No Fail French Bread

Yesterday afternoon I invited my dear friend Melanie and her darling 6 month old daughter, Summer, over to make dinner. Our menu included:

Spicy Tuscan Soup

No Fail French Bread

 and, as I mentioned in yesterday's post

Texas Sheet Cake

We had so much fun cooking together. Between the two of us we had all of the ingredients except for the kale, so it was a great money-saver. When we were done cooking, we divided up the food and she left with plenty of soup for her family, a loaf of french bread, and several slices of cake. I discovered I love cooking even more when I am cooking with a friend.

I want to share this amazing french bread recipe with you. I have attempted to make homemade french bread before, and it has never turned out. So when I saw a recipe for "No Fail" French Bread on my friend Rachel's blog, I knew I had to try it out. True to it's name, the bread turned out perfect on our first try.

By the way, if you have a minute, check out Rachel's awesome blog: Family Ever After, she has it all: recipes, craft ideas, great pictures and funny stories. I love it!

printable recipe

No Fail French Bread

1/2 cup warm water

2 TB yeast

Mix and dissolve.

2 cups hot water

3 TB sugar

1 TB salt

1/3 cup oil

Put in mixer, dissolve.

Add yeast mixture and 3 cups flour. Beat well.

Add 3 more cups flour. Beat well to form a soft dough. Don't worry if the dough is more soft than normal bread dough.

Let rest 10 minutes. Stir batter down, let rest 10 minutes. Repeat process of stirring dough, followed by 10 minutes of rest until it has been done a total of 5 times.

Turn dough onto floured board and knead only enough to coat dough with flour.

Divide into 2 portions. Toll each portion into a 9x12 inch rectangle. 

Roll up jelly roll style, omitting the air bubbles. Arrange lengthwise on a greased cookie sheet. 

Brush tops with a beaten egg while (optional). Slash 3 times diagonally on each loaf. 

Cover, let rise until doubles, about 30 min. 

Bake at 400 for 35 min.

Sun-dried Tomato Bread

Yesterday I blogged about Fontina and Prosciutto Chicken which I served with this Sun-dried Tomato Bread.

I pulled this recipe from The Italian Cooking Encyclopedia, I made some adjustments to the ingredients I had on hand. It turned out very flavorful, with a great crust. With the leftover bread, we topped slices with grated mozzarella, fontina, and parmesan, melted the cheese under the broiler, and served with marinara dipping sauce. Yum!

printable recipe

Sun-dried Tomato Bread

yield: 2 small loaves

3 cups bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp yeast
1/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup milk
1 Tbsp tomato paste
2 Tbsp oil from jar of sun-dried tomatoes
3 Tbsp olive oil
1/3 cup drained sundried tomatoes in oil, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped

Combine flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Allow yeast to dissolve for a few minutes in the warm water.

In a small saucepan over low heat, dissolve the tomato paste in the milk.

With a wooden spoon or a dough hook on low speed, mix the yeast/water mixture into the flour mixture.

Add the milk/tomato paste mixture along with the oils and mix well. Gradually mix the flour into the liquid ingredients, until a dough is formed.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic. I did most of the kneading process with the KitchenAid on medium speed.

Place in a greased bowl, turn to coat, and cover. Place in a warm oven and allow to rise for about an hour.

Punch dough down and knead in the tomatoes and onion until evenly distributed. Form the dough into two balls. Place the balls of dough on a greased baking sheet and return to the warm oven. Cover with a dish towel and let rise for about 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375F. Bake the bread for about 45 minutes, or until the loaves sound hollow when you lift them up and tap the bottoms with your fingers. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Honey Whole Wheat Bread

This is my favorite recipe for honey whole wheat bread and I love it. It is easy and always turns out just right. I pulled the recipe right off the back of the Gold Medal Whole Wheat flour bag, can you believe it?

I wish I had remembered to take a picture of a slice of bread; the texture is perfect, not too gummy or dry.

printable recipe

Whole Wheat Bread

2 packages (4 1/2 tsp) yeast
1/4 cup warm water (105F to 115F)
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup butter, softened
3 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups very warm water (120F to 130F)
4 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 3/4 to 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

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Preheat oven to 170F then turn off. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup warm water. 

Combine honey, butter, salt, 2 1/2 cups very warm water in a large bowl. Let sit for 5 minutes until cooled a bit.

To cooled honey mixture, beat in 3 cups whole wheat flour with electric mixer on low speed, scraping bowl frequently, until moistened. Beat on medium speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl frequently. 

Beat in remaining 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour and dissolved yeast.

With spoon, stir in 2 1/4 to 2 3/4 cups of the all-purpose flour ...

until dough pulls cleanly away from side of bowl.

On lightly floured surface, knead in remaining 1/2 to 1 cup all-purpose flour; continue kneading 5 to 10 minutes or until dough is smooth and springy. 

Grease large bowl with shortening or cooking spray; place dough in bowl, turning dough to grease all sides. 

Cover; let rise in warm oven 30 to 45 minutes or until doubled in size.

Generously grease 2 (8x4- or 9x5-inch) loaf pans with shortening or cooking spray. Gently push fist into dough to deflate; divide in half.  On lightly floured surface, roll each half of dough with rolling pin into 18x8-inch rectangle.

Starting with one 8 inch side, roll up dough tightly, pressing with thumbs to seal after each turn. Pinch edge of dough into roll to seal; pinch each end to seal.

Fold ends under loaf.

Gently place in pans. 

Cover; let rise in warm oven 30 to 45 minutes or until doubled in size. Remove from oven.

Heat oven to 375°F. Uncover dough; bake 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F; bake about 10 minutes longer or until loaves sound hollow when lightly tapped.

Immediately remove from pans to cooling racks. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

Dilly Bread

When I saw this bread recipe on The Pioneer Woman, I was too intrigued to not try it. It is totally different than any bread I have ever made before, but we enjoyed it, and it complimented the Crock Pot Potato Soup nicely.

printable recipe

 Dilly Bread

serves 8

2 1/4 tsp yeast

1/4 cups warm water

1 cup cottage cheese

2 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp minced dried onion

1 Tbsp butter, softened

2 tsp dill seed 

2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 egg

2 1/4 cups flour

Dissolve yeast in the warm water. 

Warm cottage cheese in a small saucepan over low heat until lukewarm.

Combine warm cottage cheese, sugar, minced onion, butter, dill seed, salt, soda, and egg. Stir together. This actually looked really cool, but I forgot to take a picture. I was distracted by this little chica asking for a snack. This is her "cheese" face that she makes whenever she realizes her picture is being taken now. Sure beats crying.

Stir in yeast mixture gently then add flour gradually, stirring gently.

Cover dough with plastic wrap and allow it to rise until doubled in size. I like to do this in a warm oven. I preheat the oven to 170F then turn it off and place dough inside. It will take about 30 minutes this way.

Carefully turn dough into a greased round baking dish.

Cover with plastic wrap and let rise again in warm oven another 30 minutes.

Pull dough out of oven and preheat to 350F. Bake bread on lower middle rack for 30-35 until brown on top. Brush top with melted butter after removing from oven.

Cut into slices and serve warm with butter. 

This recipe is featured in Menu Plan 9.