French Bread

French Bread

yield: two loaves

start to finish: two hours

Ingredients:

2 cups very hot water, but not boiling. About as hot as your tap can go.

1 tablespoon active yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon kosher salt (or slightly less if using regular salt)

 5 1/2 to 6 cups all-purpose flour

(optional) Spray bottle of filtered water

Step 1:

Dissolve sugar in hot water in a 2-cup measuring glass. Quickly stir in yeast until completely dissolved and let it sit and proof for 5-6 minutes, until yeast is foamy. 

Step 2:

In a large, wide, bowl combine yeast mixture and 3 cups flour with a wooden or spatula spoon. Stir well, then mix in 1 cup more. Continue stirring and kneading in additional flour in 1/2 cup amounts, two to three more times. Dough will start to form a ball, knead by hand until very smooth, but just slightly sticky. This entire step can also be done in a stand mixer with a dough hook on low, but may take a bit more flour.

Step 3:

Lightly coat the inside of a large bowl with cooking spray, place dough ball inside and cover bowl with cling wrap or a clean, damp towel. Allow to rise in a warm place for 1 hour, but not longer or dough will collapse. 

Step 4:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray baguette pan lightly with cooking spray. Divide dough in half, and shape each half into two baguette shapes, slightly shorter than the baguette pan. Cover with a clean towel, and allow to rise for 30 minutes, but not longer. 

Step 5:

Spray risen loaves with filtered water and use a sharp knife or exacto knife to slice two long slashes in each loaf. Place loaf pan in oven and bake for 20 minutes. If you want a nice snappy crust, loaves can be sprayed with water a couple times during baking. You can bake a minute or two more if you like very toasty crust.

Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes, and to release loaves, give the pan a good tap on the counter and use a knife to loosen the loaves if they’re really stuck.

Extra Tip:

If you have a gas oven (with no electric coil on the floor), a large stainless bowl filled with a kettle-worth of boiling water can be placed in the preheated oven right before baking. This adds steam and makes a great crusty loaf, and can be done in place of or in addition to spraying the loaves with water. The creator of this recipe actually would open the oven door and just toss a handful of water in the hot oven during baking to create steam, but ended up ruining her oven that way, so she switched to the bowl method. The whole steam process isn’t actually necessary, and I used this recipe successfully for a decade without it, but it was worth it once I tried it out and never went back. I usually use the large bowl from Step 3 for the boiling water. I used glass once, only once, and ended up with a kitchen baptized in broken glass. Hopefully eliminating these trials and errors will offer you a great baking experience from your first try!