiCamillo Bakery Kummelweck Rolls
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We know—you’re like, “What the heck is weck?” Well, besides being a Buffalo, New York, institution, weck, aka kummelweck, is a kaiser-like roll that’s topped with coarse salt and caraway seeds. This is the best bread for a classic beef on weck, but we’d love these DiCamillo rolls loaded up with pretty much anything. They’re soft and squishy, but the topping gives them a little bit of crunch and a bold rye flavor. Two dozen of these will run you just 24 bucks online, so make some room in the freezer for extras.
Read the full ranking of the best kummelweck
Credit: Liv Averett / DiCamillo Bakery
- Rhodes Thaw, Rise & Bake Dinner Rolls
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Sometimes the best bread takes a little bit of work. Take, for instance, these Rhodes dinner rolls. You have to let them rise for three to five hours before you cook them, but we swear it’s worth it, especially if you’re gearing up for a special holiday meal like Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. Once the rolls have risen, they bake up quickly and perfectly—doughy on the inside with a nice, golden-brown crust on the outside. These are the best dinner rolls and some of the best store bought bread in general.
Read the full ranking of the best dinner rolls
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- Francisco Deli Hamburger Buns
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A burger is only as good as its bun—and we’re pleased to report that we found some really, really good store bought hamburger buns. These Francisco Deli hamburger buns are sweet, squishy, dense, tangy, and buttery all at the same time. Any store bought bread that can do all that has to be among the best bread at the grocery store. These are sturdy enough for a lot of toppings and but tender enough to sop up all those yummy drippings from a freshly grilled burger patty. Bonus: They’re also pretty darn affordable.
Read the full ranking of the best hamburger buns
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- Nature’s Own Perfectly Crafted Brioche Style Hot Dog Buns
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You can plausibly enjoy a hamburger sans bun, but a hot dog just doesn’t really make a meal on its own (unless you’re a toddler). The next time you’re firing up the grill for hot dog night, be sure to buy the best bread for hot dogs, aka Nature’s Own brioche hot dog buns. Sporked’s Jordan Myrick described the experience of eating one of these like “eating a hot dog stuffed between two clouds.” They’re soft but they don’t disintegrate in your mouth, unlike other brioche buns we tried. They’re eggy but also neutral so the flavor of your favorite weiner can really shine through. Don’t forget the relish.
Read the full ranking of the best hot dog buns
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- King’s Hawaiian Pretzel Sliders
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If you’re looking for the best bread for a very small sandwich or burger, look no further than our pick for the best slider buns at the grocery store. King’s Hawaiian pretzel rolls are soft, lightly sweet, and have the perfect amount of chew. They’re the perfect combo of salty, sturdy soft pretzel and light, squishy Hawaiian roll. The next time you have a party with a cold cut platter, put out a bag of these and see what sorts of fun mini sandwiches people come up with.
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Credit: Merc / King’s Hawaiian
- Pepperidge Farm Garlic Bread
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In general, frozen garlic bread is some of the best bread at the grocery store. But the best garlic bread of them all? This loaf of Pepperidge Farm garlic bread. It’s crusty on the outside and pillowy and oily on the inside, just like the garlic bread you’ll find in a basket at a classic red sauce Italian restaurant. This loaf gives you options, too: Bake it whole if you like it extra squishy inside or split up the halves if you want the insides to crisp up a little. Buy a loaf of this the next time you’re making meatball subs drenched in marinara and loaded with melty mozzarella. Everyone will freak.
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- Pillsbury Grands! Southern Homestyle Buttermilk Biscuits
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Making biscuits from scratch is good in theory, but unless you have a lot of counter space, it’s a pretty big pain. That’s where these Pillsbury Grands come in. Southern Homestyle Buttermilk Biscuits, which come in a can in the refrigerated section. These are melt-in-your-mouth biscuits. They’re super soft and buttery inside and really puff up when you bake them. Serve these as an easy side with some grocery store fried chicken or use them to make biscuit sandwiches with egg, sausage patties, and American cheese. You can’t go wrong with the best biscuits, baby.
Read the full ranking of the best biscuits
Credit: Liv Averett / Target
- Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix
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We were skeptical at first, but Jiffy does make the best cornbread. They might as well put a picture of this box in the dictionary under the word “cornbread” (even though they call it “corn muffin mix”). Jiffy is the gold standard for cornbread mix for a reason. It bakes up moist and tender. The flavor is sweet, but not too sweet. It’s very mild and subdued in the perfect way. And it’s easy to make. That’s what earns it a spot on our list of the best bread.
Read the full ranking of the best cornbread
Credit: Liv Averett / Target
- Dave’s Killer Bread Everything Bagels
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When it comes to bread with a hole in the middle, this is just about the best bread you can buy. Dave’s Killer everything bagels have that boiled squish you expect from good bagels, and the seasoning is especially good—it has sesame seeds, poppy seeds, flax seeds, garlic, onion, and, most importantly, plenty of salt to bring all the flavors to life. It may not live up to your local bagel shop (especially if you live in New York City), but you could certainly do worse when it comes to store bought bagels.
