How To Make A Small Loaf Of French Bread

Craving the unmistakable aroma and taste of freshly baked French bread but don’t want to make a full-sized loaf? You’re in the right place! Our French Bread recipe is the perfect solution for smaller households or when you just want a manageable amount of this classic staple. With a golden crust and soft, airy interior, this small batch recipe delivers all the authentic flavors without the waste. Get ready to elevate your meals and impress your guests with this foolproof, small loaf French bread recipe.

Why This Recipe Works

• Simple to Make: Whether you’re using a bowl or a stand mixer, this dough comes together quickly and effortlessly.
• Versatile Dough: The dough is forgiving and yields delicious bread, regardless of how you shape it.
• Perfect Size: Designed for smaller households, this recipe produces a small loaf, eliminating waste.
• Customizable: Feel free to add your favorite ingredients like kalamata olives and walnuts, or roasted garlic and rosemary.
• Easy Breadmaking: Many shy away from making bread, thinking it’s too complicated. This basic recipe proves that breadmaking can be simple and accessible.

The Journey To Perfecting A Small Loaf French Bread Recipe

Creating this one loaf French bread recipe has been a labor of love. While I’ve been baking French bread for years, fine-tuning the ingredients to yield a small loaf presented its own set of challenges.

Breadmaking often gets a bad rap for being difficult, especially when yeast is involved. From getting the dough to rise to avoiding common pitfalls, it can seem daunting.

However, this simplified mini French bread recipe is virtually foolproof. It’s straightforward, easy to follow, and produces consistently great results. To make things even easier, I’ve included step-by-step photos to guide you through each stage of the process. Trust me, this loaf is a game-changer, and we’re confident you’ll love it as much as we do.

Ingredients

Ingredient Notes

• Flour: Choose between all-purpose flour and bread flour. All-purpose flour is versatile and works well in a variety of recipes, from cookies and pie crusts, to muffins. Bread flour has a higher protein content, giving your dough more strength and enabling a higher rise. Note that bread flour absorbs more liquid, making the dough slightly stiffer.
• Water: Opt for warm water to activate the yeast more effectively.
• Salt: Don’t skip the salt; it’s essential for flavor and for controlling the yeast activity. Without salt, your bread may rise too quickly and taste bland.
• Active dry yeast: This is the yeast you’ll want to use. It’s coated to be inactive until dissolved in water. Ensure your yeast is fresh for optimal results.
• Honey: We’re using honey instead of granulated sugar for a subtle sweetness that complements the bread’s flavors.
• Olive oil: Extra virgin olive oil is the go-to for this recipe. It’s the least processed and retains the most nutrients and flavors from the olive. However, you can opt for a lighter olive oil if you prefer.

This is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why I used them. For the full recipe please scroll down to the recipe box at the bottom of the post.

Instructions

These step-by-step photos and instructions help you visualize how to make a small loaf of French bread. See the recipe box below for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions.

Step 1: Prepare the Dough

• Add the flour, salt, honey, olive oil, and water to a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle the yeast over the surface of the water to allow it to dissolve. Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment and a dough hook makes bread making very easy. However, you can also mix the ingredients by hand (see below). If using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment until the dough comes together.

• Replace with the dough hook to continue mixing for about 10 minutes. Mixing the ingredients develops the gluten, the protein in the flour that results in a dough becoming elastic. It’s easy to over mix the dough, especially when you use a stand mixer. You know you’ve mixed your dough enough when you can stretch a small piece of it into a translucent sheet without tearing it. This is called the “windowpane test”. To do this test, pull off a small piece of the bread dough and stretch it gently. If it becomes translucent before it tears, the dough is ready to be covered and left to rise. If it tears before it has reached this point, continue mixing.

First rise

• The first rise allows the yeast to multiply and feed, which helps to flavor the dough as well as to develop the gluten. This gives the dough its wonderful texture. Remove the mixing bowl from the machine, cover it with plastic wrap, and allow the dough to rise to about twice its size. This will take about an hour or so depending on how warm your kitchen is.
• After leaving the dough alone for a while, push a finger into the dough. The dough should give some resistance, but not spring back. If it springs back, cover and let it rest longer.

Rest the dough

• Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it to expel excess gas and redistribute the yeast.
• Cover with a dish towel and let it rest for 10-15 minutes.

