Traditional French Bread is adapted for the home. And like all traditional French Bread, it happens to be vegan! Made with just yeast, water, flour and salt, it bakes up soft inside with a crunchy crust. This bread requires very little effort but you will need a little patience.
You can make 2 long baguettes or 4 smaller personal-sized loaves
This recipe uses US measurements; click here for metric.
by 2020, Mary Lin All Rights Reserved.·published 2020-05-04
Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Ideally you would knead this for 10 to 20 minutes. I normally just do 10 but a longer knead time will develop the gluten giving you a more beautiful texture on the inside and letting the dough rise higher, faster.
07Place the dough back in the bowl, cover and let rise for in a draft-free, warm location for one hour or until the dough has doubled in size. A good place for this is in the oven with just the oven light on.
08Punch down the dough and knead again for a few minutes.
09Place the dough back in the bowl to rise for a second time. Again, let it rise for one hour or until doubled in size in a warm location.
10Remove the dough from the bowl, punch it down and divide the dough into equal pieces. You can make two large loaves or four smaller loaves.
11Shape them into long loaf shapes and place them on a baking pan lined with parchment paper.
12Cover the loaves with a damp, lint-free cloth and let rise for 45 minutes or until the loaves have doubled in size.
13Place a metal baking pan on the bottom rack in your oven. DO NOT USE GLASS. Place the second rack in the middle of the oven.
14Prepare a spray bottle with water and, separately, a cup of cool or room temperature water.
15When the oven is hot, remove the cloth from the dough carefully. If the dough sticks to the cloth, drip some water on top of the cloth to help it release.
16Make slashes on the top of the loaves, either a few diagonally across the loaves or one slash down the length.
17When the oven is well-heated, place the loaves on the middle rack and quickly pour the cup of water in the baking pan below and close the oven door. Be careful as there will be steam.