This Homemade French Bread is an all-time family favorite at my house, no matter how you slice it! And when things are either homemade or made with homegrown ingredients, it’s bound to be a winner. I’ve been making this tasty bread for many years now and it’s proven to be one of the best. It’s super simple, doesn’t take too long and just flies out of the breadbasket! A winner for busy moms.
It’s easy to remember the yumminess of restaurant bread at some of our favorite places. But for a truly top-notch experience of common food, you may want to try homemade. And that starts with a good bread recipe. You might want to have a bread maker to assist you in some of the laborious tasks, such as kneading. If you don’t already use one, I highly recommend owning this helpful little appliance.
This bread is very …
… tasty and has very few ingredients, especially compared to the crazy, out-there ingredients in store-bought bread. Which is essentially a lump of chemicals with a small addition of flour. This bread is super delicious, fresh and stays tasty for days.
The crunchy crust and slightly chewy center make this bread irresistible, you must make yourself stop eating it. We almost never buy bread from the store since switching to homemade bread, which cannot compare in taste, freshness, and health-wise.
When I make this bread, I often find my kids with a chunk of bread in hand, just snacking away. They love this bread even plain and say that our mom makes the best bread ever, lol. Now that you know my picky little eaters’ opinion, try it out for yourself!
Homemade French Bread Ingredients
- Organic all-purpose flour
- Dry yeast
- Sea salt
- Unsalted butter (softened)
- Water (room temperature)
- Organic whole milk (room temperature)
- Organic sugar (optional)
- Home egg
Homemade French Bread Instructions
Into the bread maker pan add all the ingredients: flour, yeast, sea salt, softened butter, and room temperature water and milk.
Lock the pan in its bread maker and press the dough cycle for the dough to form. It usually takes 30 minutes of kneading and one hour of rising.
After the dough cycle is done, transfer the dough onto a well-floured working space (I use a large cutting board). Split the dough in two and roll both chunks into two spheres. Shape them into long French bread shaped loaves. Or one large French bread loaf (like shown in the picture below). Baking and rising time are the same for both.
Place them on a greased or lined with parchment paper cookie sheet. Brush both loaves with egg wash. Slice a few line designs over the top of each loaf and allow them to proof for 30 minutes.
Homemade French Bread Baking Instructions
After about 15 minutes of proofing, preheat the oven to 350F (180 C). Then bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes before removing them from the cookie sheet. Cool completely before serving.
Slice and enjoy!
If you make this Homemade French Bread recipe, please share a picture with me on Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest. Tag with #valyastasteofhome. I’d love to see your creations! 🙂
This Homemade French Bread is an all-time family favorite at my house, no matter how you slice it! And when things are either homemade or made with homegrown ingredients, it’s bound to be a winner.
- Homemade French Bread Ingredients
- 4 cups – organic all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. – dry yeast
- 1 tsp. – sea salt
- 1 cup – water (room temperature)
- 2 tbsp. – unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup – organic whole milk
- 1 tsp. – organic sugar (optional)
- Egg to brush the loaves
Homemade French Bread Instructions
- Into the bread maker pan add all the ingredients: flour, yeast, sea salt, softened butter, and room temperature water and milk.
- Lock the pan in its bread maker and press the dough cycle for the dough to form. It usually takes 30 minutes of kneading and one hour of rising.
- After the dough cycle is done, transfer the dough onto a well-floured working space (I use a large cutting board). Split the dough in two and roll both chunks into two spheres. Shape them into long French bread shaped loaves. Or one large French bread loaf. Baking and rising time are the same for both.
- Place them on a greased or lined with parchment paper cookie sheet. Brush both loaves with egg wash. Slice a few line designs over the top of each loaf and allow them to proof for 30 minutes.
After about 15 minutes of proofing, preheat the oven to 350F (180 C). Then bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes before removing them from the cookie sheet. Cool completely before serving.
Brushing bread loaves with egg wash is optional as well. Another alternative is to spray loaves with water before placing them into the oven.
Looking for more homemade bread recipes? Please check these out:
- Mashed Potatoes Dinner Rolls
- Multi-Grain Honey Whole Wheat Bread
- Dutch Oven White Crusty Bread
- Amazing Breadsticks Recipe
- Homemade Rye Bread
- Garlic Dinner Rolls
Check all the bread recipes HERE.
Kitchen items I used in making this recipe:
(If you need any of these items, simply click on the picture to order. These are Amazon affiliate links. That means when you click on the picture link and make a purchase I make a small commission. Your cost for the purchase does not change. Thank you for your support!)
Love this Homemade French Bread Recipe? Please Save and Pin on Pinterest!
This is an updated recipe. The picture (above) is from Oct 27, 2014, when the recipe was originally posted.
