Easy French Bread Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret of French bread? ›

One of the secrets of a great baguette is to start with a sponge (a mix of flour, water, and yeast), which gives the yeast time to mature and combine with the other ingredients, creating the mildly sour and nutty flavors and chewy texture.

Besides the obvious fact that French bread is typically longer and thinner than regular loaves, it tends to be less sweet and has a crispier crust. French bread is usually also made with very simple ingredients instead of sandwich bread, which can have many different additives.

Whole Wheat French Bread

As noted in the recipe, French bread works quite well using whole wheat flour. I've found the best results are when using white whole wheat flour (red whole wheat flour makes a denser, heavier loaf).

Adding sugar weakens the gluten structure, absorbs water, and eventually makes the bread lighter and softer. As a result, sugar improves the bread's taste, structure and texture. Yeast also eats up sugar to produce carbon dioxide, which raises the dough and makes bread fluffy.

French bread in New Orleans has developed its own light, crispy crust and tender, almost frothy interior. The addition of a bit of olive oil and a wet dough make the crumb very tender and more close-grained than a traditional baguette.

In France, bakers pay careful attention to where their flour is made and which grains are used in the milling process. The result is usually softer, heartier, and tastier bread than can be found in other parts of the world. French flour tends to be made with a lower ash content than the flour from other countries.

While bread flour is the best option, it can sometimes be used if you don't have bread flour. “Check the protein content,” advises Chef Jürgen, since it can vary from brand to brand, and an all-purpose flour that contains protein on the higher end of the range, 12 to 13 percent, will produce a better outcome.

1. Baguette: The French baguette is among the most popular types of bread in French cuisine, known for its crackly, crispy crust and pillowy chew.

In terms of nutritional value (vitamins, glycemic index, calories), there is little difference between tradition and white baguette.

T55 flour is often considered an all-purpose flour, offering a balanced composition that contributes to the desired texture and structure in various baked goods.

What can I use instead of T55 French flour? ›

While traditional French type 55 flour is the ideal choice, a combination of all-purpose and bread flour can also work well in its place. For those who can't find french flours, strong bread flour will still work, but the flavour profile will just be different.

Eggs help the dough rise and create a large crumb that's great for soaking up liquids, like a bowl of chocolat chaud (hot chocolate). The egg yolks give the bread a golden interior, and butter adds an extra boost of moisture. The result is a rich, buttery flavor, and deep golden-brown crust.

Everyone wants light and fluffy bread loaves. The answer to getting light and fluffy bread is by letting the bread rise long enough.

Special Ingredients: Many bakeries use dough conditioners or enhancers, which improve the texture and extend the bread's shelf life.

French wheat is not very high in protein content and that changes the way bread turns out. Also, in France, there are no additives put in the flour or the bread. Baguette is just wheat, salt, yeast and water. Nothing else can go in a baguette.

The French are renowned for their artisan breads. By using the four basic ingredients of water, flour, yeast, and salt, the French have mastered the art of creating complex breads that widely vary, despite the fact that each loaf contains the mixture of the same ingredients.

Your bland bread could be the result of rushing the process. Try a slow overnight rise in the refrigerator. Plan ahead to proof your loaf overnight. This hands-off time in the icebox will slow the fermentation process in your dough and result in a complex-flavored loaf.

The French therefore, are eating baguette which is low in fructans, which may reduce indigestible fibres that they consume; lower in gluten, which may prevent the dormant genes for coeliac disease from being expressed or the symptoms associated with non-coeliac gluten sensitivity; and low in phytates which prevent ...