One-hour French Bread recipe. No really! It only takes one hour from start to finish.

I have found my new go-to bread for those days that I’ve run out of time to make my usual bread and those nights I’m serving pasta and need bread to convert into garlic bread.  This bread was incredible fast and easy to make, not to mention inexpensive (frugal bread – yippppeee!) and delicious.  I cannot for the life of me remember where I got this recipe.  I do not know why it took me so long to try it either.  It would seem that I do not know very much.  But I am a certified hardcore carb junky, so I know good bread when I inhale it. 😉

I would also call this a no-to-little knead bread.  I made it entirely in my KitchenAid mixer using the dough hook and a spoon (to scrape the sides of the bowl) and shaped the bread in directly on the baking sheet.

Without further ado then:

One-hour French Bread

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups warm water (no warmer than 120°F)
1 1/2 Tbsp yeast ( that’s 1 tbsp, plus 1 1/2 tsp)
1 Tbsp honey
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 – 4 cups flour (I used 1 cup whole wheat and 3 cups of all-purpose, but this is only a matter of preference, so use what your family will enjoy)

Directions

Add the warm water, yeast, honey and salt to your mixing bowl.  In five to ten minutes, it will be foamy and puffy (we want that).  Add your flour, slowly, a cup at a time and mix until the dough is no longer sticky.  This step took me approximately 8 minutes.  If you need to add a little extra flour, no harm, but too much will make the loaf heavy.  Shape the dough, by hand, into a 14 inch loaf (this will not work in a bread pan), and cover with a warm, damp tea towel for 20 minutes while your oven pre-heats to 375°C.  Just prior to baking, using a very sharp knife or (clean!!) razor blade, cut a couple of 1/2 deep slits in the top of the loaf.

Bake on the center rack for 20 minutes and remove to a cooling rack once baking is complete.