Thursday, January 20, 2011

Homemade French Bread

We had a family dinner the other day and I was in charge of bringing bread. We were having pasta so I really wanted to bring French bread but I have never made it before. I didn't want to go buy it because we are on a no spend challenge. After looking around I finally found a recipe to try. I am all about quick and easy and this recipe was just that. And it was delicious.

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 package yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
1 1/4 cups warm water

Place ingredients into your bread machine according to directions. Mine is liquid then dry ingredients. Set machine to dough cycle.

Once the cycle is complete remove onto a floured surface and cut dough in half. Take each half and roll into a loaf about 12 inches long.Place onto a greased cookie sheet, cover with a wet towel and allow to rise for about 1 hour (double in size).Using a sharp knife dipped in flour make slits 1/2 deep along the top.Preheat oven to 450. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Place on wire rack to cool. Optional: You can use an egg wash (whites of eggs mixed with a little bit of water) to brush over the top to make it more crunchy.

This post is part of Simple Lives Thursday at A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa.

3 comments:

  1. yummm!!!! I love to use my machine to mix my bread dough!! do you let it rise in there at all? yesterday I had fabulous results by taking it out w/30+minutes left on the timer & letting it rise on the stove (wheat onion bread). I think it might have risen better than other times I've let it rise in the machine then again on the stove.

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  2. I LOVE my bread machine. It has simplified my life so much. I let the machine do everything. My dough cycle is 1 hour and 20 minutes long. It rises quite well in the machine. Once it is done I just take it out and shape it into loaves and let it rise till double. So, so easy.

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  3. I use that same recipe for all my general bread. Sounds delicious though!

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