Today on The Stay At Home Chef
I'm showing you how to make Perfect Homemade French Bread.
I've been regularly making this recipe for my family for about 12 years now.
After hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of loaves, it's still a family favorite.
Today we're going to be making ours in a stand mixer,
but you can also do this by hand.
This recipe only requires a few simple ingredients,
starting with 1 1/2 tablespoons of instant dry yeast.
Then we'll add in 2 cups of warm water,
you want it to be just warm to the touch like a baby's bath water.
If you're using active dry yeast instead of instant dry yeast,
you use the same amount,
but you'll let this sit for about 5 minutes.
Then we'll add in 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt,
and we'll start adding in our flour.
You'll need somewhere between 4 1/2 and 5 cups.
You can always add in more flour,
but you can't take it away,
so start with a lower amount and add more as needed.
You can use either bread flour or all-purpose flour.
Both will work in this recipe.
We'll get this mixing on a low speed, and increase the speed slowly as the mixture starts to come together.
The dough should start to pull away from the sides of the bowl, and if it doesn't add more flour.
You want to end up with a nice smooth soft dough that's tacky, but not sticky enough that it sticks to your hands.
Then we're going to transfer this to a lightly greased mixing bowl,
then cover it with either a tea towel or plastic wrap,
and let it rise until double in size which will take about one hour.
Lucky for you I already have one that's ready.
You can see it rises quite a bit.
Once it's risen you'll remove the plastic wrap,
then we'll turn it out onto a clean countertop,
and we're gonna divide it in half.
Then we're going to roll each half into a large rectangle,
probably about 12 x 18 inches.
Now once you have your rectangle you're going to start rolling it into a tight roll,
then once you get to the end
I like to roll it back and forth to kind of seal up the edges and taper it off,
then you can transfer these to a lightly greased baking sheet.
I do one per pan,
or if you plan on making french bread regularly I highly recommend buying a french bread pan.
It's $15 or $20 and it has all these holes in it.
It'll bake more evenly and give a better crust.
So I'm actually going to move mine over to this special pan,
repeat this with the other half of your dough so that you end up with 2 loaves.
We'll cover these and let this rise for about 30 - 45 minutes.
During the second rise get your oven preheating to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
When you're ready to bake you'll want to crack an egg into a bowl and grab a fork
and give this egg a good little beating.
Then we'll set that aside for just a second and grab a sharp knife,
then we're going to score the loaves,
which means you just do a little maybe 1/4 inch slice directly into the bread.
Bread expands as it bakes,
and so scoring the dough allows some of that energy to be released
so that the bread stays in its correct shape.
Then grab that beaten egg and we're going to brush it on top of the loaf
which will give us a nice shiny crust.
An important distinction to make is that this is French bread,
which is actually an American type of bread that's found in every grocery store,
it is not meant to be an authentic French baguette.
Then we'll bake this in the 375 degree oven for about 35 - 40 minutes.
Once your loaves have finished baking transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Now technically you're not supposed to slice into warm bread.
You want to let it cool completely before you slice into it.
That is part of the baking process,
but I know just how tempting it is to have a warm slice,
so I won't judge you either way.
Your loaves are best eaten within 24 hours.
Thanks for watching.
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