Very Easy French Bread Recipe

Very Easy French Bread Recipe

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I first learned to bake bread as a newlywed. In the past twenty plus years, I’ve gone through phases of what my favorite bread is to make. My current go-to is a very easy French Bread. In fact, it’s so easy, I wish this would have been the bread I started with all those years ago—not sourdough. (No shade to you, Tightwad Gazette Sourdough Recipe.)

This recipe is relatively quick for a yeast bread and produces a loaf you can use for garlic bread, french bread pizza, or even sandwiches. An egg wash makes it look shiny and totally legit and awesome enough to be Instagram worthy—if that’s your jam.

Making this bread caused me to buy a bread lame slashing tool to score the top. You totally don’t need one, but also, yes, you do.

I also invested in a danish dough hook—which I absolutely love—even though the majority of this is done with my Kitchenaid Mixer (which I only recently got because I found a screamin’ deal at a local auction).

What’s the difference between french bread and italian bread?

Some folks will call this italian bread. My research indicates that italian bread has olive oil, milk, and some herbs in its makeup. Some also say that italian bread is short and fat and french bread is long and skinny.

I don’t care if you call this italian or french bread. You can make the loaf as long and skinny or short and fat as you want. You can just call it “that really awesome bread that is easy to make and I’m gonna probably eat too much of when it’s fresh from the oven.” People will probably know what you mean.

Because honestly, how many of us know how to act around fresh bread, warm from the oven? I know I sure don’t.

One neat trick I did learn with this bread is instead of putting it in a greased bowl to rise, I can actually—if the kitchen is warm enough—just put the ball of dough on the counter and cover it with a casserole dish or large bowl turned upside down. Not sure why I didn’t think of that before, but it works really well! (Shout out to a couple creators on Tiktok for that tip.)

Some of my other favorite bread(ish) recipes are:

One Rise Baguette

Country Round Loaf

Honey Wheat Bread

Honey Wheat Pan Rolls

English Muffin Bread

Homemade Hamburger Buns

Homemade Breadsticks

Homemade Pizza Dough

If you try this out, let me know in the comments how you liked it!

Easy French Bread

Ingredients

  • 1.5 Tbsp yeast
  • 1 Tbsp sugar
  • 1.5 cups water
  • 3 to 4 cups all purpose flour, divided
  • 1.5 tsp salt
  • 1.5 Tbsp melted butter

Instructions

  1. Combine the yeast, warm water, and sugar in a large bowl. Let sit for 5-10 minutes until it's nice and foamy.

  2. To the yeast mixture add 1 cup of the flour, all the salt and all the melted butter. Stir to combine.

  3. Stir in 2-3 more cups of flour, a half cup at a time until the dough comes together nicely. It should not be sticky anymore. Then knead 7-10 minutes.

  4. After kneading, let it rise for 20 minutes. I set it underneath a greased casserole dish on my counter — this works really well!

  5. After it has risen, shape it into a loaf (long or short, you decide). Put the loaves on a greased baking sheet or jelly roll pan, cover with a wet dishtowel, and let it sit for 10 minutes.

  6. Score the top, brush with an egg wash (one egg beaten with a smidge of water) if you want it to be shiny, and bake for 20 minutes at 450. (Some folks have said 425 is better but my oven is 450.)



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