This is probably the most inexpensive bread I make because of its simple, short ingredient list…water, salt, sugar, and flour. Water and salt are practically free, a tablespoon of sugar costs pennies, and flour isn’t very pricey either.
This recipe is not going to turn out artisanal loaves that rival what you’d get in a French bakery…this bread is more like a heartier version of what you’d buy in your local supermarket.
If you’d like to make your loaves more nutritious, you can substitute whole wheat flour for part of the white flour(I wouldn’t sub more than 50% of it, personally).
I use this bread recipe quite often…we eat the loaves when they’re fresh and hot, I use the dough to make bread bowls, and I make panini sandwiches, French Bread pizzas, and garlic bread with extra loaves. Because of this, I rarely make one loaf! It’s just as easy to make two, and then you can freeze one to use later.
Since the dough has very little sweetening and no added fat(both of which act as preservatives), you’ll want to use or freeze your bread within a few days to prevent mold.
Easy French Bread(a less picture-heavy version is here, for easier printing)
Makes one loaf
2 1/4-2 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 pkg(2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
1 cup warm water(120 degrees F)
In the bowl of a standing mixer, combine 1 cup flour with the salt, sugar, and yeast.
Add water and beat for 3 minutes.
Beat in enough additional flour to make a soft but kneadable dough.
Turn dough out onto floured surface…
and knead for 3-5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic.
Place in bowl, cover with tea towel, and let rise 45 minutes(an hour if your house is cold).
Punch dough down and roll into a long rectangular shape. Starting from the long end, roll up jelly-roll style.
Place seam-side down on a greased baking sheet, cover with a wet tea towel, and let rise 30-45 minutes, or until doubled. How long this takes will depend on the climate of your house.(the loaves below are obviously not risen yet).
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Whisk one egg white with one tablespoon of water until slightly foamy. Using a pastry brush, gently brush beaten egg white onto loaves. Using a sharp knife, make 3-4 diagonal slashes on top of the loaf.
These loaves a bit over-risen…I got busy doing something else and forgot about them. Oops.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until nicely browned. Cool on a wire rack.
Happy Baking!
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Yeah and if you snatch a few packets of sugar from work or the next time you’re at a restaurant it’s even cheaper.
(just kidding of course.)
I’ve been thinking of trying French Bread for a while. Part of the reason is that I love getting a sub at either Subway or the local place but I can’t justify the price. French bread like this is … well moderately priced (I can get two 18 inch loaves at BJs for $3) but I can see this being a heck of a lot cheaper.
I do want to try using more whole wheat for my bread. Of course I’m also trying to find something to match the quality of those multi-grain breads at Subway (yes I know that honey oat is really just wheat bread rolled in a honey/oat topping but it’s still delicious!)
This is probably a silly question, but do you ever cover the bread with plastic? I used a towel once to cover the dough and the dough got stuck to the towel.
When I make french bread, I substitute whole grain spelt flour for half of the bread flour. I also use spelt flour in pita bread, naan and bagels.
I love French bread! There’s a picture of me at the age of 4 helping my dad make a few loaves – easiest recipe in the book. I never tried brushing the crust with egg white, though.
@Cheryl – Make sure you’re using a towel with a very low pile, like a flour sack style. If you still have a problem with the dough sticking, use a little oil to brush the surface of the dough instead of the egg white. I do that with my french loaves on days when it’s really humid (which is when the towel will be most likely to stick!).
Thanks so much for this! I’ve been wanting to get a decent french bread recipe to start making and keeping fb pizzas and garlic bread in the freezer for a while now. I can’t make this before Sunday – but I have a feeling I know what my afternoon then will look like now.
Rather flour covered and smelling yeasty.
I frequently make baguettes (I found a baguette pan for a quarter at a thrift store!), but how do you make bread bowls? For instance, how many bowls would this batch of dough make? How do you get it to stay spherical, rathern than sagging into a flat circle? How long do you bake them? Inquiring minds want to know!!!
Love your blog–I look forward to it every day. Some day I’m going to get brave enough to sand & paint my own furniture findings.
I’m going to make this right now! I love fresh made bread. Thanks, Kristen!
