Crusty Country Style French Bread Recipes

CLASSIC AND CRUSTY FRENCH BREAD

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• In a large bowl, combine the water, yeast, sugar, and salt. Stir until dissolved.
• Mix in the bread flour, a little at a time, until a soft dough is formed.
• Turn the dough out onto a floured board and knead it for about 8 minutes.
• Put the dough in a greased bowl and flip the dough over so that all of the dough is lightly greased, including the dough top . Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let it rise in a warm, draft-free place for about 1 hour or until double in size.
• Punch down the dough .
• Give the dough a quick 2-minute knead.
• Divide the dough into 2 equal halves. Shape each half into a long loaf.
• Place the loaves on a lightly greased baking sheet. Make about 5 diagonal slits, 3/4 inch deep, into the top of each loaf.
• Cover loaves with a clean towel or greased plastic wrap and let them rise for 45 minutes or until double in size. Heat the oven to 400 F.
• If you'd like, brush the loaves with the beaten egg white for a shiny crust, and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds. Bake at 400 F for 5 minutes.
• Remove the loaves from the oven and use a mister or spray bottle to lightly spray the tops of the loaves with cold water. Turn the oven down to 350 F and bake the loaves for another 25 minutes or until done.
• Remove the loaves from the baking sheet and let them cool on a rack.

CRUSTY FRENCH BREAD

Steps:

• In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup water. Add the sugar, salt, shortening, remaining water and 3-1/2 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Do not knead. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. , Turn onto a floured surface. Divide in half; let rest for 10 minutes. Roll each half into a 10x8-in. rectangle. Roll up from a long side; pinch to seal. Place seam side down on 2 greased baking sheets sprinkled with cornmeal. Sprinkle the tops with cornmeal. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes. , With a very sharp knife, make 5 diagonal cuts across the top of each loaf. Bake at 400° until lightly browned, 20-30 minutes. Remove from pans to wire rack to cool.

CRUSTY FRENCH BREAD

Steps:

• Proof the yeast in the water and sugar.
• Knead in salt and flour until dough is well-developed.
• Let rise until double in size.
• Knead down gently, and allow to rise again.
• Form dough into two loaves and drop into greased bread pans. Allow to rise again.
• Bake at 400* until the loaves pull away from the pan edges, and sound hollow when tapped.
• *For really beautiful loaves, egg wash each toward the end of baking time with 1 well-beaten egg plus 1 TB of water.*.

COUNTRY CRUST BREAD

Steps:

• Dissolve yeast in warm (105-115 degree)water, let stand for five minutes.
• Add sugar, salt, eggs, 1/4 c oil, and 3 cups of flour. Mix well, and gradually add the remaining flour.
• Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic.
• Form into ball and place into a well greased bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled (1 1/2-2 hours).
• Punch down, divide in half and shape into two loaves and place in well greased pans.
• Grease tops, cover and let rise until doubled.
• Bake at 375 for 30-35 minutes.
• Remove from pans and brush with melted butter.
• A few tips:.
• For a quick rise: When you start the yeast to bloom, turn your oven on to the lowest setting. When yeast is bloomed, turn oven off. After placing the dough into the bowl, cover loosely with plastic wrap and place in the warm oven. It took mine 1 hour to double. Do the same thing after punching down and shaping the dough.
• Make sure to really oil the pans well, including the lip of the pans, or they will stick.

CRUSTY FRENCH BREAD

Steps:

• Dissolve yeast in water.
• Add other ingredients and enough flour to make a stiff dough.
• Let rise, punch down, and make into three or four long, thin loaves.
• Place on baking sheets dusted wiht corn meal and let rise.
• Cut gashes into loaves, and place into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.
• For a glaze, you can brush tops with mixture of one beaten egg white and 2 tablespoons of water.

YOUR OWN CRUSTY FRENCH BREAD

Steps:

