There’s nothing like a good loaf (or two!) of crusty, chewy French bread at the dinner table. This recipe results in a beautifully browned and crisp crust, with a soft and chewy center. Slice it up for your bread basket, slather on some butter, and watch it vanish.
A few years ago, I started making my own bread with a passion. I think my bread baking obsession was fueled by the arctic air here… baking bread is wonderfully therapeutic when staying indoors is 120% better than stepping outside.
My favorite bready experiments include Homemade Bagels (totally not as scary as I’d feared) and mall-like Soft Pretzels.
Our nosh-worthy dinner breads include this fantastic Rustic Rosemary Garlic Bread and Better Than O.G. Breadsticks.
I’ve made this Crusty French Bread a few times, and it’s always terrific. If you’re in the market for making your house smell like a bakery and putting the most tasty loaf of French Bread on the dinner table, we’ve got your back.
We’re a day away from Thanksgiving, and some of us will have store bought dinner rolls on the menu. But if you really want to make your carb-lovers happy, make a loaf of this easy Crusty French Bread.
Yeah, but the yeast. Have no fear.
Because this recipe contains no heavy flours or add-ins, it rises super well. So well, in fact, that you can literally see the ballooning dough growing right in front of your face as you’re busy doing other things.
As long as your house isn’t a freezer, this baby will rise beautifully and fast.
First, make the dough, cover it up, and place it in the warmest part of your house.
I personally like to turn my oven on warm mode, turn it off (don’t forget that part,) and place the dough in it for rapid rising.
Here’s the dough nice and puffed to double in size.
After 30 minutes or so, start checking to see if your dough has doubled in size. The instructions say up 60 minutes, but that’s if the temperature in your kitchen is cool. If the dough is placed in a warm place, it will rise to double the size much sooner.
This is probably the only time the word punch is appropriately associated with solid food. Punch that dough down and shape your loaves.
Give it another 30 minutes or less to rise for a second rise to double the size.
Bake for less than 30 minutes total.
Golden, crusty homemade bread is about to emerge from your very own oven and wow everyone at the table.
Feel free to show off those gorgeous loaves before slicing for the bread basket.
This Crusty French Bread is perfect for dunking into hot soup like this one.
It’s also amazing with a slather of butter and straight into your mouth.
Or savagely tear into it with your hands and have a carb feast.
If you have leftovers, simply wrap the bread tightly in foil and leave at room temp. Reheat in oven the next day for another meal of bready deliciousness.
I haven’t tried this yet, but I believe this bread would freeze well wrapped tightly in foil. Defrost at room temp and reheat in oven.
I’m thinking I’ll make several loaves, wrap ’em up, and freeze. It would be awesome to defrost and give it a quick bask in the oven for dinner on any weeknight. So I don’t have to run to Trader Joe’s for my crusty baguette on a Monday night.
Happy bread-making 🙂
Enjoy!
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This Crusty French Bread is perfect for any meal. It’s an easy, fail-proof recipe that allows for quick rise times, and results in a wonderfully crispy exterior and chewy interior. Great for dunking in soup or slathering butter onto.
Ingredients
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 2 (.25 oz) packages active dry yeast (be sure it’s fresh!)
- 1 tsp table salt
- 1 TB white sugar
- 1 3/4 cups water at 110F
- 1 TB cornmeal
- 1 egg white, beaten with 1 TB water
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt. Hand-whisk until well combined. Gradually stir in the warm water (test the temperature with thermometer to ensure it’s right around 110F) and stir until a dough forms. The consistency should be roughly like play-dough, not too sticky but easily forms into a smooth/elastic dough ball. Add 1 TB water at a time as needed to gain that consistency.
- On a lightly floured surface, knead dough 10 minutes. Shape into a ball, place into a well-oiled bowl, and turn dough to lightly coat in oil. Cover bowl tightly with cling wrap and place bowl in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in volume, 30-60 minutes.
- Gently punch dough down and divide in half. Place on lightly floured surface, cover, and let sit 10 minutes. Roll each half into approx. 14×9 inch rectangle. Roll rectangle up lengthwise, moisten edges with water, and pinch tightly to seal. Taper and seal ends.
- Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Sprinkle evenly with cornmeal. Place loaves seam side down on sheet. Cut diagonal slits into loves on top, about 1/4 inch deep. Brush loaves with egg/water mixture. Gently lay cling wrap over loaves and place in a draft-free warm place until nearly doubled in size, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375F with rack on lower middle position. Place a large pan of water on lowest rack.
