Easy French Bread Recipe

If you’ve been wanting to learn how to make bread at home, this easy French bread recipe is just what you need! Homemade bread with a crispy golden crust and tender crumb — what could be better? It bakes up pretty fast into two loaves with a soft crumb and golden brown crust, perfect for slicing and smearing generously with butter, or dunking into soup!

RECIPE: https://preppykitchen.com/french-bread/

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hey I’m John canel today on preppy
kitchen we’re making some crisp amazing
French bread so let’s get started first
off we have to bloom our yeast so grab 2
cups of warm water this should be about
110 to
120° I also want to have active dry
yeast if you use instant yeast when
you’re not supposed to the recipe will
not turn out basically the yeast give
all of their effort for that first rise
and then when it comes time for the
second Rise they’re done they’re like I
gave you everything I had so you need
active dry we’re also adding 2
tablespoons of granulated sugar these
yeast are waking up and they are hungry
so we need to feed
them give that a stir and set this aside
for about 5 minutes if this isn’t foamy
and amazing your yeast have expired
start over again if you don’t your bread
will not rise so we’ll be right
back my yeast is bloomed up and now it’s
time time to add 3 cups or 360 G of
flour and for this recipe you could use
allpurpose or bread flour allpurpose
flour will give you a softer baguette
bread flour is higher in protein and
it’ll give you a chewier bread you also
want 1 tbsp of olive oil as well as 1
and 1/2 teaspoons of sea salt this is
ready to go onto our stand mixer but
before we start I just want to say you
don’t have to use a stand mixer people
make bread by hand it’s a whole thing
very relaxed mixing it takes more time
but you can do it when my kids make
pizza at home they make the pizza start
to finish and they make the bread by
hand so it’s really fun it’s a bit messy
you can do
that I am going to use my stand mixer
today though pop your bowl
on but before you add your dough hook
use your spatula and just give it a head
start when you give your dough a head
start by mixing it by hand things are
just going to go so much quicker your
mixture doesn’t like it when there’s a
huge mass of water on the bottom and
powder on top so get make it a slurry
and then we can add the rest of the
flour and your mixer will be so
happy if you love delicious food you
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channel hit that sub button and enjoy
the many delicious things that are on
the horizon every week we’re going to
begin mixing this on medium low speed
right
now and while that’s mixing I’m going to
measure out the remaining flour we added
three cups of flour we still have 2 and
1/2 cups to add so that’s 300 G measured
in into a
bowl while this mix is on medium low I’m
going to add the remaining flour half a
cup at a time and this will let
everything mix in
nicely just into the bowl not the
counter let that mix in a bit before
adding the next batch of
flour last bit of flour is going
in now increase speed to medium and mix
until until this becomes a nice ball of
dough it’ll be about 2 to 3 minutes and
you’ll see what that looks
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like my Dough’s been mixing for about 2
and a half minutes I want to take a look
at it because every day is different and
when you make bread where you are the
weather the time of day everything will
affect how this recipe
works so it’s definitely much stretchier
it should be pulling away from the sides
of the bowl and it’s kind of sticking to
them and when I touch it with my finger
the dough is still sticking to my finger
that shouldn’t happen so I’m going to
keep mixing it but also add in about 2
tbspoon of flour maybe you added a
little bit too much water at the
beginning it might be a humid day who
knows where the stars are aligned so
every time you make bread or any kind of
dough you should think of the amount of
flour as a basic guide and if you need
more add more I feel like I need more so
I’m adding two
tablespoons I’m
also going to scrape the bowl down just
because that last addition of flour is
not going to incorporate evenly
otherwise yeah see it’s just totally
sticking to my finger still and if I
touch it it’s not bouncing back as much
as it should so let’s give this one more
minute of
mixing already this looks so much better
it’s forming a b all it’s pulling away
from the sides and just a little bit of
flour went a long way and by the way
like not every dough is the same so if
you were making something like my air
fryer Donuts those are basically magic
because you’re using an air fryer and
creating a melt in your mouth really
light and Airy donut to do that you have
to use so little flour it’s a very
sticky dough but for other things like
pizza dough you want to have more
substance a chewier crust so you’re
