Quick and Easy French Bread Recipe

Quick & Easy French Bread has the classic chewy outer crust with a soft, chewy inside. Thanks to the Instant Pot, two beautiful loaves of French Bread are hot out of the oven in under 90 minutes!

Watch this video to see exactly how easy this French Bread really is!!

The Best Fast French Bread Recipe

BREAD, BREAD, WHO LOVES BREAD? I do. That’s who. I’m the one who has to buy a loaf of french bread every time I go to the grocery store because, MAN that stuff smells good! Luckily, I’ve got some bread loving kids too so I don’t get have to eat it all by myself.

 I wanted to make some french bread for part of dinner but time was not on my side today. We were headed out for the day right after I picked up my son from preschool and wouldn’t be back until it was dinner time so I had exactly 3 hours in the morning to pick up the house, feed my other two kiddos, get us all ready for the day AND make french bread. 

Challenge accepted. From start to finish, can you guess how long it took me to make (and document) two beautiful loaves of french bread?? 

ONE AND A HALF HOURS. Yes, you read that right. 90 minutes start to finish! Wham bam thank you ma’am! How, you ask? I used my handy dandy Instant Pot! Love the thing, if you haven’t gotten yourself one, now is the time. This is just one more reason you NEED one. 🙂

Why you’ll love this Fast Bread Recipe

This is the easiest French bread recipe out there- not only is it quick but honestly it’s the best recipe to start with if you’ve never made bread before. Plus, you get two large loaves from this one recipe so freeze one or gift it to a neighbor. Either way it is a win!

Easy French Bread Recipe Ingredients

• Quick Rise Yeast – This will help the dough rise faster, which yields a faster French bread!
• Warm Water – if you have an instant read thermometer, the water should be about 110°, if not, you’ll want it to just feel slightly warm when the water runs on the inside of your wrist.
• Sugar – the sugar will initially help activate the yeast and then more sugar is added to the dough. The final bread is not sweet by any means.
• Oil – the oil helps make the bread tender, without it the bread would be more heavy and tough.
• Salt
• Flour – all we need here is All-purpose flour. Nothing fancy needed!

How to make this Easy French Bread Recipe

1. First you will combine warm water, yeast & a little bit of sugar and let it do its thing for 5 or so minutes. You’ll end up with bubbly yeast, this means that you yeast is active and working. If it hasn’t, your yeast is dead and you need to try again.
2. Add the yeast, flour, sugar, salt, oil & water into your mixer. Using the dough hook, turn the mixer on low until the flour is incorporated. Turn the speed up just a tad and let the mixer kneed for about 5 minutes.
3. When the dough is done kneading you should be able to pull off some dough and roll it into a ball. The dough will stick to the sides of the bowl a bit but it shouldn’t stick to your hands when you try to roll it.
4. Add about 1 TBSP of oil to your Instant Pot and turn it on. Push the yogurt button and then adjust until the normal light is on.
5. Dump the dough into the instant pot and coat the dough in oil so it will not stick.
6. The dough will now rise for 40 minutes. Every 10 minutes you will want to come back and ‘knead’ the dough a few times.
7. I found it easiest to use a spoon to push it down and move it around. The ‘kneading’ process should take about 30 seconds is all. Just push it down to release the built in air, cover and let it proof for another 10 minutes. So at 10 minutes, 20 minutes and 30 minutes you will ‘knead’ the dough. At 40 minutes you will dump the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead the dough in the flour a few times to soak up the excess oil.
8. Divide the dough into the amount of loaves you’d like to make. Today I was taking dinner to a friend so I made 2 loaves. I’ve made one large loaf before as well as 4 small loaves.
9. The best way to shape the loaves is to first roll the dough out into a rectangle.Then starting on the long end of the rectangle, roll & pinch the dough until you’ve rolled it into the desired shape.
10. You can put an egg white wash on now if you’d like. It doesn’t change the taste, it just makes the crust shiny when finished. Then take a knife and score the top of the dough.
11. Set the oven to 425°. Place the loaves of bread on top of the oven to raise while the oven preheats.
12. Once doubled, bake at 425° for 10 minutes and then lower the temp to 375° (without taking the bread out) and bake for an additional 20 minutes. There you have it! Super yummy & quick french bread!

How to serve this Quick French Bread

I am a purist so I just love the warm french bread with the hard crust slathered in butter but my family loves to eat it with honey or raspberry jam. I also will never say no to dunking a thick slice of French bread into some stew.

Quick French Bread Recipe FAQs

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Fast French Bread Recipe

Quick & Easy French Bread has the classic chewy outer crust with a soft, chewy inside. Thanks to the Instant Pot, two beautiful loaves of French Bread are hot out of the oven in under 90 minutes!

4.55 from 143 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Side Dish

Keyword: bread, french bread, homemade french bread, homemade instant pot bread, homemade instant pot french bread, instant pot bread, instant pot french bread, quick and easy bread, quick and easy french bread, quick and easy instant pot french bread

Prep Time: 1 hour hour

Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Servings: 2 loaves

Calories: 97kcal

Author: Karli Bitner

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 tbsp quick rise yeast
• 2 1/2 cup very warm water divided
• 1 1/2 tbsp sugar divided
• 2 tbsp oil
• 2 1/4 tsp salt
• 6 cups flour

Instructions

• Combine 1/2 cup of warm water, the yeast and 1/2 tsp sugar. Let the mixture sit for 5-10 minutes until nice and bubbly.
• Add the bubbly yeast and all other ingredients (2 cups of water, remaining sugar, oil, salt and flour) to the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the dough hook, combine the ingredients. Once ‘dough’ has formed, turn the mixer’s speed up a little and let the mixer knead for 5 minutes.
• The dough will stick to the sides of the bowl a little but you should be able to roll the dough into a small ball in your hands easily without it sticking.
• Pour 1 Tbsp of oil into the instant pot. Place the dough into the Instant Pot and push the yogurt button, adjust it to the normal setting. Roll the dough in oil so it will not stick. 
• The dough will now rise for 40 minutes. Every 10 minutes you will want to come back and ‘knead’ the dough a few times. Cover with a lid while you are not ‘kneading’. So at 10 minutes, 20 minutes and 30 minutes you will ‘knead’ the dough. At 40 minutes you will dump the dough out onto a floured surface
• Divide the dough into the amount of loaves you’d like. Use a rolling pin and roll the dough into a large rectangle. Shape the dough by starting at the long rolling and pinching the dough until you have achieved the desired shape. Score the top of the dough with a knife. You may do an egg white wash at this point if desired.
• Set the oven to 425°. Let the dough rise until double while the oven is preheating.
• Bake at 425° for 10 minutes. Without taking the bread out, turn the oven down to 375° and bake for an additional 20 minutes.
• ENJOY!!

Tried this recipe?Mention @cookingwithkarli or tag #cookingwithkarli!

Nutrition

Serving: 1slice | Calories: 97kcal | Carbohydrates: 19g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 165mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g