DIY: Homemade Sandwich Thins

in Bread, DIY, Lighter & Healthier, Sandwich & Wraps

I love Oroweat Sandwich Thins. They’re super thin, which lets me save my carb indulgences for dessert and they’re one of the very few items you can find under a grocery store roof that isn’t made with high fructose corn syrup. It’s the only store-bought bread product I still buy regularly because I consider them pretty unique as far as bread goes.

They’re not terribly expensive – $3 for a package of 8 or $6 for 3 packs at Costco – but every once in while, I like to make something at home just because I can. You’ve heard this story eleventy billion times over: Idea + Google + recipe = covered in flour and 3 loads of dishes.

Okay, so they weren’t 3 loads of dishes messy… just the Kitchenaid dough hook, bowl, two baking sheets and my apron. It was a tad messy forming the buns – keep your hands oiled because the dough is sticky – but not very hard at all. Cutting them in half can be a bit challenging – they’re thin and slightly unforgiving of wayward bread knives. They freeze and thaw well so I store them in a large ziploc bag and just take them out as I need them.

Homemade Sandwich Thins

Make your own sandwich thins at home.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cups warm water
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 pkg (2 1/4 tsp) yeast
  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1-1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour*
  • 1/2 cup wheat bran*
  • 2 Tbsp vital wheat gluten*
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 egg
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 2 Tbsp rolled oats

Instructions

  1. * I didn't have wheat gluten so I subbed in some AP flour for the whole wheat flour. Also, what I thought to be wheat bran ended up being wheat germ and I didn't realize it 'til I was putting the package away. It worked.
  2. In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine water, sugar and sprinkle the yeast on top. Let sit for 10 minutes.
  3. Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl (start with only 1 cup of the AP flour) and add half to the mixer bowl (or just measure out half of each one).
  4. Add the oil and egg and then turn the mixer on to low and mix until thoroughly combined.
  5. Cover and let rest 1 hour.
  6. Add the remaining dry ingredients and knead for 5 minutes. This dough will be sticky.
  7. Add additional AP flour by the tablespoon so that dough forms a ball. (It doesn't have to perfectly clean the sides of the bowl, but you don't want a gloopy mess.)
  8. Spray 2 baking sheets with cooking spray or line with parchment.
  9. Divide dough into 16 equal portions - I weighed the entire ball of dough to figure out the weight of each bun.
  10. Roll each portion of dough in your hands to form a ball, and then flatten it between your palms.
  11. Place it on the baking sheet and press down, working the dough into a thin 5-inch round.
  12. Brush the tops with water and then sprinkle with rolled oats.
  13. Preheat oven to 350 degrees while you let the buns rest for 30 minutes before docking - I used the narrow end of a chopstick to poke holes in the buns before baking for 12-15 minutes.
  14. Let cool completely before slicing.

Notes

Yields: 16 servings

Adapted from Food.com

Estimated time: 2 hours 30 minutes

Nutritional Information
Calories: 127.5 | Fat: 2.6 | Fiber 3
WW Points: 2

36 comments… add one
  • What a great idea – these look better than the packaged ones. Yum!

  • Perfect! I love sandwich thins, but I’m sort of a bread snob and don’t like things like sodium stearoyl lactylate in my sandwich. Plus, homemade ALWAYS tastes 100 times better! I’ll have to give these a try!

  • They look just like the storebought version. Yay!

  • I love sandwich thins and am so excited to make my own! These look completely delicious!

  • I have been waiting for this post since you posted the Twitpic of them! I cannot wait to make them. 🙂

  • Oh wow – I CANNOT WAIT to try these! Thank you so much for sharing this one!!

  • These are so cute! My new year’s resolution was not to buy any bread, just bake it all myself and I have to say that these babies are something I’ve missed. But now I don’t need to! Thanks so much!

  • What a great recipe! I tried some sandwich thins but I wasn’t a huge fan of them – but home made must be better!

  • Amanda

    Good idea…I love those things, too.

  • I love those things too! Thanks for the recipe – oh the joys of making your favorite products at home : )

  • I was just thinking about finding a recipe for these sandwich thins…and tada! Before I tried them with a sandwich at my mom’s I’d not seen them in the grocery store. Thanks for sharing your recipe and yummy pics.

  • Love this idea! I’m not wild about the commercial sandwich thins, but this homemade version looks great. I will definitely be trying them out!

  • Wow, what a creative idea! These look like so much fun to make and a healthier alterative to big, hearty buns and bread. Great job!

  • These are perfect.

  • wow! i love sandwich thins and love making store things from scratch so i definitely will be trying these in the not-so-distant future. 🙂 thanks!

  • Thank you for this. My hubby loves these and now I can make them!

  • looks yummy! I`ll make this soon 🙂

  • Cindy

    What is “docking” that you mention in the chopstick-last paragraph?

    • Cindy – I poked holes (docked) the buns since the Sandwich Thins I get in the store are docked.

  • awesome…I go through so many of these when I am ww’ing!

  • Cindy

    Any tips on how best to slice these in half?

  • I’ve never had the storebought version, but I loved these! Eating less bread means I get to eat more pulled pork! I let mine rise a bit after shaping, so they were a little puffier and easier to cut.

  • Andrea

    I am really excited to try this recipe.

  • Agnes Smith

    I have been looking for a recipe for these for quite a while. Even queried the King Arthur Flour folks about a recipe. I made these this morning and they get an A+. I’ll freeze them up and have them to eat for quite a while. I, too, used wheat germ and they really taste great. Thanks so much for the great recipe 🙂 Had to add some extra water as my dough was a little dry (may be due to the wheat germ), but just added some water until the dough looked right.

  • aubrey

    Made these today! Thanks so much for posting this! Living overseas with the military can be a pain sometimes, no wheat thin bread (or anything else remotely healthy…..). Now I have enough for about 2 weeks! I’ve missed these sooo much!! I also used wheat germ and used a flax egg (1T flax 3T water, let sit til it thickens) since I just can’t do eggs. Thanks again

  • amy

    i just wanted to point out that when the ww points system changed the points per bun for this recipe changed. i just plugged the recipe into my handy recipe builder, and now they come out to 4 points plus value each. just thought your readers would like to know!

  • GF

    These are so easy to make!! To make them nice and flat I formed each portion into a ball, flattened it on to a piece of parchment paper, covered with another piece of parchment paper and rolled until it was very thin. The parchment peels off easily! I baked them on air bake cookie sheets lined with parchment (regular pans tended to burn the bottom). My husband is diabetic and one of these makes a nice sandwich with 1/2 the carbs of 2 slices of bread. Thanks for the recipe!!

  • Heather T.

    A quick search online brought these up, am going to make them asap, my husband LOVES them, but I make all our bread and can’t stand the idea of buying them so Thank You.

  • Catherine

    Hi, could you please let me know what final amounts of whole wheat & AP flour you used in absence of vital wheat gluten? Thanks!

    • You can add 2 Tbsp more of either to make up for the dry gluten omitted.

  • Jeannette

    Just made these last night! They were my first foray into baking bread. Turned out great and so tasty! Thanks for the recipe 🙂

  • Darlene

    I am THRILLED to find a recipe for sandwich thins! The storebought ones seem to have an aftertaste to me. I’m so excited to make them….and grateful for your post! Thank you so much!

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