adding more flour and Do’s for different
recipes are going to have totally
different qualities okay let’s give this
a
test so now not sticking to my fingers
excellent it was pulling away and I
think it’s giving a good bounce back now
we want to lightly oil a large bowl just
a little
bit and work that up the sides with your
hand I’ve been making so many really
enriched dos for things like and
cinnamon rolls they’re chalk full of
butter and milk and other things that
are delicious which means that they’re
much less sticky this traditional dough
with only a tablespoon of olive oil will
really stick to your bowl so you can’t
skip the
oil all
right now let’s grab our beautiful dough
I think of French bread as something
that’s always existed but it actually
hasn’t always been around because what
makes it possible first of all a French
bread should be like chewy and light and
Airy on the inside but crisp on the
outside and if you’ve made bread you
know that to get that crispy exterior
you need steam so this really stuck so
what made french bread possible was the
invention of the steam oven in the 19th
century and once that happened people
loved the play of textures and just like
the magic it could create with bread
making so French bread was born all
right my dough is is Comfortably
situated in my lightly oiled bowl and
I’m going to cover it with a dampened
Bonnet but you could use plastic
wrap this goes into a warm cozy place to
double in size it’ll be about an hour in
you
go my dough is doubled in size and I
thought I was being so slick using my
favorite Bonnet not
realizing that this dough was sticky I
literally said this dough was so sticky
so it’s stuck to my Bonnet that’s okay I
just didn’t want to use plastic
wrap you know we all make mistakes it’s
fine and this isn’t going to affect how
it tastes it’s just I am losing like a
tablespoon of dough but I wanted to show
you
because unfortunate things happen in the
kitchen to
everybody all right my dough looks
beautiful it’s doubled in size I’m going
to dump this out onto a lightly flowered
surface and we have some dividing and
shaping to do this homemade French bread
is going to be so delicious and I
honestly think it’s just a really fun
satisfying thing to make okay there we
go really wasn’t lying about the
stickiness of this dough it’s pretty
crazy divide your dough into two equal
pieces and if you want to have more
baguettes that are smaller just divide
into three
pieces all right I’m going to shape my
dough into a 9x 12 in r rectangle
doesn’t have to be
perfect once you have that approximately
9x 12 in rectangle we’re going to roll
this up just like a jelly roll to get
our baguette shape start on the long
side and just give it a
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roll here we go and now you have a
choice you can use a baking sheet lined
with parchment paper or you can pull out
your special baguette pan Which I bought
years ago and use
occasionally this pan is special because
it’s covered in holes so there’s good
air circulation for a really crisp dough
throughout and of course it’s shaped so
it can hold these baguettes and they
keep their round form if you don’t have
one it’s totally fine I will just say
that your baguette might spread a little
bit it’s
fine transfer this
over and repeat repeat for the remaining
dough rolling a dough like this will
give you a nice tighter structure on the
outside and a compact structure on the
inside it’s just a good way to form your
dough it’s similar to if you’re making a
loaf of sour dough where you’re
tightening the edge as you roll it just
forming a really nice skin we’re going
to cover these Loosely and allow them to
rise until they’re visibly puffed after
20 minutes of Rise time we’re going to
heat our oven to 375 so it’s nice and
hot and then give these another 10 10 to
20 minutes or until they have that nice
puff before we bake them I’m going to go
over how to get that crisp shell if you
don’t have a steam oven at home I don’t
have a steam oven at home but we can
make our oven
steamy 30 minutes later my baguettes are
noticeably puffed and they’re almost
ready to go into the oven use a sharp
knife or a bread lame and we’re going to
cut three slashes down the middle to
control the expansion during the bake
my French bread is ready to go into the
oven 375 for 25 to 30 minutes or until
it is beautifully golden brown I also
have 3/4 of a cup of hot water here this
is going to go into a pan on the lower
rack it’ll steam up and really help my
baguettes crisp
up
one
two three
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once cooled give it a slice and you’re
ready to
enjoy look at this bread is so beautiful
and crisp as can be on the outside the
inside is pillowy soft with a wonderful
chew that is just good bread no way
around it I hope you had a chance to
make this recipe and if you like this
video check out my bread playlist
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