Simple and delicious French bread, fresh from your own oven.
This recipe for French bread can’t get much easier. It only takes 4 ingredients, plus some oil to brush on for baking.
To Make this Recipe You will Need:
- unbleached bread flour
- salt
- warm water
- instant yeast (If using active dry yeast, be sure to watch the video below for tips on how to use it. It is not the same as instant yeast.)
- extra virgin olive oil
- pastry brush
- French loaf pan or baking sheet
- bakers cooling rack
Watch me make this recipe in the video below:
In the video, I used active dry yeast instead of instant yeast. I also hand kneaded the dough instead of using a mixer. This video is one of my Home Ec with Constance series.
To begin, in the bowl of your stand mixer, combine bread flour, instant yeast, and salt and give them a quick stir.
Pour in warm water and mix with a dough hook. Let it run for 10-14 minutes, or until the dough springs back when pressed and stretches when pulled.
Cover the bowl with a tea towel and let the dough rise for 20 minutes.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and form two long loaves. Place them on a greased stone, baking sheet, or french loaf pan.
Now, I can’t say enough about this French loaf pan. If you have a kitchen supply nearby, and you have any intention of regularly baking long breads like this, it is a must have. I ordered mine online for a very good price. They are not expensive, but are priceless for making French bread. They sell a “triple” pan for baguettes too.
Cover the pan with a light cloth and allow to rise until double in size, about an hour.
Preheat oven to 450° (F).
Just before baking, lightly brush bread with extra virgin olive oil.
Bake 16-18 minutes, or until golden brown.
Cool the loaves on a rack.
Enjoy!
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Simple Homemade French Bread
Ingredients
Instructions
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the dry ingredients and give them a quick stir. Pour in the warm water and mix with a dough hook.
- Let it run for 10-14 minutes, or until the dough springs back when pressed and stretches when pulled.
- Cover the bowl with a tea towel and let the dough rise for 20 minutes. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and form two long loaves.
- Place them on a greased stone, baking sheet, or French loaf pan. Cover with a light cloth and allow to rise until double, about an hour.
- Preheat oven to 450° (F).
- Just before baking, lightly brush bread with the oil.
- Bake 16-18 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Cool the loaves on a rack.
- Enjoy!
Nutrition
If nutritional values are provided for this recipe, they are an estimate and will vary depending on the brands of ingredients you use. The values do not include optional ingredients or when ingredients are added to taste or for serving. If nutritional values are very important to you, I suggest using your favorite nutritional calculating tool with the brands you use.
Unit Conversions:
Unit Conversion for measurements (if displayed), going from US to Metric is an auto-generated conversion. If you are using the metric measurements, please double-check to confirm that these are accurate with your favorite preferred conversion tool.
This recipe was originally shared in 2014, and updated in 2023.
do you grease the french loaf pan ,i have a problem with my bread sticking to it