Kristen, I just noticed you use a standing mixer. I don’t have one- can I use this recipe and mix it by hand?
Angela-yep, you sure can. Just mix up the dough as thoroughly as you can before adding the last bit of flour, and then you might want to knead it a bit longer by hand. It should be nice and elastic when you’re done. Poke it quickly with your finger, and if the indentation fills in quickly, then you can be done kneading.
Thanks Kristen, and for post on the question. I bake a lot of “quick breads” like pumpkin, banana, gingerbread, etc. and those obviously don’t need the stand mixer. And I know you don’t actually NEED the stand mixer, because like you said, people have been baking bread for centuries. I always have to remind friends of that when they’re incredulous that I don’t own a food processer, because I bake so much, and do it all by hand. But I wondered what the difference would be with your recipes if you wanted to do it by hand, and you’ve answered that very thoroughly in the post. Thanks so much!
I made the bread last night. It was awesome. Thanks for the recipe.
I made this Sunday night, and it was delicious!
Can I double this, or am I better off making two loaves separately?
Des, you can make as many loaves as you want at one time. I made four yesterday, in fact!
Kristen,
I am loving this super handy recipe, and was wondering if I could run it as a guest post on The Non-Consumer Advocate?
Thanks,
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
Found this recipe at Katy’s blog, and made it for the first time on Sunday morning. By Sunday afternoon it was all gone! And I couldn’t believe how easy it was. Thanks soooooo much for sharing it.
I’m going to try it. I made the grilled pizzas last night, and my crust didn’t rise while cooking. I discovered, after researching posts here, that I had too much flour. We still had the pizzas, though. They were just thin crust. Very thin crust!
Can you roll other things into the loaves like herbs and spices? Maybe butter? Will that affect the rising while cooking? Just wondering.
I’m going to try it. its much more cheaper than our bread that we sell here in our bakery!
I love making this bread because it doesn’t require a loaf pan. I only have one loaf pan, I think I need more with all of these great bread recipes. Thanks.
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. It was delicious and easy enough to motivate me to make my own bread more often! I think I’m going to try your garlic bread next.
Yay Kristen! I did it! I made my first yeast bread and broke my kneading virginity
I’m so happy and thanks to you and your blog, I did it. I followed your slideshow of photos dutifully and my french bread came out brillantly. I made two loaves and plan to use one tonight w/ a yummy vegetable soup and use the second tomorrow for your french bread pizza recipe. You rock, Kristen. Keep up the great work and especially, Wednesday baking 
My 8 year old son and I made this today. It was very easy, super fun, and so delicious. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
I would loke to know how to make the bread bowls.
I will never buy French bread again! Thank you so much for a god recipe. I went on a baking frenzy last night. It turned out so good, I’ll think I will use it for steak sandwhiches next time.
I haven’t been reading your blog for very long, so I’m so glad you linked to this in your “Beef au Jus” post. Making bread products from scratch and quickly making my short list of things to add to my kitchen repertoire, and this one sounds like a great place to start!
This bread can even get cheaper yet. Instead of buying those small pkgs of active dry yeast, try buying a bulk pkg of yeast and freezing the extra for future use. I have done so for about the last ten years. My last yeast purchase was about three years ago with no poor performances to date.
Another great recipe-and again thanks for sharing! Made it yesterday and it is delicious!! A little bit left over to go with tonights meal! (just two of us or it woulda been GONE)
I’ve made this a few times recently, and it’s so yummy. Kristen, if you double the recipe, do you also double all the ingredients (yeast and all?). Also, have you tried this in a bread machine?
This recipe is great! My roll ended up longer and skinner than yours though. I should have cooked for about 10 minutes only. It ended up so tasty! Thanks!
Kristen, thank you so much for this great recipe, i am making this bread every week now.So easy, tasty and cheap!!!! THANKS a bunch!!!
BTW:love your website and admire you too !!!
Thank you for sharing this recipe! I had all but given up hope that I would ever be able to make a loaf of french bread where the crust wasn’t as hard as a rock! The very first time I made this recipe the bread came out golden brown, and I was so fearful that once it cooled the crust would be hard as always. But it was sooo soft and delicious! Thank you for this recipe!!