- Bake 15 minutes. Brush again with egg/water mixture. Bake another 10 minutes or until bread looks done. Serve warm.
Source: Chew Out Loud, adapted from allrecipes.com
Here are our other always-awesome bread recipes:
1. Better than O.G. Breadsticks. Yeah, Olive Garden is known for one thing — the garlic breadsticks. But wait until you try these easy homemade ones. They will knock your socks off. No restaurant breadsticks will compare after this!
2. Rustic Rosemary Garlic Bread. This bread is the bomb. It’s so chewy soft in the center, with a flavorful exterior crust…this is one of those things you want to gobble up the minute it emerges from the oven.
3. Easy Cheesy Garlic Bread. So, you’re low on time and still want delicious bread straight out of the oven. This one takes almost no time at all and yields a mouthwatering bread.
4. I know this isn’t bread, but it’s fab for dunking bread into! Our almost famous Homemade Chicken (or turkey, after Thanksgiving!) Noodle Soup. It is the best we’ve ever had the pleasure of lapping up.
5. While we’re at it, let’s drool over this delicious Curried Butternut Squash Soup. Perfect next to that homemade bread of yours.
Love the simple way to make bread, thanks!
It baked beautifully but it is way to salty. Is the recipe wrong?
Hi, Debbie! Thanks for letting me know; it is supposed to be 1 tsp, not TB. My mistake, I’m so sorry! I updated it to the correct amount. I’m glad you told me 🙂
Delicious and easy to make. I made it even better by brushing the finished loaves with melted (pseudo clarified) butter when they were fresh out of the oven.
Yay, great job, Hannah! So glad you liked it 🙂
looks great!
just one question: do you need the sugar for it to rise or bake properly?
You could cut the sugar by a bit, but it does help a bit with the rise 🙂 Enjoy the yummy bread, Stefani!
Bread turned out great.. but i didnt have parchment and i have a pizza stone… my bread deflated when i tried to get them on the pizza stone… any tips?
Katie, you could try your final rise on the pizza stone (covered in a warm area.) You can also use foil in lieu of parchment, which may just do the trick 🙂 So glad you liked the bread!! 🙂
2 packages of Yeast is 5 teaspoons! That seems like a lot. Is this correct? I buy yeast in bulk so measure out in teaspoons. Thanks.
The recipe is correct; so glad you came over and hope you enjoy, Robyn! 🙂
I have made this recipe twice now and love it. The bread is so soft with a slightly chewy crust. I’ve enjoyed it warm with butter, dunked in chili, as French bread pizza. I even made some for a sick friend along with chicken noodle soup.
Yipeeee, Aileen! Love to hear that 🙂 And how awesome of you to bring it to a friend, too…that’s the best kind of baking 🙂 Thanks so much for being here today and letting us know!
Can u use a stand mixer?
Yes, Tina, if you have a good one with kneading hook, that should work fine 🙂 Hope you love it, and thanks for being here today!
This was awesome! Great flavor & texture inside was wonderful. So many uses for this bread! Mine did not get very crusty/crispy on the outside, but I was very happy with the finished product! I am a beginner bread baker & will keep this on file for years to come! Thanks so much for sharing!
I’m so happy to hear that Amber! And great job embarking into the world of bread making
Attempted to make this recipe today. It is in the process of the 2nd rise. I don’t think it all turn out . Dough rose quickly but seemed to loose. It was very hard to shape into loaves…even by using lots of flour. *sad face*
Eeeek, I’m not sure what happened, Nicole? I’m sorry that it might not have worked for your 2nd rise (though it should only have been 10 minutes, followed by a punch-down.) This recipe has always been consistently good. Several things affect the rise factor: temp of your room, temp of the dough ingredients to begin with, draft, and yeast. It’s pretty quick and easy to shape into loaves, so I’m just not sure what went awry. I’m so sorry, I know it’s disappointing when you try something new. I do wonder if maybe the dough was left to rise too long or it was too warm, if it rose that quickly and deflated. If you try again, I would stop the rising as soon as it has puffed back up, and punch it down to shape…did you give it only the 10 minutes specified and punch it all the way down (making it easy to shape.) Hope it works out if you try again 🙂 Thanks for coming over, Nicole!
I just have one question. The recipe didn’t say to activate the yeast in water first. Am I supposed to dissolve it first, or add it in dry? I’ve never made bread before, so I wasn’t sure. Most recipes I’ve read specify.
