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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. 

Best White Bread

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 (duh). 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

Rating:

10/10

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Best Wheat Bread

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

Credit: Sarah Demonteverde / Instacart

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

Best Rye Bread

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

Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon

Rating:

10/10

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Best Cinnamon Raisin

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 zshushed-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

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

9/10

Sporks

Best Dinner Rolls

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

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

10/10

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Best Hamburger Buns

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

Credit: Sarah Demonteverde / Instacart

Rating:

9/10

Sporks

Best Hot Dog Buns

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

Credit: Ryan Martin / Amazon

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

Best Slider Buns

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. 

Read the full ranking of the best slider buns

Credit: Merc / King’s Hawaiian

Rating:

10/10

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Best Garlic Bread

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.

Read the full ranking of the best garlic bread

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

10/10

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Best Biscuits

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 the best store bought bread comes in, namely these Pillsbury Grands! 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

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

Best Cornbread

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

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

Best Bagels

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

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

Best English Muffins

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

Rating:

10/10

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Best Gluten Free Bread

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

Rating:

9.5/10

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Best Keto Bread

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. She suggests that Sola Sweet Oat, which we decided is the best keto bread, “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

Rating:

8.5/10

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Best Keto Bagels

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

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

10/10

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Gluten Free Rolls

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

Credit: Merc/ Ralphs

Rating:

9/10

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