French Bread Recipe "Easy"

A few weeks back I posted a yummy corn chowder recipe!  Very tasty and easy!  I also had made a loaf of french bread which I said I would post the recipe here.  Very easy!  Very Yummy!  I love the smell of bread baking.  Love warm bread with butter spread all over.  Oh my!

So you will need the following to make this bread.  Active Dry Yeast (not rapid rise), sugar, salt, flour, olive oil, and hot water (at least 110 not over 125 degrees).

Put your yeast into your mixer bowl along with one teaspoon of sugar.  Add hot water and proof until yeast is bubbly (about 5 minutes).  Add two and a half cups of flour, one teaspoon of salt into the yeast mixture.  With bread dough hook attached to mixer, mix the yeast and flour mixture until it starts to pull away from the mixing bowl.

Then take the dough out of the mixing bowl and dust your surface with a little bit of flour and knead until dough is no longer sticky (add flour as you go).

Place dough in a well oiled bowl and rub oil on top of dough and cover with plastic wrap.  Set in a warm place to rise (if your room is really warm it will take about 30 minutes) for approximately 45 minutes.

Punch dough down and spread out into an oblong shape - roll dough up gently and place in a french loaf pan or a cookie sheet cover with plastic wrap and let rise again for approximately 30 minutes.

Once bread has risen the second time remove plastic wrap and place bread in a pre-heated 450 degree oven for approximately 20 minutes until golden brown.  Remove from oven and let cool slightly before slicing and buttering.  Enjoy! (I put melted butter on top of this loaf after it cooled slightly)

French Bread Recipe

1 packet of active dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup hot water (110 - 125 degrees)

3 cups all purpose flour (I use unbleached flour)

1 tablespoon olive oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Mix yeast, sugar with hot water until yeast becomes bubbly (proofing the yeast).  Add two and a half cups of flour and mix until dough pulls away from the bowl.  Place on lightly floured surface and knead dough until smooth and no longer sticky (use the remaining flour as needed).  Place dough in bowl with olive oil and rub top of dough with oil and cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise for approximately 45 minutes.  Punch dough down and gently spread out into oblong shape, roll up into jelly roll shape and put in french loaf pan or cookie sheet.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise again for approximately 30 minutes.  Remove plastic wrap and bake in preheated oven for approximately 20 minutes until golden brown.  Enjoy!

Tip:  For those who do not have a stand mixer you can still do this recipe.  Follow the directions using a hand mixer but only add a half cup of flour at a time (do not add all the flour at once).  Depending on your hand mixer after adding one to two cups you will need to turn the dough out onto the counter and knead in the rest of the flour until it becomes smooth.  This process will take longer because you are actually adding the flour by kneading it into the dough.  Follow the rest of the recipe normally.