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My mouth just watered!! Yummy!! Love this bread recipe! Thanks for posting.
This is a good stuff! Thanks Natasha! 😉
I can almost smell this through the screen. You can’t beat homemade bread.
I know! Right…? Homemade is the best!!! 🙂
yummm, this looks really great! I love homemade bread 😉
Me too. Thanks Michele! 😉
This bread looks great Valya! It’s been a while since I’ve made bread at home, will try your recipe!
Thanks Mira! Nothing beats home made bread! 🙂
Can I use Bonnet blue margarine?
I never used that brand of margarine(I think that all margarine brands have the same ingredients). Let me know how it turns out for you.
This french bread looks amazing! Definitely has the looks of bakery bread. What a fantastic idea to make a home-made version!
It is Gayle! So much less ingredients in home made bread, compare what they put into the bread at the bakery. Thanks for your comment! 🙂
Ugh, reminds me of my delicious childhood. I miss the days of wolfing down baugettes!
It sure does! Thanks GiGi!
This bread looks amazing. Looks a lot like the one we had in Europe.
It sure tastes like it too! Thanks Natalya!:)
Hi Valya. Made mine yesterday tasted really salty. Maybe it’s 1 tsp instead 1 tbsp? Or its the margarine I used?
Could be. It’s normal for us. I don’t even taste salt. We are all different too. Maybe you need less salt. Try putting 3/4 of a tbsp. Thanks Alena 😉
Hi Valya, I’ve discovered your blog through Natasha’s kitchen, and I’m happy/ you have so many great recipes!!!
I’ve used already some of them and a lot are on my bucket list!
I want to start baking bread at home, it’s intimidating a little bit for me, I didn’t even have a bread machine, but a hope to get one on Black Friday;). Are you satisfied with yours? Would you recommend to buy it? If yes, please, share the brand name.
Thank you very much,
Blessings, Natasha
I’m glad you found my blog. I hear that a lot from readers that they like my blog. I really appreciate that! Thank you so much!
I have my bread maker for a long time, about 8 years now. The brand is “Sunbeam”. It’s on the less expensive brands, but still works great. I don’t believe in black Friday shopping sales. Most of the time I get things on good sale for less than on black Friday. But that’s me. If you go into “Shop” category I have the bread maker for those who wants to purchase things I have and trust. Let me know if you have any other question. Thanks Natasha! 🙂
Can I use butter instead of margarine?
Hi Vita! Thanks for stopping by! I been asked that question multiple times. I’m so used to the original recipe that I didn’t try changing ingredients. In fact, someone mentioned in the comments that the bread turned out to salty for them. So I made it again and I will agree it was a little to salty. I decided to try it with butter instead of margarine and reducing the salt. Today, I made this bread again and used 1 tsp. of salt and softened butter and it was great. I think it was even better than original recipe. So, I went ahead and reduced the salt amount and added softened butter in the post. Thanks so much! 🙂
Thank you for that info! I plan on going grocery shopping tomorrow and specifically to get everything I need to make this bread! 😉 I will be trying it out with the butter and I’ll let you know how it goes once I get to making it.
You are welcome Vita! Please do let me know how it turns out and how you like it. 🙂
Hi Valya! I made this bread yesterday using the butter instead of margarine and it turned out great! My kids kept asking for more! 😉 Thank you for sharing your recipes!
Thank you Vita! I so glad to heat that. Now you wont have to purchase french bread. You can make your own, and feed the kids with fresh and warm right from the oven! 🙂
When the bread machine is done with the mixing, does the dough need to be soft or kind of thickish?
It’s on the thicker side. The dough will be much softer after rising.
Do you add 4 cups of flour at once or 3 and a half cups in the beginning and half a cup close to the end of the mixing process?
You add all 4 cups at ones.
Valya, I just made this bread , bread tasted very good but unfortunately my bread came out kind of flat and I had to pull the dough out of the bread machine 15 minutes because the dough was running out of the machine …. What did I do wrong? Did something like this happened to anyone else? Thanks
Hi Tatyana! What is the capacity of your bread maker? This is 2 lbs bread dough, so you need 2 lbs bread machine capacity. What do you mean 15 minutes? You mean before the end of the cycle? That tells me that your bread machine is not 2 lbs capacity. Its normal for the dough to rise all the way to the top of the cap. Turned out flat? That tells me that you added more water or not enough flour than recipe says, or you let it rise to long in the warm place and it lost its shape. The dough should be a little more firm that the dough for “пирожки”, and should easily roll into nice rolls. No one told me of that problem and it never happened to me and I make this bread at least 3 times a week. Try it again and see how it will turn out. Let me know if you have more questions. Thank you so much for making my recipes. 🙂
Valya, I have Sanyo brand machine. It said the maximum for the Dough setting is 41/2 cups of flour. I felt that my dough was too runny not spongy so maybe I will try more flour next time. Also, I have used instant dry yeast, do you think it maybe a problem? Thank you!
