When it comes to cooking, I’m a little more Rachel Ray than Martha Stewart. I’m not really into fussy recipes and stuffy etiquette. Like Ray-Ray, I’m also not much of a baker. Yes, I do try, sometimes… but nothing ever turns out amazing. I think it’s because I have a really hard time sticking to recipes. Although I have about a zillion recipe books, and I LOVE them, I really only use them to look up a specific question like “what should I do with this fennel?” or “what should the internal temperature be again?” or just as inspiration. With baking, you really need to follow the recipe, and that is really hard to do sometimes when you see things like: one cup of butter, one cup corn syrup, 2 cups of sugar… I just can’t do it! I end up cutting fats and sugars in half and substituting here and there. The result? Usually mediocre – which is why I rarely bake, with the exception of bread.

I bake bread about once a week. I found this great recipe for French bread in a baking book they gave me in cooking school. French bread is one of my favorites. It’s so simple but full of flavour and feels like a real treat. I would take a slice of warm, fresh, French bread with butter or margarine over a chocolate bar any day!

After making this recipe a few times, I started to play around with it, and it turned out great every time. Here is the basic recipe, with some substitution suggestions:

Make The ‘Old Dough’
This is what really ads the flavour to the bread, I don’t make any changes to this part of the recipe, but I’m sure you could.

Bread Flour or Regular White Flour (10 oz/300 g)
Instant Yeast (0.15 oz/1 tsp/4.5 g)
Warm Water – 70F/21C (6.5 fl oz/195 ml)
Salt (0.25 oz/1.25 tsp/7.5 g) *I use Kosher for everything

1.Throw all the ingredients in a bowl and mix them together then knead 8-10 minutes. Sprinkle with some flour and cover with plastic wrap. Ferment 4-6 hours. If your oven has a bread proof option, put it in the oven for 4 hours.

2.After fermenting, the dough can be used right away, or you can save it in the fridge for up to four days. You can add this dough into other bread recipes to add some flavour!


French Bread
Old dough
Flour 1 lb 3 oz/480 g

• Try half white flour and half whole wheat
• Try to add a couple cups of oats
• Add some ground flax
• Add some wheat germ
• Add some bran
• Add some amarath flour
• Add some millet
• Add some corn flour
• Add some farro flour
• Add some rice flour
• Add some potato flour

There are A LOT of other options! Just make sure that the final weight is the amount stated in the recipe. I usually add half white flour, and then top up the rest in a couple different ingredients. In the picture above, I think we did about 200 grams of oats. Oats are a whole grain and add some nice chewy texture and make the  loaf more substantial. I’ll work on a little guide to lessen known grains soon!

Instant yeast (0.15 oz/1 tsp/4.5 g)
Warm water (12 fl oz/360 ml)
Salt (0.5 oz/15 g)

3.Cover the dough and allow to ferment another 1-2 hours or until doubled. Again, if you have a ‘bread proof’ option on your oven (I think it just heats to 100 degrees Fahrenheit…) it should only take 1 hour.

4.Divide into 8 pieces for buns, 4 pieces for baguettes, 2 pieces for a nice ‘boule’ or keep in one piece for a great big loaf and leave it to rest for another 10 minutes. . Round it into the shape you want and set it on it’s cooking sheet. I use plain old cookie sheets lined with parchment paper and dusted with coarse semolina flour or corn flour. If you have a cooking stone, feel free to use that, dusted with flour. I cracked mine

5.Time to proof again! Leave the bread for another 30-45 minutes!

6.Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit or 230 degrees Celsius. Slice diagonal lines, or criss cross lines on the bread tops, if you like. Dust the loaf tops with flour of your choice and lightly spritz with water if you like a crunchy crust.

*For an extra thick and crunchy crust, put a broiler pan with an inch of water on the very bottom of your oven before preheating. This will create steam in the oven a help make a lovely crust.

7.Bake for 20-22 minutes for boules or baguettes. Bake about 16-19 minutes for buns and you’ll probably need closer to 25 minutes for one big loaf. Just give the load a knock when you take it out of the oven and if it sound hollow, you’re good.

Now eat up! And please share any other substitutions you’ve tried!