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Bread

French Bread

A yeast bread made with flour, yeast, water, and salt, baked in Vienna bread pans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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French Bread

French Bread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the dough

  1. Place the flour on a clean surface and make a hole in the center.

  2. Add the yeast into the hole and mix in warm water to form a soft dough.

  3. Dissolve the salt in a little warm water and add it to the dough.

  4. Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm place for 1 to 2 hours.

  5. Knead the dough again and let it rise for another 2 hours.

Shape and bake

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Divide the dough into 8 loaves and place them in Vienna bread pans.

  3. Bake the loaves in the preheated oven as quickly as possible.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure.
Yeast
Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes the bread rise.
Warm water
Hydrates the flour and activates the yeast to form the dough.
Coarse sea salt
Adds flavor and tightens the gluten, controlling the yeast's activity.

The step that matters

Bake the loaves in the preheated oven as quickly as possible.. Loaves left waiting before baking can over-proof and deflate, and the dough needs a hot oven to expand quickly before the crust sets.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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