Easy French Bread (Bread Machine)

I found a Breadman Ultimate bread machine at a garage sale for $5. It was awesome because the lady gave me all of the bread machine cookbooks she had as well! What a deal!

I have heard people talk about their bread machines and I just didn't get it. I think part of me thought it was cheating. You have to knead and love the dough to make good bread. Well, my eyes have been opened. My bread machine has changed my life.

Now I buy bread flour in the 50 pound bags at Costco. You can't beat that price! Plus, I go through a lot of bread flour.

My favorite recipe came in the Instruction Manual. It's the French bread recipe. By no means is it an authentic, crusty baguette or anything, but it is soft and comes out warm and delicious. I make it frequently. If we're having Italian food I either make the Clover Lane Breadsticks or this recipe. I love to use leftover bread for French toast or paninis. I'm just trying to figure out how to cut the bread into uniform slices.

Here's the recipe:

Easy French Bread
1.5 lb loaf

1 cup + 2 Tablespoons water
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 Tablespoons sugar
3 1/4 cups bread flour
1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (I just use regular yeast and it's fine)

So for my bread machine I put in the liquids first, then the dry ingredients and the yeast goes in last. Shut the lid choose my desired crust and hit go! Three hours seventeen minutes later I have my bread!

Hi there little guy!