French Bread Recipe

So after having a few people ask me for the recipe for the french bread I thought that I would share.  By the way, you should all know that I am not a baker and should definitely know that this is not my recipe.  I stumbled upon the blog "The Prairie Homestead" a year or so ago when researching ways to naturally clean out our chicken coop.  I loved her blog and all of the  different stuff on it.  I learned about essential oils from her blog and we now reach for our Doterra oils on a daily basis and LOVE them!  We have also enjoyed many of her recipes on her site and this is one of them.  I must say that this is by far the easiest bread that I have ever made, besides just dumping ingredients into my bread machine.  I kept thinking as I made it the first time, I must have missed a few steps or even a few ingredients!  It doesn't get any better than easy and yummy!  Her recipe calls for unbleached white flour and that is what I used the first few times that I made it just to get the hang of the recipe.  We do however love wheat bread and I have now been doing half white flour and half wheat flour and we adore this mix.  Hope you enjoy!  If you go to her website, you can see step by step pictures which was helpful the first time I made it!

Easy Homemade French Bread

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup warm water (80-90 degrees)
• 2 teaspoons sucanat (sugar will work)
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 3 to 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Instructions

1. Place yeast and sucanat in large bowl
2. Stir in warm water until everything dissolves
3. Add salt, and stir in as much flour as you can to create a soft, pliable dough that isn't too sticky
4. Knead on a lightly floured surface 6-8 minutes, until dough is smooth and elastic
5. Return dough to bowl and cover with kitchen towel
6. Allow to rise 30 minutes or until doubled in size
7. Plop risen dough back on counter top and divide in half
8. Roll each half into a rectangular shape of about 10" by 8"
9. Roll up rectangle starting with a long side
10. Pinch ends to seal and shape into a "log"
11. If seam doesn't stick, use wet fingers to moisten dough until it adheres
12. Grease pizza stone or stoneware baking sheet and place loaves on it to rise another 30 minutes
13. Preheat oven to 375 degrees,
14. Optional: to give loaves a shiny brown finish prepare an egg wash by beating one egg with one tablespoon of water
15. Right before you pop loaves in oven, brush tops with egg wash and make 4 diagonal slashes across top using sharp, serrated knife
16. Bake 20-25 minutes, until golden brown
17. Allow to cool on wire racks before serving
18. Serve warm with lots of butter