Easiest and Best French Bread

By Flyer920

Ingredients

• 1 pound bread flour
• 2 tsp salt (kosher)
• 1 tsp Yeast
• 1.5 cups of water (or a tiny bit less)

Details

Adapted from greattastecoaster.com

Preparation

Step 1

Place half of flour (~0.5 lb), yeast, salt, and water in the mixing bowl and turn the stand mixer on low with bread hook attachment. Add other half of flour until the mixture has become a sticky ball that pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Remove from mixer.

Form the boule (round loaf) by shaping the dough into a ball, using as little flour as possible. Use your hands/fingers to work your way around the ball, tucking the dough down and inward into itself and stretching the top. When the top is smooth, pinch the bottom together to seal it and place in a towel-lined basket (with a bit of flour) seam-side up.

Allow to rise for 2-6 hours. Preheat oven with pizza/bread stone to 450° 30-minute prior to baking.

Spray water into oven to create steam and slide bread into oven (seam-side down). I first used the towel in the basket to flip the bread seam-side down onto a non-stick cookie sheet, and then used that to slide the bread onto the pizza stone. Spray water onto the sides of the oven a few more times during the first 10 minutes of baking to form more steam.

After 20 minutes of baking, reduce heat to 350° and continue baking until the crust is golden brown