FRENCH BREAD

By tulawdog

Ingredients

• 3 cups warm water (about 100 degrees)
• 1 TB (Tablespoon) granulated yeast
• 1 TB kosher salt
• 6 and 1/2 cups AP flour (I like to use better for bread flour instead but both work well)
• Whole wheat flour for dusting
• 1 cup of water plus a little more for brushing the baguette with

Preparation

Step 1

Warm the water to about 100 degrees then add to a 6-quart bowl or lidded food container
Add the yeast and salt to the water in the bowl or container (You can also put everything into a stand mixer bowl and mix with the dough hook attachment instead of your hands or a wooden spoon or Danish dough whisk pictured below. I love my Danish dough whisk because it’s cheaper than a stand mixer and it works perfectly for mixing dough without over mixing. When the mixture becomes too tough with the Danish dough whisk, you can mix the bread by hand a little but you know that it’s about ready to proof.)
French Bread Yeast, Water, and Salt Mixture



French Bread Danish Dough Whisk

Mix in the flour to the mixture but DO NOT KNEAD (You need to mix with your hands, mixer, or dough whisk until the dough is sticky and doesn’t have any dry spots. Be careful of over mixing here and creating tough dough. You want the dough to be as light as possible so just mix enough so that all the ingredients are incorporated and there are no dry spots.)
French Bread Dough Ready to Rise

Allow the dough to rise for 2 hours at room temperature. Make sure if you’re using a lidded container that you DO NOT seal it all the way. You want to allow some of the gasses to escape. The same goes if you’re covering your 6-quart bowl with plastic wrap; leave a little hole open and wrap the plastic wrap loosely for gasses to escape. When the dough has risen, refrigerate (up to 14 days) until you’re ready to bake your bread.
French Bread Dough Risen for 2 hours

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees and place your baking stones in the oven to warm for 20-30 minutes before putting the bread in the oven
French Bread Baking Stones Warming

Put your empty broiler pan on the shelf below the baking stones to warm as well
Take 1/2 lb (about the size of an orange; you can use up to grapefruit sized if you want to make more bread) and dust it with whole wheat flour
Slightly massage the dough into a long, 1 and 1/2-inch baguette shape but don’t knead or press too hard (you want to keep as much air in the dough as possible)
French Bread Dusted with Flour

Dust a pizza peel with whole wheat flour then place the baguette on the peel to rest for 20 minutes
French Bread Pizza Peel Dusted with Whole Wheat Flour

When the dough is done resting, brush it with water using a pastry brush
French Bread brushed with water

Cut the dough with a serrated or bread knife to create artsy slashes to show you’re a real bread baker now (I did this earlier; doesn’t matter if you do it right after you make the baguette or not.)
Heat 1 cup of water until it is hot
When the stones have finished their 20-30 minutes of heating up, slide the baguette onto the hot baking stones and pour the hot water into the broiler tray
French Bread Baguette on baking stone fresh in oven

Bake the bread for about 25 minutes or until golden brown