Hot loaves of French bread fresh from the oven. Thought it would be to difficult to make homemade French bread? It’s easy with this recipe, and you can be eating fresh, hot French bread in less than two hours.

This recipe will make two loaves of French bread. You will need:

2 Tablespoons of active dry yeast

2 cups of warm water

2 teaspoons of salt

1 teaspoon of sugar

5 cups of bread flour

1 teaspoon of cornmeal

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. add the salt, sugar and 2 cups of the bread flour. Beat until the mixture is smooth, then stir in enough of the remaining flour to form a soft dough (you may have 1/2-1/4 cup of the bread flour remaining, that’s ok)

Flour your kneading surface and turn the bread dough out on the surface, then knead the dough until it’s smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes.

Place the kneaded dough in a large greased bowl. Turn the dough once to grease the top. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and place in a warm location for one hour so the bread dough can rise until it’s doubled in size.

After an hour, remove towel and punch the dough down. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and divide the dough in half. Shape each dough half into a 12 inch long loaf.

Place the loaves on a greased baking sheet with the seam side down. Cover and let the dough rise for the second time until it doubles in size. This will take about 30 minutes.

When the loaves have doubled in size, sprinkle them with the cornmeal and make 4 shallow, diagonal slashes across the top of each loaf with a sharp knife.

Bake at 450 degrees for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Hot, homemade French bread in less than two hours with this easy recipe.