It always nice to have fresh homemade bread in the house. I love having this Russian bread especially for the Mr.
I like bread. Okay, I love bread. Like a little too much! I love to experiment with different breads. I honestly had no idea what to call this bread. It’s like Italian bread meets French bread and ends up with a Russian loaf of bread (“Батон”). It’s really great though and I just stuck with Russian bread. If there is a better name for this though do excuse my lack of knowledge. When we were growing up bread was always a “must” with just about every meal. It was always “dense and thick” bread and when you eat a slice you are rather full. I remember mom sometimes purchasing sandwich bread and dad would just squish it and say “this is cotton, not bread”, haha. Now that I am married, my spouse prefers this kind of bread as well. Though my children would much rather have light, “dad’s cotton” sandwich bread. It’s pretty quick and simple to make.
Fresh bread with butter, jam and a cup of cold milk; now THAT’S what I am talking about!!. Enjoy!.
You will also need 2 cups water in a baking bowl! This will give the bread a beautiful crust.
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup water, warm
1/4 cup milk, warm
1 ½ tsp salt
2 tsp oil
2 tsp sugar
2 ½ tsp yeast
3 1/2 cups flour
Makes: 1 loaf
Directions:
Line large baking sheet with parchment paper (if you have a good quality, non-stick baking sheet this may not be necessary.)
Sift flour and add to bowl. Move flour aside to make room to pour water into the middle of flour.
In a small bowl combine the warm water and milk; pour into the middle of flour. Add oil and salt to water and give a quick mix. Sprinkle the yeast over the water. Sprinkle the sugar over the yeast.
Let it sit for 5 minutes (yeast will activate and become foamy).
Give the water a quick mix and add the flour in. Mix until it is difficult to mix. Transfer dough onto the counter top and knead about 4 minutes (just until the dough is smooth). The dough should be slightly sticky but will not stick to hands.
Shape dough and place in a bowl. Cover with a towel. Let rise two (2) hours.
Take dough and shape it into a long loaf (French bread like). Twist the loaf (this will help it right round and not a flat loaf).
Dust with flour. Let rise 30 minutes.
Add 2 cups water to a small baking dish and place it on the bottom rack of oven. Preheated oven to 425˚F.
Bake bread for 30 minutes.
Let loaf cool completely before cutting. Enjoy!!.

A homemade recipe for Russian bread which is a mixture of French and Italian bread.
- 1 1/4 cup water, warm
- 1/4 cup milk, warm
- 1 ½ tsp salt
- 2 tsp oil
- 2 tsp sugar
- 2 ½ tsp yeast
- 3 1/2 cups flour
-
Line large baking sheet with parchment paper (if you have a good quality, non-stick baking sheet this may not be necessary.)
-
Sift flour and add to bowl. Move flour aside to make room to pour water into middle of flour.
-
In a small bowl combine the warm water and milk; pour into the middle of flour. Add oil and salt to water and give a quick mix. Sprinkle the yeast over the water. Sprinkle the sugar over the yeast.
-
Let it sit for 5 minutes (yeast will activate and become foamy).
-
Give the water a quick mix and add the flour in. Mix until it is difficult to mix. Transfer dough onto the countertop and knead about 4 minutes (just until dough is smooth). Dough should be slightly sticky but will not stick to hands.
-
Shape dough and place into a bowl. Cover with a towel. Let rise two (2) hours.
-
Take dough and shape it into a long loaf (French bread like). Twist the loaf (this will help it right round and not a flat loaf).
-
Dust with flour. Let rise 30 minutes.
-
Add 2 cups water to a small baking dish and place it on the bottom rack of oven. Preheated oven to 425˚F.
-
Bake bread for 30 minutes.
-
Let loaf cool completely before cutting. Enjoy!!.
You will also need 2 cups water in small baking dish! This will give the bread a beautiful crust.I just used an 8x8.
This bread is absolutely delicious! Of course, I didn’t wait for it to cool before trying it. I cut it right away and spread butter on it! SO good!
That’s awesome, Coby! I’m loving the skipped cooling step, haha. 🙂 So glad you enjoyed the easy bread recipe.
I just loved your bread, Valentina!!!!
