Farm House French Bread

Farm House French Bread

One thing I really enjoy doing is baking. But recently I have found myself in a bread rut. What I mean is, I have my go to recipes and recently all I have been making is white bread or sweet yeast rolls. Now there is nothing wrong with a tried and true recipe, but it gets boring! The other day a friend of mine, Janet, from Timber Creek Farm made up a retro French bread and it got me to thinking….. Why have I never made French bread!?!?

So, with a desire in my heart and flour in my pantry, I decided to break the bread rut I was in. It was high time to make some French bread. But what makes French bread, well French bread?

When I started looking into, I opened a can of culinary worms so to speak. Some say it is the type of flour used, others the shape, and still others have differing ideas. It can get very confusing and overwhelming all at the same time. Who knew French bread was such a controversial topic! After sifting through all the info, I decided, for me, it came down to this……

French bread, such as the baguette, in its truest form, must be made from flour, water, yeast and salt. By French laws, yes, France takes their bread VERY seriously, bread cannot have added oil or fat. And don’t even get them started on % of types of flour used and what you can legally call a loaf, depending on what is in it, how it was baked, where it was baked…… Culinary can of worms!

So for this Farm Girl, I went with a pure flour, water, yeast and salt recipe, because, well, I didn’t want the French coming to get me! So here it is, Farm House French Bread that even the French I think could approve of…..

Ingredients
3 Cups of flour
1 Cup of warm water
1 packet of active dry yeast
1 teaspoon of salt

Now I have always “proofed” my yeast, and what I mean by this is that I feed it sugar to see if it is still alive. But, since I didn’t want the French after me, I skipped the sugar and just put it all in a bowl and hoped for the best.

Since I don’t own a stand mixer, I had to not only mix my dough up by hand, but kneed it by hand as well. You need to knead the heck out French bread to get it nice and elastic. What I mean is that it will have a smooth appearance to it, like this…….

Now it is time to place the dough in a lightly greased bowl and let it rise. Some people claim that for “real” French bread you need to let is rise slow at a low temperature for a long time. Well guess what, I disagree. I let my dough rise for an hour before punching it down. I let the dough sit for 10 minutes to rest before rolling it out into a rectangle. Once I had it rolled out, I rolled it up, making sure to pin the ends and seam very well. You do not want your bread pulling apart or it will lose it’s shape.

Once you have your “classic” long narrow French bread loaf, place it on a lightly greased cookie sheet and let it raise again for another hour. While you preheat your oven to 375 degrees, you will make those traditional French bread slits on the top of your loaf. I did three on mine. If I had made it long, I would have put a few more slits….. they just look cool! Bake your bread for about 40 minutes. It should have a hollow sound when you tap it.

Let your loaf set to cool before cutting, this give the crust time to totally firm up. And let me tell you, this Farm House French Bread has some great flaky crust and amazing soft and chewy insides. As easy as this was, I have no clue why I had never made French bread before….. maybe because I thought it was one of those “artisan” breads, but it isn’t. And trust me, I will not go for long before whipping up another loaf. Why? Well because my family really enjoyed it and after just one meal, it is all gone already!




23 thoughts on “Farm House French Bread

  1. Oooo…. thank you – a recipe that I may just be able to tackle!!
    On my to do list…
    Angie xxx

    1. I was surprised by how good it turned out as it really wasn't any harder then white or Italian bread!

  2. This sounds and looks really good and not too difficult, thanks for sharing at Good Morning Mondays. Blessings

  3. I found you through the Project Inspired link party. I can hardly wait to try this recipe. It sounds and looks delicious! Thank you.

    1. I am so glad you came by! This is an easy, yummy recipe. I hope your family loves it as much as mine.

  4. Im going to try this one. Lately I been in a journey with bread, some recipes has been very successful other not so. Thanks for sharing your recipe.

  5. OH LA LA … this sounds divine… Yes , the French do take their bread serious… on my trip to Paris in 2010 I learned that bakeries had to apply for vacation if they were as bakeries had to remain open within walking distance for people. So if baker A didn't get his request in before Baker B and they were planning at the same time to be closed … Baker A would not be permitted. Gotta love the baguette … visiting from Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop

    1. I have never been to France, but just reading all their bread law! LOL Oh my! So glad you hopped by! Who knew vacation time for bakers was so brutal!

  6. This is the same few ingredients I use to make bread, but did not know it is French, lol. thanks for linking on #mum-bomonday

  7. I love homemade bread. Your recipe is wonderful. Thank you very much for joining in the celebration of #purebloglove, we enjoy having you each week. I hope to see you on Thursday at 8PM, EST through Sunday night. ~Cydnee

  8. We love french bread and this one looks amazing! Thank you so much for linking up at Tasty Tuesday! Your recipe has been pinned to the Tasty Tuesday Pinterest board! Please join us again this week!

  9. I just saw another french bread recipe and I am so excited to try it out! I have never made bread or try to make the dough rise. I'm always afraid that's the part that I feel like I would mess up. Pinning and sharing! Thanks for sharing this at Totally Terrific Tuesday. I can't wait to see what you have for this week!

    Sharon
    herorganizedchaos.com

    1. Making bread I easier then you think. And what if something goes wrong (which I doubt it will)? Your our couple dollars in ingredients and your start over and try again. The worst thing that could happen is your yeast is bad and doesn't proof. Always proof your yeast. You can do this!

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