Small Loaf French Bread Food

CRUSTY FRENCH LOAF

Steps:

• In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add sugar, oil, salt and 2 cups flour. Beat until blended. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a stiff dough., Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch dough down; return to bowl. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes. , Preheat oven to 375°. Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Shape into a 16x2-1/2-in. loaf with tapered ends. Sprinkle cornmeal over a greased baking sheet; place loaf on baking sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 25 minutes. , Beat egg white and cold water; brush over dough. With a sharp knife, make diagonal slashes 2 in. apart across top of loaf. Bake until golden brown, 25-30 minutes. Remove from pan to a wire rack to cool.

MINI FRENCH LOAVES

Steps:

• In a bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Add sugar, seasonings, cheeses and 2 cups flour; beat until smooth Add enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch dough down; divide in half. Roll each half into a 15x10-in. rectangle. Roll up from long side; seal well. Cut each into three 5-in. loaves; seal ends. Place seam side down on a greased baking sheet. Brush loaves with water. Cover with plastic wrap coated with cooking spray; let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes With a very sharp knife, make three shallow diagonal cuts across top. Bake at 400° for 15-20 minutes or until golden. Remove from pan; cool on a wire rack Brush with butter.

MINI FRENCH BREAD LOAVES (SERVES 2)

Steps:

• Place the bread flour, salt, and yeast in a food processor, and process for 3 seconds to blend. With the machine running, pour 1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons water through the feed tub; process until the dough holds together, about 20 seconds. The dough should be a sticky mass, and it should appear difficult to knead by hand. If the dough is too dry, add more water, a tablespoon at a time, processing for 5 seconds after each addition.
• Lightly grease a medium-size mixing bowl with olive oil. Place the dough in the bowl and turn it to coat it with the oil. Cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap, and let the dough rise at room temperature until it has nearly doubled in bulk, 2 to 3 hours.
• Punch the dough down and let it rise again until nearly doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.
• Sprinkle a cutting board or work surface with a little flour, place the dough on it, and cut the dough into 2 pieces. Shape the pieces into balls, sprinkling them with a little flour if necessary to make them easier to handle. Place the balls of dough on an ungreased baking sheet. Sprinkle a little flour over each round (to keep the plastic wrap from sticking), and cover them lightly with plastic wrap. Let the dough balls rise until nearly doubled in bulk, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
• Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. To make a crisp crust, fill a clean spray bottle with water and spritz the inside of the oven with water just before you slide the bread into the oven.
• Bake the bread rounds until golden and crusty, about 10 minutes. Fremove the baking sheet from the oven or, If you like a crustier loaf, leave the bread in the oven with the door closed for 5 minutes after you have turned off the oven.
• Transfer the bread to a wire rack to cool. Serve it warm or at room temperature.

CLASSIC WHITE LOAF

Steps:

• Make the dough by tipping the flour, yeast and salt into a large bowl and making a well in the middle. Pour in most of the water and use your fingers or a wooden spoon to mix the flour and water together until combined to a slightly wet, pillowy, workable dough - add a splash more water if necessary. Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for at least 10 mins until smooth and elastic. This can also be done in a tabletop mixer with a dough hook. Place the dough in a clean oiled bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rise until doubled in size.
• Heat oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7. Knock back the dough by tipping it back onto a floured surface and pushing the air out. Mould the dough into a rugby ball shape that will fit a 900g loaf tin and place in the tin. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave to prove for 30 mins. Dust the top of the loaf with a little more flour and slash the top with a sharp knife if you want. Bake the bread for 15 mins, then reduce the heat to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5 and continue to bake for 30 mins until the loaf sounds hollow when removed from the tin and tapped on the base. Leave the bread on a wire rack to cool completely. The loaf will stay fresh in an airtight container for 3 days or can be frozen for 1 month.

