Bread Maker Recipe - French Bread

A good crusty French bread is hard to beat as an accompaniment to a hearty soup or other dish. The best news is that you can make a decent loaf of French bread in the bread maker. Notice that I didn't say “perfect” loaf. I've not been able to get that nice crunchy French bread crust on all sides of any bread baked in a regular pan, bread maker pan or not. Still, this is a tasty oil free white bread with a great crumb and chewy crust.

For this loaf, you only need half as much of the gluten as I would normally recommend. Putting in 2 teaspoons will make it rise too much and then break itself against the lid of your bread maker.

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups water
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vital wheat gluten
1/4 teaspoon dough conditioner
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast

Put the ingredients into the bread machine loaf pan in the order listed for your machine. Add the wheat gluten and dough conditioner with the flour.

Set the machine for the French cycle. I prefer a Medium or Dark crust setting for this bread. Make sure you remove the bread from the pan as soon as the cycle is complete and let it cool completely on a wire rack before cutting.