So, today, I needed to make some french bread and thought I would teach y'all how to do make yummy french bread rolls...only to, again, forget to photograph the steps to get you to the dough stage! So, then I decided to try a desert I have been wanting to make forever...choco flan. It's like flan on top of a chocolate cake! However, I forgot again to take a few pics!
Sad, right?! Well, I'm going to try to help you make some french bread, hopefully, the lack of pics won't hinder you. And if that doesn't work, I'll show you how I've made the choco flan (give or take a few pics) in another post later. Someday I will get into the habit of photographing everything I do! I promise!
French Bread
3-3 1/2 cups flour (I used both all purpose-which most people have in the kitchen-and bread flour...both work. In these pics, I've used bread flour)1tbsp sugar
1tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (or one envelope)
1 cup warm water (hot tap water works fine)
2tbsp oil
cornmeal (for dusting pan when baking)
Take your yeast and add it to the warm water in a bowl. Stir and set aside to work it's magic. Add 2 cups of the flour, the sugar, and salt into the bowl of your stand mixer (or mixing bowl if doing all this by hand). Check the yeast (about 5 min after adding to water). It should be at least foamy. Mine ended up with bubbles because I got distracted with my kiddos and let it sit for about 15 minutes. Not necessary to see the bubbles.
Add the yeast and oil to the flour mixture and, with your dough hook (or wooden spoon), begin to mix on low until you get a sticky dough. Add 1 cup of flour and continue to mix. I only needed to add a total of 3 cups of flour (2 to start, then 1 while mixing). If using a stand mixer you probably won't need more flour. If mixing by hand, you will need to dump the dough out on a counter and start kneading. Add more flour as needed to help with stickiness. Try to add as little flour as possible though...the more flour, the denser the bread. Once your dough is soft and smooth, you are ready!
Spray a bowl with cooking spray and roll the dough around. Cover with a towel and place in a non-drafty place to rise. I always stick my dough in the oven (turned off). Let rise for a couple hours. Since this is french bread, we want a light and fluffy inside. It takes a longer rise than other breads.
Once the dough is fully risen, it should definitely be doubled in size and when poked, the hole should stay (see hole in the middle). If you leave it longer than 2 hrs (and do something crazy like make "quick" run to Costco), you may see what look like bubbles forming on the top. This is perfectly ok and means your yeast is fantastic! Gently push the dough down and turn out onto your counter.
You can shape the dough into a long baguette, french bread loaf, or like I did, smaller french bread rolls. We are using these to eat with our Crockpot Sunday Pot Roast so I wanted individual-sized bread for the French Dip Sandwiches. Once you have your dough rolled out and shaped, cut slices into the top (not super deep...maybe 1/2" max). Go ahead and use some cornmeal and dust whatever pan you are using (I have a pizza stone I use for my artisan type breads, but a cookie sheet works too). The cornmeal will keep your bread from sticking to the pan. Cover again and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hr.
When ready, bake at 375F for about 20-30 min (depending on the size loaf you made) or until golden brown. Tap the bottom of the loaf and if it sounds hollow, it's ready. Enjoy!
Happily Homemade
Sandra
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