• Dissolve yeast in very warm water.
• Stir well.
• Let proof for 10 minutes.
• Stir in 2 cups of the flour, sugar and salt until mixture is smooth; gradually beat in enough of the remaining 5 cups flour to make stiff dough.
• (Kitchen Aid is perfect for this).
• Turn out onto lightly floured pastry cloth or board and knead 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic, adding only enough more flour to keep dough from sticking.
• Return to bowl; brush top with soft shortening or oil and cover with clean towel or plastic wrap.
• Let rise till double in bulk in warm place away drafts (approximately 45-60 minutes).
• Punch dough down; cover; let rise again for 30 minutes (again in warm place away from drafts) or until double in bulk.
• While dough rises, make boat shaped baking pans as follows:.
• Tear off 3 twenty-inch-long sheets of heavy aluminum foil.
• Fold in sides of foil approximately 1"-1 1/2" on all 4 sides to form baking pan, this will allow the bread to rise up and not spread out into a flat shaped loaf by folding the short ends together to seal, pressing thumb inside to round slightly (shape into boat)with shortest ends slightly rounded.
• Spray with PAM and sprinkle lightly with corn meal.
• Punch dough down, knead 1 minute on lightly floured pastry cloth or board.
• Divide dough into thirds.
• Roll out with the palm of your hands to a rope approximately 18 inches long; place in prepared foil pan.
• Repeat with remaining two-thirds dough.
• Make 3-4 evenly spaced shallow cuts diagonally in the top of each loaf; brush with warm water and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
• Cover with clean towel and let rise in warm place away from drafts till double in bulk (approx. 30 min).
• Preheat oven to 450º.
• Place dish (I use an old aluminum pie plate) on lower shelf of oven and fill half way with hot tap water.
• Slide loaves on shelf above water.
• Bake for 15 minutes in 450º oven; reduce heat to 350º and bake 30 minutes longer.
• Bread is done when tapped and gives a hollow sound.
• Remove immediately from pans and let cool on cooling racks.
• Slice bread- spread each side with garlic butter- reassemble bread loaf and return to foil pans.
• Unfold edges to cover and warm in low oven (325º) till butter melts into bread.
• Serve warm.

CRUSTY FRENCH BREAD

Steps:

• In mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup water.
• Add sugar, salt, shortening and remaining water; stir until dissolved.
• Add flour and stir until smooth (do not knead). Cover and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled.
• Turn on to a floured surface. Divide in half; let rest for 10 minutes.
• Roll each half into 10-inch by 8-inch rectangle. Roll up from a long side; pinch to seal.
• Place seam side down on greased baking sheets sprinkled with cornmeal. Sprinkle the tops with cornmeal. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes.
• With a very sharp knife, make five diagonal cuts across the top of each loaf. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on wire racks.

EASY CRUSTY FRENCH BREAD

Steps:

• MIX THE DOUGH & FIRST RISE (1 HOUR):.
• Combine yeast, sugar, and warm water in a large mixing bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.
• Let the yeast proof for about 5 minutes, until the mixture is foamy.
• Add kosher salt and flour to bowl. Mix with your hands or a sturdy spatula, or mix on low speed with your stand mixer until all flour is incorporated and dough has just started to pull away from the sides of the bowl. For best results, mix until no dry bits of flour remain. Please note: This is a relatively slack (wet) dough, so it may seem a bit shaggy and sticky at this point. Don't worry - it will become more smooth and elastic as we go!
• Lightly flour all sides of your dough (don't mix the flour in - it's just to keep the dough from sticking!) and turn it over inside the mixing bowl to coat with flour on all sides. Cover with a clean tea towel and let rise on the counter for about 1 hour, until dough has doubled in size.
• SHAPE THE DOUGH & FINAL RISE (30 MIN):.
• When dough has risen, lightly flour a large cutting board.
• Tip the dough out of the bowl and onto the cutting board. DO NOT PUNCH THE DOUGH DOWN - you want to keep all those nice air bubbles intact so you have an airy, delicious loaf of bread. (Note: If the dough is sticking to the bowl a little bit, wet your hand with a bit of cold water and gently separate the dough from the bowl to get it all out).
• Sprinkle a bit of flour across the top of the dough, then begin shaping it into a round loaf. Pull each corner of the dough in towards the center (like you're folding an envelope) and repeat until the dough feels tight and begins to resist your folds. Flip the dough over and tap it into a round loaf.
• Flour a proofing basket or a medium bowl and place your loaf into it seam-side down. Cover with a tea towel and let rise another 30 minutes or so while you preheat the oven.
• HEAT THE OVEN :.
• While bread is rising, place an empty dutch oven (with the lid on) in your oven and heat to 460 degrees Fahrenheit.
• BAKE!
• When the oven is hot, you're ready to go! Use oven mitts to pull the dutch oven out and remove the lid.
• Lay a piece of parchment paper down on your counter or cutting board (optional - it makes transferring the bread easier!).
• Tip your bread dough gently out of the proofing basket onto the parchment paper. Make sure the seam side is up this time - this is what will create those beautiful cracks on top of the bread!
• VERY CAREFULLY (without burning yourself!) use the sides of the parchment to lift the bread up and place it into the hot Dutch oven.
• Put your oven mitts back on, place the dutch oven lid back on the pot, and slide the whole thing back into your hot oven.
• Cook bread for 30 minutes.
• After 30 minutes, remove the lid from your dutch oven. The bread should be taller, crusty, and very lightly browned. Continue cooking the bread, uncovered, for 10-15 minutes more until the bread has deepened in color and you have a beautiful brown crust.
• When bread is done, use oven mitts to pull the pot out of your oven.
• Use a long spatula or the corners of your parchment paper to lift the bread out of the dutch oven and onto a cooling rack. Let cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting into it.