Homemade French Bread Recipe

Easy homemade french bread recipe that is soft on the inside with the perfect crusty top. So simple to mix up and SO delicious.

A few more homemade breads I'm certain you will love include No Knead Bread, Pumpkin Bread with Cinnamon Crust, and Banana Bread with Sour Cream.

Finding recipes that I know I will make over and over again makes me so happy.  This homemade French bread recipe is one of those recipes.

It comes together very quick, with great results.  This time, we enjoyed the bread toasted with melting butter and honey, but there are a variety of ways to utilize this fabulous homemade French bread recipe.

I am imagining using it next time for mini french bread pizzas and sweet french toast for Sunday brunch.

With this round of loaves, we also enjoyed a french bread sandwich with toasted bread, fresh turkey deli meat, sliced provolone and a touch of dijon mustard. SO good.

This bread will also be perfect as a side at Thanksgiving to either spread with butter and cranberry sauce or use to  soak up extra gravy and stuffing.  Yum.

A simple french bread pizza recipe would be a slice of this delicious bread with marinara sauce slathered on, freshly grated mozzarella cheese, and a few pieces of pepperoni.  Such a treat.

Tips for this quick french bread recipe:

1. Use either a baker's lame or a pizza cutter to score your bread.  I used to use a sharp knife, but am finding the lame or pizza cutter to be an easier and cleaner process.
2. Immediately after placing bread dough in the oven, throw in 3-4 ice cubes in the bottom of your oven and close the oven door.  The condensation from the ice cubes melting helps to give the bread that fabulous french bread crispness we all know and love.
3. After removing bread from oven, immediately slather the top with melted butter, for an extra kick of delicious buttery goodness.

If you're like me, you might have always wondered how to make store bought french bread...well, guess what, now you know how.  And, its simple and easy to whip up.  Who knew?

Hope you enjoy this as much as we did.

5 from 1 vote

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Homemade French Bread Recipe

Easy homemade french bread recipe that is soft on the inside with the perfect crusty top. So simple to mix up and SO delicious.

Course Side Dish

Prep Time 1 hour 20 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 50 minutes

Servings 20

Calories 154 kcal

Ingredients

• 2 ¼ cups warm water
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp instant dry yeast
• ¾ tbsp kosher salt
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 6 cups all-purpose flour

Instructions

1. In bowl of stand mixer set up with a dough hook, on low speed, combine warm water, sugar and yeast.

2. Add in the salt, oil, and 3 cups of flour, and mix on medium low speed until combined.  On medium low speed, gradually add in about 3 cups more flour.  You will know you have added in enough flour when the dough starts to pull apart from the sides of the mixing bowl and forms a soft dough ball.  If your dough is sticking to the sides, add a ¼ cup of flour at a time until it pulls apart from bowl side easily.

3. Transfer the dough ball into a lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel.  Let the dough sit in bowl to rise to double its size.  This should take about an hour.

4. Remove the dough from the bowl when ready and divide into two pieces.  Pat and pull each piece into about a 9x13 rectangle.  Once in a rectangle shape, roll dough into a french bread loaf shape, pinching the ends to seal.  Place the two bread dough loafs, seam side down on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.   

5. Cover dough with plastic wrap or kitchen towel and let rise for about an hour, until their size has almost doubled.

6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees, and place oven rack in center position.  With a pizza cutter or baker's lame, score the bread by cutting about 5-6 gashes at an angle on top of each loaf.

7. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden and completely baked through.  Let cool for 10 minutes and serve warm with butter and honey.  SO good.

Recipe Notes

Adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

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