Shape the dough and second rise

• Shape the dough into an oval, or a boule, by pushing the dough back and forth on a firm counter until shaped. You can also make a baguette by stretching the dough into a rectangle roughly 6 by 3 inches. Place on a baking sheet and cover the dough with a dish towel and allow to rise, for 1 hour.

Step 2: Bake the bread

• Heat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Make one long slash across the top of the bread loaf with the tip of a sharp knife. This technique is called scoring and it creates a weak spot in the bread’s crust which allows the bread to expand without bursting in unexpected areas. Professional bakers use a scoring tool called a “lame”. This is essentially a small wand with a thin sharp blade attached. You can just as easily use a sharp knife or a razor blade. After scoring the bread, brush with olive oil and sprinkling of kosher salt. Bake the bread for 18-20 minutes.

That’s really all there is to bread baking. This is my go-to recipe for making quick bread at home and this small loaf is a wonderful size for smaller households.

Expert Tips

• Yeast Options: This french bread recipe calls for using active dry yeast however if you have instant yeast, you can use that instead. The two yeasts can be used interchangeably in recipes. The difference between the two is that active dry yeast needs to be dissolved in warm water before using while instant yeast can be mixed in with the other ingredients.
• Handling Sticky Dough: If your dough is too sticky and sticks to your work surface and your fingers, you will need to add a little more flour. As you begin to knead the dough, make sure your hands and the work surface is lightly coated with flour. If the dough is still too sticky, add a little flour to the dough, 1 tablespoon at a time. This will get rid of the stickiness and be sure to knead only until the dough is smooth and elastic.
• Troubleshooting Dough That Doesn’t Rise: If the dough does not rise, it is likely that the yeast wasn’t active. If you’re using active dry yeast, maybe the water you used wasn’t warm enough. Also, dough won’t rise if the room you’re using is too cold. I often put the dough in my oven to rise. To do this, first preheat your oven for 1 minute, turn it off, then place the bowl of dough inside. Make sure the oven doesn’t get too hot or you’ll need to wait for it to cool off. Sometimes, just leaving the light on in your oven will provide enough warmth without turning on the oven.
• Avoiding Doughy Bread: If your bread is doughy in the middle, you’ve either under-baked your bread, or your oven wasn’t hot enough. To test whether your bread is baked through, carefully turn the loaf of bread over and tap the base. The bread should sound hollow and the loaf should feel light.

These tips are designed to help you navigate common challenges in breadmaking, ensuring your small loaf of French bread turns out perfectly every time.

What You Can Do Now That You Have The Basic Bread Dough Recipe

Just the plain bread dough results in good fresh french bread but if you’d like to add in various ingredients, feel free to do so. There’s really no end to the kinds of bread you can make with this basic dough recipe.

The recipe variations all follow the basic bread method: mix the dough until you can achieve the appropriate elasticity, allow it to rise, punch it down, let it rest for 10 minutes or so, shape it, allow it to rise one last time, and bake it.

• Olive-walnut bread: I love using chopped kalamata olives and walnuts. It’s a great combination that results in a purple hint of color and a tangy, nutty flavor. Add 1/8 cup of chopped walnuts and 1/8 cup of chopped olives to the basic bread dough midway through mixing. Let rise, shape, and bake as described in the bread dough recipe. After baking, brush with melted butter and 1/4 teaspoon of garlic salt.
• Rosemary and roasted garlic bread: Fresh herbs like rosemary, oregano, and thyme work well in breads and any can be used here. Peel off the outer papery covering of a head of garlic. Using a sharp knife, then slice of 1/4″-1/2″ off the top of the cloves, so that the inside of each clove is exposed. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil over the top of the cloves, wrap it in foil and bake at 400 F for 30-35 minutes, or until tender. Push the cloves out of their skins and use whole or give them a rough chop. I tend to use 3-4 roasted cloves but use as many or as few as you prefer (Roasted garlic is delicious spread over warm bread too). Add the garlic to the dough along with 1/2 tablespoon of chopped herbs before the second rise – before you shape the dough.

Serving Suggestions

A wedge of crusty french bread is the only side dish you need to go along with a bowl of soup or stew and I could easily make a meal out of sliced french bread dipped in extra virgin olive oil. You might even consider using this french bread in any of these single serving recipes:

• French Bread Pizza
• Breadcrumbs
• Homemade Croutons
• French Toast
• Sausage Dressing
• Caprese Toast
• Avocado Toast
• Smoked Salmon with Eggs
• French Onion Soup
• Breakfast Casserole