"French" bread is a 4 ingredient bread....water, flour, salt, and yeast...no fat, no sugar.
Fat and sugar are the things that keep bread moist...well that and milk.
French bread dries out quickly...it just does, that's why the French go to the boulangerie every day.
If you use all whole wheat flour you willhave a heavy loaf....not like what I guess you think of as "French bread".
You can add up to 1/4 whole wheat flour to a French bread if youw ish...it will be heavier but still good.
My recipe for French bread is
3 3/4 cups flour
1 1/3 cups water
2 envelopes intstant yeast
1 1/4 tsps salt.
Mix dry ingredients with 3 cups of the flour, make a well and add the water slowly, add the rest of the flour until you can knead the dough.
Knead, adding flour as needed for 5 to 8 minutes, cover, place in a greased bowl, cover and allow to rise until double.
Punch down, cover and let rise again.
Turn out onto a board and shape into 2 loaves, cover with oiled saran, allow to rise until double, slash, brush with egg glaze if desired and bake at 375 for about 35 minutes until done.
Linda C

This is called French Bread because it is formed into baguettes before baking. But it is not a *true* French Bread; however, it is delicious, that I can vouch for. If you don't want to use the alcohol, I guess you could try a non-alcoholic beer.

French Bread with Beer - from Ginnie Tate

1 1/2 cups (a 12 oz. can or bottle) beer or ale
1 TB active dry yeast (2 t. instant yeast)
1 TB honey
1 TB malt syrup or maple syrup
2 TB canola oil
2 t. salt
2 cups unbleached white flour
2 cups whole wheat flour, stone ground preferred

cornmeal

Heat the beer or ale until it is warm and pour into a large mixing bowl; add the honey and yeast. Stir and let it sit until the yeast has dissolved and is frothy.

Add the syrup, oil, salt, and white flour. Beat 2 minutes with a mixer paddle or several minutes by hand. Gradually add about 2 cups of the whole wheat flour, or as much as it takes to make a dough that pulls away from the sides of the bowl and holds together.

Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and knead until it is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle on a little more whole wheat flour if it is too sticky. Put the dough into a greased bowl, turn to coat all sides, cover, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk.

Punch dough down, turn out and knead a few times, cut in half, cover, let rest 15 minutes.

Grease a large baking sheet. Sprinkle it with cornmeal. Roll each ball of dough to a large rectangle, roll up tightly like a jelly roll, pinch the ends together and turn them under. Place the loaves on the baking sheet seam side down. Slash the top diagonally with a razor blade or sharp knife. Brush the tops with melted butter and let rise until almost doubled.

Preheat oven to 450F. Spray or brush the loaves with cold water just before putting them in the oven. Spray water onto the oven floor, close the door. Spray again in 5 minutes. After 10 minutes spray again and turn down the heat to 375 for 15 minutes. Baking time is a total of about 25 minutes. Cool on a rack. Makes two long loaves.