Hm…sounds like you have right size. 4 cups of flour = to 2 lbs of dough. Give it another try, make sure you follow step by step recipe instructions. Practice makes it perfect. Thanks Tatyana 🙂
Valya, do you have a good recipe for a whole wheat bread? Thank you!
I do make dark bread. And it’s on my to post list. Thanks Jessica
this looks very nice.
Thank you!
Yammm… I don’t have dry milk . Is that ok if I skip that ?
Yes. I’ve done it without it in the past. Bread still works out, but taste better with dry milk in it.
Yummy, what a great recipe. been looking for decent bread making recipe. Thanks for sharing.
Simon
I’m glad you found a great bread recipe. We’ve been making this bread for over 15 years and it never gets old. Enjoy!
Do u have to use the bread maker or u can do the dough by hand ?
I’ve made this bread in the kitchen aid mixer, but never done it by hand. I think if you can kneed it well, it should be fine. Let me know how it turns out for you, if you ever make it by hand. Thanks for your question.
Does it turn out find if I do it in the kitchen aid mixer ?? And if I do, do it in kitchen aid maker how long do I let the dough sit to rise ?;)
Let the dough rise for at least one hour to hour and half. The bread tunes out almost the same. The only difference is the bread machine kneads the dough longer with kneading intervals while rising and the bread turns out just a little fluffier. My bread machine broke after 10 years of constant use, and I used my mixer last week to make bread, until my new bread machine arived late last week. I’m glad I got to experiment different ways of make this bread. So, yeah…, perfect timing. 🙂
Hi Valya, Does the bread suppose to have a crisp korochka? I made it today and it tastes delicious, but usually store bought have a very crisp korochka, so I was wondering if maybe I did something wrong that it very fluffy and soft.
Hi Dear. If you are comparing to a store bough french bread that in not that crisp. But it still turns out really pretty crispy. You need to let it cool on a wire rack so the bottom of the bread doesn’t get wet. I hope that helps. 🙂
Valya do you know how to make bagels? Thanks
Yes. The recipe is very similar to the sweet bread. I will post it sometime.
Five stars bread
Thank you! Homemade taste BEST 😉
Today I made this bread first time and it was delicious! Keeping the recipe??. Thanks again for the best recipes!!
That is so sweet of you ? I’m glad you like my recipes. I use this bread dough recipe for a homemade pizzas too. Give it a try. Thank you kindly for such an amazing review!
Do you use regular all purpose flour or Canadian all purpose flour? Thanks!
This is such an easy recipe, that any kind of flour works well.
I have made this bread 5 times in the last 2 weeks, we LOVE it! We eat it as sandwiches, with dinner or just plain with a pat of butter. I use unsalted butter in the dough so I add an extra tsp of salt, tastes perfect for our family. Also, when baking, I form it into 3 smaller loaves. Its a little easier to store them when theyre shorter.
That awesome! We make this bread pretty often. I like to make Italian or plain bread crumbs out of this bread as well. Thank you for amazing five-star review! 🙂
I have now been making this bread a few times per week for a couple months; figured ill add my input on the “crisp crust” question someone asked earlier. On 2 separate occasions I put the bread in the oven to bake and totally forgot about it. One time it baked over 1 hour, the other time over 3 hours (whoops!) Interestingly enough, it doesnt burn! I discovered that the longer you bake, the thicker/crispier crust you end up with. The time it baked for over 3 hours it came out of the oven golden (not burnt) and when i cut it the crust was super super crispy, but the middle was still fairly soft.
So for those looking for a crispier crist, mess around with the baking time.
Wow ?, I have to experiment baking for 1 hour. Thanks for the tip. 🙂
This bread was amazing!!
I was wondering if I use this recipe but make buns instead would I still bake it for 20 min or less?
Yes, about the same time. Bake until golden brown in color which should take about the same baking time. I hope this helps.
I doubled the recipe and got a total of 16 buns about 6″ in diameter. Baked at 18 minutes.. they were perfect! Kids enjoyed them with raspberry jam and a glass of milk ????
I’m so happy to hear that! My kids make this bread all the time. We use this recipe for pizza as well, and it’s the best! Thank you for your amazing review! 🙂
Hi can I replace with regular milk instead of dry ?
Yes, you sure can. I have been using 1/3 cup milk and 1 cup water proportion for a while. Thanks for asking, that’s a great question.