Hi, Alison 🙂 This recipe does not require for you to activate the yeast first, but if you are unsure whether your yeast is very fresh, you can dissolve it in warm water with a bit of salt and sugar and see if it froths up (it not, it’s old and won’t work.) But if you have freshly purchased yeast, you won’t need to worry about it with this recipe. Enjoy and happy bread baking! So exciting it’s your first loaf 🙂
Regarding yeast- the recipe does not specify the type of yeast. There are 3 kinds: traditional, quick rise, and rapid rise (aka bread machine). Which yeast do you use for this recipe?
Hi, Lori! The “active dry yeast” refers to traditional. Hope you love this bread!
Thanks! I made it yesterday, and used bread machine rapid rise yeast. It turned out very well, soft with nice chewy crust!
Yay, Lori!! So glad you liked it 🙂
Just made my second batch of this bread, so yummy. I have been struggling to get a recipe that worked, so glad I tried this one. I tried to subscribe to your newsletter but received an error message each time.
Yay, so glad you enjoyed this, Judy! 🙂 Thanks for coming over and letting us know! Oh, and thanks too for letting me know about subscribe error…I’ll look into that. Hope you’ll find many more recipes you love here at COL 🙂
The best bread I’ve ever eaten. Thank you so much for sharing.
Perfect recipe down to the crunchy crust and pillowy center!!
YAY, so glad you liked it, Sunny! 🙂
This looks gorgeous! I was wondering though is there an alternative to the corn meal? our son is allergic to corn.. Thanks!
Thanks, Christine! You can omit the corn meal; it’s main purpose is a bit of texture for the crust. Your bread will be just as yummy without, though. Enjoy, and thanks for coming over! 🙂
I had never made French bread before so I decided to try this recipe and it was awesome! Thanks so much for the super clear instructions–made my first bread making experience so much easier :))
Yay, Melissa! Brings a happy smile to me 🙂 So glad you guys liked this and thanks for taking time to let us know! 🙂
Just curious…did you ever try freezing the loaves?
Yes, Kayla, they can be frozen airtight for a few weeks. Re-warm in oven, wrapped in foil. Enjoy! 🙂
Would this recipe be good for bread bowls?
Yes, it would 🙂 Hope you love it, Diane 🙂
for more news- http://www.factsgrabber.org/2017/10/crusty-homemade-bread/
This looks good. But will 2 packets of red star active dry yeast do? I do not think I can find any yeast fresh at all
where I shop , Walmart. So red star brand is going to have to do. And I will be using bread flour instead of all – purpose flour. I will pin this and try it when I have some time.
Why can’ I use my kitchen Aid artisan stand mixer fitted with a dough hook for this recipe!!!.
So this make two bread recipes I cannot use it for,
Yours and the simple French bread on Modern Honey’s website. That is Not fair at all!!!!!!!.
I was looking forward to making bread in my kitchen Aid artisan 5 quart stand mixer fitted with the dough hook it comes with and now you will not let me . Yes I am just a little upset at this. I want to use my kitchen Aid artisan stand mixer with the dough hook for this recipe, please. Please let me know by e-mailing me soon at [email protected]
Obviously it looks like you do not own a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment .
i do own a kitchen aid artisan stand mixer with a dough hook attachment. in your recipe instructions
you do not say to use a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment. i do not know why this is.
since i have one i am going to use it to make bread. but if you do not have it in your instructions
i am going to delete this recipe of yours off of my pinterest cooking board at this time. at least i found another french bread recipe that says to use my stand mixer with the dough hook attachment.
have a nice day anyway.
Hi! I used bread flour for this recipe and I think the inside is a bit dense and under baked. I’ve put it back in for 20 more minutes at 350, which I know is basically a disaster! I don’t know what went wrong :((((( Is it okay that it looks dense and a bit underdone?
Hi, Angbeen! It typically looks golden and crusty on the outside and is chewy soft inside. I’m guessing it’s the bread flour that’s the culprit. Try the recipe with the original all purpose flour; I think you’ll love it! 🙂
My issue is similar but not exactly. It’s not browning at all. It seems to be baking but it’s still extremely pale after the full 25 minutes in the oven. Any advice?
Izzi, you can brush top of bread with lightly-beaten egg whites prior to baking, which should enhance browning exterior. Thanks for coming over! 🙂
I just checked the allrecipes version that this links to, and that recipe calls for 6.5 cups of flour which makes much more sense for the amout of yeast used. The ratio of two packets to 4 cups is too high.