This easy Homemade Bread only requires 5 ingredients, including water. You don't need any special equipment. This bread recipe is so versatile because it can be baked into loaves or baguette shapes, it's up to you. The crust and crumb of this bread will make you look like a real baker!!!
06Once dough is ready, it can still be a bit sticky and too soft at this point. Use 0.5 cups of flour and your hands, dust a bit of flour and fold the dough. Continue doing so until you have a soft and pliable dough that is not sticky anymore. You should be able to remove the dough from bowl at this point and hold in one hand.
07Remove the dough, dust the bowl with some flour and place the dough back in. Cover with a clean kitchen towel or a tea towel if you have one. Let rise until it triples in size. It took 1.5 hrs in my kitchen to achieve this step.
08Then remove dough from bowl into a clean surface where you can knead the dough.
09Knead the dough from outside in and fold in the middle. See video for kneading details. Use some flour (the 2nd 0.5 cup of flour) to dust the surface.
10Once you have kneading the dough for few minutes, cut in 8 equal size pieces. Estimate if you don't have a kitchen scale.
11Knead each individual dough piece. Place parchment paper on a baking tray and place the dough about 2 inches apart from each other.
12Let the dough rise again, cover the dough. This time I only let it rise for about 45 minutes.
13Cut a straight line on top of each dough piece.
14Pre-Heat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
15Place another baking tray in the bottom rack with some water in it to create steam in the oven.
16Place the bread to bake once oven is preheated. After 10 minutes of baking, lower temperature to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Let bake for another 10 minutes.
17Remove from oven and handle carefully, the breads are really hot and the oven has steam inside so don't get too close to the oven door when you open it.
18Place breads in a cooking rack and repeat the process if needed. I had to bake them 4 at a time so needed to bake twice.
19Let the breads cool for at least 30 minutes before you cut them! Enjoy with butter, cheese, coffee or with you favorite dish:).