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Homemade French Bread
Simple, quick, and easy homemade French bread recipe.
Kids can even make this bread. For real. It’s that easy. Making any bread from scratch can be a daunting task and it’s easy to be intimidated by the whole process. I am going to break it down and hopefully ease any worries. You may even become a master bread maker!
This Homemade Bakery French Bread can be done in a little more than one hour which means you can have hot, fresh bread straight out of the oven when the kids get home from school even if you don’t start baking until afternoon. You won’t need to run to the bakery for your french bread anymore when you can make better bread at home….in no time flat.
I taught a culinary class for kids in both Texas and Arizona and I’ve watched 7-year-olds tackle this homemade French bread recipe. I loved seeing the pictures those kids sent me showing the french bread masterpieces they made for their families.
As a child, I remember riding my bike home from school and opening the back door to the smells of homemade bread baking in the oven. My Mom always said that she could live on bread alone so bread was always essential in our home. There’s nothing more comforting than a hot piece of bread straight from the oven covered in churned butter and homemade strawberry jam.
Let’s get down to the basics so you can start baking.
How to make quick and easy homemade bakery french bread:
- Making sure the yeast proofs is essential. Using fresh yeast is important and mixing with warm water (not too hot, not too cold) will ensure success. Yeast loves sugar so add a pinch of sugar to the mixture. Let it work for about 10 minutes.
- Adding flour one cup at a time is important so you can see when the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. That’s when you know it’s ready. Put flour down on the counter so the dough doesn’t stick. That isn’t fun. I love my Bosch mixer and can find a great deal on one below.
- Using rolling pin, roll out into a 9 x 12 rectangle. Roll up lengthwise and mold into french loaf. I love this marble rolling pin.
- The loaves don’t have to look perfect. I rolled these babies in 7 1/2 minutes flat before I sprinted to my little girl’s performance. Don’t forget to make 3-4 diagonal cuts with a sharp knife before placing on silpat or greased cookie sheet. These silicone baking sheets make it so easy to remove the bread from the baking sheet. Let rise for 30-40 minutes.
- Bake at 375 degrees for 18-22 minutes until lightly golden brown. Watch it carefully to turn a light golden brown color.
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Homemade Bakery French Bread
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons Yeast
- 1/2 cup Warm Water
- 2 cups Hot Water
- 3 Tablespoons Sugar
- 2 1/2 teaspoons Salt
- 1/3 cup Oil
- 6 1/2 cups Flour
- 1 Egg for brushing on bread
Instructions
- In a small bowl, dissolve your yeast in ½ cup warm water. Make sure that your water is warm (not too cold, not too hot). Let proof for 10 minutes.
- In a separate mixing bowl, combine hot water, sugar, salt, oil and 3 cups of the flour and mix together. Add the yeast mixture to a bowl.
- Add the remaining 3 1/2 cups of flour, one cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Watch for it to start pulling away from the bowl to know it's ready. Once all of the flour is added, let sit for 10 minutes.
- Separate your dough into 3 pieces. On a floured surface roll each piece into a 9x12 rectangle. Roll it up like a jelly roll. Shape into a french bread loaf and smooth out edges.
- Place the dough on a greased baking pan or a Silpat, seam side down. Using a knife, make 3-4 diagonal cuts about 1/4 inch thick in bread. Brush with your beaten egg.
- Let dough rise uncovered for 30-40 minutes in a warm place.
- Bake at 375 for 18-22 minutes or until golden brown.
Video
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Happy Baking, my friends! I can’t wait to hear what you think about this quick and easy homemade french bread.
This bread was amazing and came out perfectly! I followed the directions as is. Will definitely be making again!! Thank you for sharing!!
I am giving this recipe five stars because my bread turned out wonderfully! Thank you for posting this.
However, I’m wishing/hoping/encouraging you to respond to the several questions that have been asked about this recipe – some of these answers would be helpful to me – and it just seems courteous to respond.
Thanks again for a recipe I will be holding on to and using often. 🙂
Just made this today for the first time! It was perfection! I was leery because I used a wooden spoon to mix until I couldn’t see any dry flour and it was a little sticky and gooey but I rolled it around a well floured surface before rolling it and it was perfect! I wish I could upload pics!
This is such a simple and delicious bread!
Can you freeze this bread once you bake it?
Yep. Have been doing this for a few years. I actually slice mine up (I use it for garlic bread and this makes it to where I can just grab however many slices I want).
Hi Kathy! Yes, I love this recipe because the bread freezes so well. Make sure that the bread cools to room temperature, then place it in a freezer safe ziplock bag. I hope that this helps, good luck! And thank you for using my recipe.
Can you make this with 100% whole wheat flour or white wheat flour?
I don’t see why you couldn’t make this bread with those flours. I just would use a gluten free flour with the recipe.
Rosalyn, my daughter in law is gluten intolerant & last weekend she was lamenting how much she misses bread! I would love to make this for her, but I’ve read it can be problematic to just sub gluten free flour in a recipe. Are you saying that is all I need to do differently in this recipe? If so, any recommendation on which flour would work best?
I’m just getting into bread making & would appreciate your advice!
If I was you, I would do some research on gluten free flour for the bread recipe. Different gluten-free and alternative flours provide different functions. You often have to use more than 1 gluten-free flour in a recipe to achieve a similar result to using regular flour.
Do you think I could add raisins and cinnamon to this recipe without issue?
Not the type of bread that I would add cinnamon and raisins to it. All depends on your own preference of the type of bread you like as this one is white French bread.
Yes, you can use either flour! White flour is going to be a lot fluffier, wheat flour tends to be pretty dense and sort of heavy. I would recommend doing a mix (about 50/50) of each flour to get the same fluffiness of the white flour while adding some of the nutrients of the wheat. Hope that helps!
Bread was AMAZING. I substituted half the oil for butter too. Overall no complaints and will make again.
It’s in the oven rightnow! It’s a frozen tundra kind of day in WNY so I thought some bread baking was just what it needed!
Great recipe – thanks for posting! Super quick and easy. My family loved it!
Just made this recipe and it was so good! It totally exceeded my expectations. I will definitely be making this again. It was super easy and I love that you can multiply the recipe from the website. Thanks, Melissa.