The Food Pig

French Loaf

This is a rather quick and easy recipe for some really good French bread. I ran several trials to get the recipe and timing down to make the actual preparation time as low as possible. Ingredients include bread flour, wheat gluten, active dry yeast, salt and water. I use a stand mixer with a dough hook to prepare the dough and it does the extra kneading that is usually necessary.

3 cups bread flour
4 tsp active dry yeast
2 tbsp wheat gluten
2 tsp salt
1 cup + 3 tbsp water at 110F – 115F

Add all dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and whisk a few seconds to mix evenly. Add the water and start the mixer at just above the lowest speed. As the mixing progresses, you may have to knock down some of the dry mixture that builds up along the sides. After about 2 minutes, I normally set a timer for 15 minutes. As the mixing continues, a ball of dough should begin to form. This is where you may need to add a little bit more water or a little more bread flour in 1/2 tsp increments.