SMALL ULTRA-LIGHT HEALTHY FRENCH BREAD LOAF (ABM) BREAD MACHINE

Steps:

• Remove pan from Bread machine and place on a electronic kitchen scale, and zero scale.
• Weigh 210ml (210ml water weighs 210g) and rest of ingredients carefully into the pan, in the order listed (if you have the time, do have a read through of the notes :).
• Select French Loaf cycle (or Wholewheat/Wholemeal cycle if no French Loaf cycle available) and select crust/firmness if necessary required for your machine. (I feel that this loaf benefits from a fairly firm crust - as long as it's not burnt!).
• Start Machine.
• Notes:.
• Time listed is for the actual baking part of my machine's French Bread cycle. They vary by manufacturer.
• I took this recipe originally from a machine which had a 6-hour French loaf cycle but my machine makes a French loaf in 4 hours. My mum's does it in 2 3/4 hours. I've found that the results are pretty consistent regardless of machine, although you occasionally need to increase/decrease amount of yeast to marry the recipe to the 'rise' component of your machine's cycle.
• My machine has an un-overrideable 20 minute pre-heat before it does anything whatsoever whenever I use this cycle, so I need to take the following precautions so that the yeast doesn't make contact with any liquid before kneading starts which I recommend to you:.
• When pouring the water do try to pour gently trying to avoid slashing up sides.
• When adding the flour, do try to cover the water completely if possible.
• When adding the yeast, if necessary/inclined try making a dip (or 'well') in the top of the flour and carefully pouring the yeast into the dip/well.
• If using yeast in sachet form it's worth measuring it onto a teaspoon first and holding some of the sachet (depending on sachet size).
• Here in Europe most of our cooking is weight-based rather than volume based.
• A set of electronic kitchen scales with 1 gram graduations can be quite cheap if you hunt around and more than any other cooking and baking they really come into their own when it comes to bread-making, although I usually still use spoon measures for salt and yeast, and for liquid oil when I use it. Gives bomb-proof results, every single time!

FRENCH HEARTH BREAD

Steps:

• Dough Starter:.
• In a mixer bowl combine the 1 cup bread flour,1/4 cup wheat flour, 1/2 tsp yeast, honey and water.
• Whisk until smooth, about 2 minutes.
• Scrape down bowl. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap. Let ferment at room temperature for 1 hour up to 4 hours.Starter will have bubbled up and risen in the bowl.
• Flour Mixture:.
• Combine the 1 3/4 cups bread flour and the yeast.
• Add to the risen sponge in the mixing bowl.Do not add salt at this time.
• With the dough hook installed mix on low speed (# 2 on a Kitchenaid) for about one minute until you have a rough dough.
• Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest for 20 minutes.
• Sprinkle on the salt at this stage and knead with dough hook (#4 speed) for about 7 minutes. Instant read thermometer plunged into the center should read 78 to 80 degrees.
• The dough should be very elastic, smooth and slightly sticky;If too sticky,add a little flour up to 1/4 cup. You can knead in any extra flour by hand after you remove the dough from the bowl.
• Let the dough rise in an oiled covered bowl until double at room temperature.
• Press the dough down, fold it over and let rise again for another l hour.
• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface.
• The dough may be formed into a ball or,placed in an 8 X 4 greased bread pan or rolled out to an oblong loaf.
• Free form loaves should be placed on a cookie sheet that has been sprinkled with flour or cornmeal.
• Cover the shaped dough and allow it to double. The freeform oblong loaf should be 8" by 3"inches high. In the loaf pan the center should be 1" higher then the sides of the pan.
• Preheat the oven to 475 1 hour before baking. Adjust oven shelf to lowest level and place a baking stone or baking sheet on it before preheating the oven.
• At this stage I like to mist the loaf with water and roll it in sesame seeds, poppy seeds or other whole grains.
• Slash freeform bread diagonally with a sharp knife or razor blade making 1/2" deep slices.
• If using a loaf pan, make 1 slash down the center or leave unslashed.
• Bake for 10 minutes at 475 then turn oven down to 425 and continue to bake for 20 to 30 minutes more or until Instant Read Thermometer reads about 200 degrees. Cover halfway through baking if loaf becomes too brown.
• Let bread cool thoroughly before slicing.

BREAD MACHINE FRENCH BREAD (SIMPLE, SIMPLE, SIMPLE)

Steps:

• put in machine in order and push buttons to make a 1.5 Lb french loaf.

FRENCH BREAD LOAF - BREAD MACHINE

Steps:

• Add all ingredients except cornmeal to your bread machine in the order listed. Use dough cycle only.
• Remove dough from bread machine and shape into loaf. Sprinkle with cornmeal. Let rise until double, about 1 hour.
• Bake at 450 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until the top is golden brown.