Crusty French Bread (French Baguettes) (2024)

Crusty French Bread also called French Baguettes. This long thin Crusty French Bread is one of my favorite bread. Crusty French Bread has crisp outer crust but soft and chewy inside. You could eat this freshly baked baguettes with soups or stews or make you own choice subs. But I like to eat this with olive oil and pesto. Sometime I would also make garlic bread out of these baguettes on my kids demand. They just love this freshly crispy bread. I also love this bread to eat while its hot, believe me it tastes amazing.

You could make this Crusty French Bread in many ways. But most popular are by using a machine or using a hand. Also, most important thing is how are you kneading the dough and for how much time as more you knead it, require shorter time for fermentation and makes your bread very soft and chewy from inside with excellent flavor and texture. I personally like to make the dough using a “Hand Mix” recipe. That being said, I made the dough using my hands to make Crusty French Bread.

While making this first time, I wasn’t sure how it will come out but I must say it came out amazingly insane. My family and I just loved it. Now I am making this at home every alternate week. This homemade Crusty French Bread is as good as any store bough bread here in America I ever had. Ok let’s learn how to make this Crusty French bread.

Ingredients:

• 3 cup Bread Flour/All Purpose Flour/Maida
• 2½ tsp Active Dry Yeast
• 1-2 tsp Sugar
• Salt
• 1 tsp Vegetable Oil
• Cornmeal for Dusting the pan
• 4-5 Ice Cubes
• Two Baking Sheets

Method:

1. Take a large mixing bowl. Add sugar, 1 ½ cup warm water and yeast. Mix it well to get dissolve the yeast and cover it for 10mins.
2. After 10mins or once yeast bubbled up, add salt and 2 ¾ cup flour (reserve remaining ¼ cup flour for dusting) and start mixing until a soft dough forms. Cover it and let stand for 15-20 mins.
3. Dust the flour on the working place, turn the prepared dough over it, and knead it till dough becomes smooth and elastic. It takes almost 7-8 mins.
4. If the prepared dough is more sticky, then add 1 tbsp flour and knead it again to prevent sticking to the hands.
5. Now place the dough into the oil coated bowl, apply oil on the top of the dough too, cover the bowl and let rise the dough in warm place for 40-50 mins or till doubled in size.
6. Once the dough is doubled then punch it down and remove it on work place and divide it in half.
7. Take one portion of the dough and cover another one. Now make a big ball and roll it like rectangular shape.
8. Now fold the top and bottom towards the middle like an envelope, and sealing the seam with your fingers. Keep repeating the folding and sealing, stretching the rectangle lengthwise as you go, until it’s about 14 to 16 inches long and 2 inches wide. Fold and seal either end to round.
9. Take a baking sheet pan and then flip seam-side down and place on a sheet pan or baguette pan that has been dusted with cornmeal (you can line the pan with parchment paper).
10. Use same method for the remaining dough and place on the same pan but make sure keep the big space between both rolls, because it will double in size.
11. Slit 4-5 diagonally over the prepared rolls using the sharp knife, cover them with the cloth and keep aside for 20-25mins.
12. Preheat the oven on 400F, place one small empty baking sheet pan on a corner of the bottom rack while preheat the oven.
13. Once the oven is preheated, place the ready rolls tray into the oven, then throw the ice cubes on bottom rack pan (which is already placed into the oven while preheating), shut the oven door immediately (so ice cubes steams work on roll top to make perfect crust).
14. Bake the bread for 25-30 mins till golden brown crust. While baking the bread, brush the bread with cold water after 7-8 mins.
15. Crusty French Bread is ready. Let it cool down then cut it and serve with soup or as per your choice.

Tips:

• Use warm water for dissolving the yeast. It should not be too hot or too cold else it can be effects on proving the dough.
• Always use good quality of yeast, because yeast is a key ingredient to making bread.
• If you have a glass window on your oven, then place a towel over it when throwing the ice in because hot glass can shatter if ice touches it.

Crusty French Bread (French Baguettes) was last modified: November 6th, 2016 by Binjal's VEG Kitchen

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