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This French Bread can be ready and hot out of the oven in 1 hour! Yes, that’s right..fresh bread, piping hot, smeared with butter. Yummy.
Last week I was making homemade lasagna and couldn’t stop thinking about French bread to go with it. I have had homemade bread on my mind since I recently got a new French bread pan and was excited to try it out. But it was already late in the day and I wasn’t sure I had time to get the bread mixed, let it rise and cooked before I planned to served dinner.
I found a French bread recipe, made a few changes and started gathering the ingredients. I was determined to put this together in a short period of time to have to serve with our dinner that night.
We love fresh, homemade bread and rolls. We just try and be sensible about how much of it we eat. If I make it, we eat it!
As soon as this came out of the oven, I’ll admit we sliced it and had half of the loaf ate before the lasagna finished cooking!
This recipe makes 3 loafs of bread.
After dinner, I immediately wrapped one really well in a few layers of plastic wrap and put it in the freezer (trying to control our portions since we often have no will-power! lol)
And, by the way, the French bread pan works great. I love it and can’t wait to try it again. I’ve made French bread in the past and used a sheet pan or baking pan to let it rise and bake on. It has spread out and flattened to the point it covered a large area of a sheet pan and did not resemble a loaf of bread, but rather looked like a Focaccia bread. It was still good, just didn’t look pretty and certainly didn’t resemble a ‘loaf’ of bread. This French bread pan is molded to make certain the bread keeps it shape. This pan is also perfect for baguettes.
This recipe makes softer French bread that is slightly crusty on the outside and super soft on the inside. I prefer this to a really crispy crust that is sometimes tough and hard to slice.
1 Hour French Bread
Equipment
- Stand mixer
Ingredients
- 2 tbs instant yeast (I used Fleischmann's in the 4 oz jar)
- 2 cups warm water (I turned my faucet on and let the hot water run until I had the hottest tap water possible)
- 2 tbs sugar
- 3 tbs vegetable or olive oil
- 2 1/2 tsp salt
- 5 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 large egg white
- 1 1/2 tbs water
Instructions
- In a stand mixer bowl add the yeast, water and sugar. With the dough hook attachment in place mix on lowest speed just for a few seconds.
- Let the yeast, water and sugar set for 3-5 minutes until mixture is bubbly. If the yeast doesn't proof start over and check the expiration date on your yeast. (This step has to be accomplished in order for the yeast to rise later.)
- Add in the oil and salt and mix for a few seconds.
- Start adding the flour slowly, one cup at a time and mix on low speed. You may not need all 5 1/4 cups of flour or you may need to add just a little more at a time until you've reached the right consistency. The dough should start to pull away from the sides of the bowl and form a ball around the mixer's dough hook.
- Once you've added the flour, turn the mixer on medium to high speed and 'knead' the dough for 2 minutes.
- Remove the mixer bowl from the stand mixer and cover the bowl with a clean dish towel. Let the dough set and rise undisturbed for 15 minutes.
- Sprinkle some flour onto the surface of a clean workspace (I used my countertop). Punch the dough down and divide into 3 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a long shape the length of your pan. (Roll it into shape with both hands. This shouldn't be complicated and the hands on time should be minimal.)
- Place the dough onto the pan (I used a French bread pan) that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Cut 5-6 diagonal slits across the tops of each loaf.
- Let the dough rise again for about 10 minutes while your oven is preheating to 375 degrees. If it rises for any longer it will begin to over-rise.
- Bake for 22 minutes on oven rack placed on the middle position in oven.
- Remove the bread and brush with water and egg white mixture (just whisk together in a small bowl). This will make the bread more crusty. Bake for 2-5 more minutes.
- TRY to let cool slightly before slicing!
Notes
Recipe Notes:
The first step in making bread with yeast is make sure you are NOT using expired yeast. Mix the yeast, sugar and water together with a whisk or the lowest speed of a stand mixer. After setting for 3-5 minutes it should start changing texture and become bubbly and foamy. Sometimes you can actually see it moving. This is what you want. If you don't accomplish this first, important step, there really is no reason to continue with your recipe - the bread will NOT rise properly and probably not be very good.Dixie
Also try these One Hour Dinner Rolls!