Read the full ranking of the best bagels
Credit: Liv Averett / Target
- Thomas’ Sourdough English Muffins
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Looking for the best bread for a benedict or a faux McMuffin sandwich? Look no further than Thomas’ Sourdough English Muffins. They have just a touch of yeasty flavor and additional chew that makes them more flavorful than other English muffins. They won’t kick you in the teeth with yeast, but it definitely adds some depth of flavor to the affair. In our taste test, we also found these to be less dry than other English muffins. If you always grab Thomas’ anyway, trust us and grab these the next time you’re at the grocery store.
Read the full ranking of the best English muffins
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Schar Gluten Free Artisan Baker White Bread
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The best gluten free bread wasn’t easy to find. We ate our way through a lot of dry, crumbly, downright disappointing gluten free bread to find the best gluten free bread at the grocery store. Thank god for Schar, a brand making gluten free bread that actually resembles bread. It has the most convincing flavor and texture, and it’s also a normal size (so much gluten free bread is itty-bitty for some weird reason). This is good on its own so it’s sure to make a really good sandwich. If you’re part of the celiac squad, this is the best bread you can buy.
Read the full ranking of the best gluten free bread
Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon
- Sola Sweet Oat
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Keto bread was another less-than-fun taste test here at Sporked. Gwynedd Stuart, our managing editor, was a real champ and ate loads of “bread” (hard to call most of it bread) to help us find an acceptable keto bread. But she found at least one store bought bread loaf for keto followers: Sola Sweet Oat. She wrote that Sola Sweet Oat, “would make a really good French toast—soak it in some egg with a low-cal sweetener, toss it in a frying pan, and then top it with a sugar-free syrup (we recommend Cary’s).” Yum!
Read the full ranking of the best keto sandwich bread
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Better Bagel Everything
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If you’re on a keto diet, you probably thought bagels were a thing of the past—or good bagels, anyway. Well, we have news! We found good keto bagels. In fact, they’re so good we decided they deserve a spot on our list of the best bread. Sporked editor-in-chief Justine Sterling even said she’d serve these to non-keto people, no prob. Load these big Better Bagels up with lots of cream cheese and some smoked salmon for an extra kick of protein.
Read the full ranking of the best keto bagels
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- Against the Grain Gourmet Original Rolls Cheese Baked Recipe
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As we’ve established, gluten free bread doesn’t always hit. But these cheesy dinner rolls are a pleasant surprise. They remind Justine of pão de queijo, the Brazilian cheese bread you get at churrascarias. They’re stretchy and chewy and have a subtle cheesy flavor. If you don’t eat gluten but need a roll to sop up your GF gravy, this is the way to go.
Read the full ranking of the best gluten free rolls
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- L’oven Fresh Pains au Chocolat
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Aldi sells everything from sandwich bread to naan, but the best bread at Aldi? We’re big, big fans of these little pains au chocolat. They come individually wrapped so you don’t have to panic-eat eight of them in two days like you would with fresh-from-the-patisserie pains au chocolat, and they’re just so soft, sweet, and chocolatey. A couple of these make a really nice little breakfast.
Read the full ranking of the best Aldi Bread
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- Trader Joe’s Olive Fougasse
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“Fougasse” may sound like something Tony Soprano would call someone he thinks is an idiot, but it’s actually a really cool kind of bread that’s sort of like breadsticks that are all attached to one another—and it’s the best bread of all the bread we tried at Trader Joe’s. It’s chewy and doughy, and if you heat it a bit, it really tastes like it came from a fancy bakery. The pop of salt from the olives is a nice touch, too.
Read the full ranking of the best Trader Joe’s bread
Credit: Merc
Best White Bread
Rating:
10/10
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Best Wheat Bread
Rating:
10/10
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Best Rye Bread
Rating:
10/10
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Best Cinnamon Raisin
Rating:
9/10
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Best Dutch Crunch
Rating:
8.5/10
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Best Hoagie Rolls
Rating:
9/10
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Best Weck
Rating:
9.5/10
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Best Dinner Rolls
Rating:
10/10
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Best Hamburger Buns
Rating:
9/10
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Best Hot Dog Buns
Rating:
10/10
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Best Slider Buns
Rating:
10/10
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Best Garlic Bread
Rating:
10/10
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Best Biscuits
Rating:
10/10
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Best Cornbread
Rating:
10/10
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Best Bagels
Rating:
10/10
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Best English Muffins
Rating:
10/10
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Best Gluten Free Bread
Rating:
9.5/10
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Best Keto Bread
Rating:
8.5/10
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Best Keto Bagels
Rating:
10/10
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Gluten Free Rolls
Rating:
9/10
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Best Bread at Aldi
Rating:
10/10
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Best Bread at Trader Joe’s
Rating:
10/10
Sporks