Thank you very much for recipe !!!! I couldn’t follow your direction on completely cooling down before cutting 😉
You just made my day, Vita! 🙂 So glad you enjoyed this easy bread. (And I loved your lack of following instructions, haha ;)..)
Made this recipe for my family. My husband loves it. Thank you for sharing
That’s wonderful, Alina. Thanks so much for letting us know. Making the Mr. happy is a pretty big deal :)!!
Thanks for being a part of our online home.
I used 100% Italian whole wheat organic flour and it turned out delicious!!! Without parchment paper, I used olive oil for ointing and twisting the dough, and spread some sesame seeds on top. Excellent and easy to knead, thank you!!
That sounds WONDERFUL, Tamara. Will definitely try it. Thanks for the idea and for trying our recipe :)!
If I’ll shape the dough into 2 loaves what would be the baking time? Thanks
Hi Jessica,
I think the loaves will be too small if shaped into two loaves. However, you can try it. The baking time will definitely be less but without trying it first, I cannot guess how much less, sorry!.
Valachka made this bread today and omg it’s nearly gone my sissy had about 2 or 3 slices with her late lunch and she was totally smitten I had a homemade sub and wow I must say was so seriously really yummy and super scrumptious with my homemade filling the bread didn’t get soggy like it does with store bought sweetheart thanx so much this really great awesome recipe I am definitely gonna be making this quite more often this definitely puts me closer to my Russian heritage enjoy your summer g-d bless and cheers
Oh my, Tzivia. A homemade sub sounds wonderful right about now, yumm! So glad you and your sis were able to enjoy this easy bread. 🙂 Thanks for trying our recipes from our online home. We love having you visit.
i just copieed this recipe so havent tried it yet but am planning on doing it soon.looks easy i was glad to get it as i am half russian and dont have many russian recipes.will be looking for more
That’s awesome, Judi. Search our blog and enjoy the many recipes we have. 🙂 Welcome to our online home! 🙂
Made this bread. It’s so good. Made one just white the second used 2 cups white and 1 1/2 cups whole wheat. Everyone loved it. ( just wanted to ask if you were serious about letting them cool all the way cause that didn’t happen in my family)??
Dianochka. I love that it worked with adding whole wheat, thanks for adding that for others to know..? Your last sentence put a huge smile on my face, too sweet, Thank you!!! ??
Hello Valinka,
Do you have a good sour rye bread recipe? Thank you for a Christ focused blog!!! God bless you and your family!
Thank you so much, comment is so appreciated!:) Sooo glad Christ is seen in our blog.. You know what, I think my mammochka actually has a recipe. I will definitely ask her and post it. Thank you for the idea..:-)..
Hi, can I use bread flour and wholemeal flour in 50:50 ratio? Or 60:40 ratio.
Hi Yvonne.
Honestly, I have never tried it with that ratio but if you will try maybe start with 70:30. Sorry, not very helpful, I know:/.. I’d love to hear your results if you do try it! :)..
Hi Valentina! Which flour is best to use for this bread?
You can use any good quality flour. Canadian flour works great!:)
Hi thanks so much for the recipe! I love the way you twisted your bread. Im going to do that next time I make a sweet roll or rolls with poppy seed filling:)
Thank you so much midnitglory:).. Mmm. that sounds good, love the idea.
Valentina! Thank you for such a delicious bread I used my bread maker to make a dough and it was ease peasy …
Tatyana, oh this is wonderful to hear!. Thank you.. Thank you:)
I like how you twisted the dough before baking. Pinned!
Thanks Marinka. Yes, I like to twist it. I think it looks kinda pretty and helps rise round and not flatten as much, or so I think:). Thanks bunches for the pin. Ur the sweetest nurse I know!!. Oh I like the sound of that, Nurse Marina.. 🙂
Not a nurse yet. In the making though 😀
I’m a fellow bread lover:) I can eat bread with every meal and not get tired of it. Will have to try this one when I get a chance. One of my dreams would be to take some classes to learn how to make authentic artisan bread
Innochka, I will so join you in those classes!!. That idea just made me smile and my stomach turned with joy;) hehe;).
Can i use my kitchen aid dough hook?
Alenka, Yes of course:)