This easy homemade French bread recipe is just the thing to curb your Fall baking itch! This recipe makes great bread for sandwiches and subs and the best part? My son helped! This recipe is so easy even a kid can do it. Try it for yourself!
My son wanted to bake French baguettes for a French project, so I told him to search the internet for a recipe and we would do the project together. We settled on a very easy recipe we found at Allrecipes.
Although I have made many breads, I have to admit, I have never made a french baguette before. French Baguettes are a great bread for sandwiches and subs! This recipe doesn't require a bread machine nor any kind of special yeast. We did, however, use a KitchenAid stand mixer to combine the ingredients and help kneed the bread. If you have the time, this process can be done by hand too!
We started off by proofing our yeast with the water and the sugar. Nice and puffy!
He carefully measured out the flour...but I will be honest, I prefer to weigh the flour for yeast breads vs. measuring it, but I didn't have volume conversions so we just measured.
After combining the flour and the salt, he slowly added the yeast mixture...
And then let the dough hook do it's thing, until the dough was smooth and elastic.
Once the machine was done kneading it, he took it out and kneaded it by hand for a few minutes.
Then popped it into a greased bowl to rise. ( You see two balls of dough there because we made the recipe twice to get 4 baguettes...the bigger dough ball is the one we made first...it has already begun to rise! ) We let the dough balls rise for about an hour to an hour in a half in the covered bowl....
And then punched them down.
Shaped each dough ball into a rectangle and then cut it in half.
And he began shaping each half into a baguette.
And placed them on the prepared pans...
Where he made slits and then covered in plastic wrap to rise for another 30 minutes.
Renee Paj
Super easy recipe, using only a few ingredients, that yields 2 loaves of delicious French bread you can make at home.
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm water (105 degrees F - 115 degrees F)
- 2 tsp. dry active yeast
- 1 TBS. granulated sugar
- 2 1/2 cups bread flour (I like King Arthur brand)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 TBS water
Instructions
- Begin by combining warm water, yeast and granulated sugar in a glass measure. Set aside to allow the yeast to proof for about 5 min. or so.
- In a bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook attached, add the flour and salt. Turn machine on to combine the two ingredients.
- With machine running and dough hook attached, slowly pour in yeast water mixture. Continue to mix until all the ingredients are combined. Then let the dough hook kneed the dough until it is soft and elastic. Cover, and let rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes, or until doubled in bulk. Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.
- Punch down dough. On a lightly floured surface, roll into a 16x12 inch rectangle. Cut dough in half, creating two 8x12 inch rectangles. Roll up each half of dough tightly, beginning at 12 inch side, pounding out any air bubbles as you go. Roll gently back and forth to taper end. Place 3 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet. Make deep diagonal slashes across loaves every 2 inches, or make one lengthwise slash on each loaf. Lightly cover, and let rise in a warm place for 30 to 40 minutes, or until doubled.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Mix the egg yolk and 1 TBS of water together. Lightly brush loaves with egg mixture.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until loaves are golden brown.
Yield:2 loaves
Prep Time: 01 hrs. 25 mins.
Cook time: 00 hrs. 25 mins.
Total time: 1 hrs. 50 mins.
I made a really tasty veggie sandwich for myself for lunch on the bread we made! ( no, he didn't take them all to school today...we kept two at home! :) I put 1 oz. of hummus on my homemade bread and topped it with sliced cukes, shredded carrots, roasted red peppers, red onion, tomato slices, and lettuce. YUM!
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