Easy French Bread Recipe

Easy French Bread

Easy French Bread Printable Recipe
Makes one loaf

2 1/4-2 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 pkg (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (120°F)

In the bowl of a standing mixer, combine 1.5 cups flour with the salt, sugar, and yeast.

Add water and beat for 3 minutes.

Beat in enough additional flour to make a soft but kneadable dough.

Turn dough out onto floured surface…

and knead for 3-5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic.

Place in bowl, cover with tea towel, and let rise 45 minutes (an hour if your house is cold).
Punch dough down and roll into a long rectangular shape. Starting from the long end, roll up jelly-roll style.

Place seam-side down on a greased baking sheet, cover with a wet tea towel, and let rise 30-45 minutes, or until doubled. How long this takes will depend on the climate of your house.

(The loaves below are obviously not risen yet).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. A hot, fully-preheated oven is key for a brown crust, so don’t be tempted to default to 350°F and do wait patiently for your oven to get to temperature.

This next stop is optional…it just makes for a shinier crust:

Whisk one egg white with one tablespoon of water until slightly foamy. Using a pastry brush, gently brush beaten egg white onto loaves.

Using a sharp knife, make 3-4 diagonal slashes on top of the loaf.

These loaves are a bit over-risen…I got busy doing something else and forgot about them. Oops.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until nicely browned. Cool on a wire rack.

recipe source here