French Bread

Last night, I thought some French bread would go nicely with my dinner for tonight. Only problem was I didn't have that thought when I was at the grocery store this weekend, so no French bread (or any bread really) in the house!  So....I looked at some recipes, found one I liked one a blog called Faith Filled Food for Moms, and baked away! It was really simple and tasty! It did take about 2.5 hours from start to ready-to-eat, but only about 20-30 minutes of actual work. Most of the time the bread is either rising or baking, so as long as you plan accordingly and make it ahead of time, it really doesn't consume much time at all.   And it is supposed to freeze well also. The recipe makes one decent sized loaf.

The ingredients: Flour (I did 2/3 whole wheat and 1/3 white), salt, olive oil, brown sugar, yeast, water, and an egg.

What you do:

Mix 1.5 teaspoons of yeast (about 3/4 packet) with 1 tablespoon brown sugar and 1 1/8 cups of warm water (note - warm, not hot) and let sit for about 10 minutes.  

You'll go from this:

To this:

Add 3 cups of flour total (white, whole wheat, or a combination...if you do most or all whole wheat you'll probably need to add some extra water). I did 2 cups whole wheat and 1 cup white. Also add 1.5 teaspoons of salt and 1.5 Tablespoons of olive oil. Mix well.  My dough was really dry and not really sticking together, so I probably ended up adding roughly 1/8 cup of water. You want it to form a ball but not be sticky.

Knead your dough for about 5 minutes, until it seems pliable. Dust with flour as needed for stickiness. Shape into a loaf and place on a pizza stone dusted with flour (I assume a regular tray would also work, but several recipes suggested a stone...and it did work quite well!). Brush the loaf with water.

Let it rise for 40-50 minutes. When its risen, crack your egg into a small bowl and mix really well. Then brush your loaf with the egg.  If you want to get fancy, cut 4 shallow diagonal slits in the top of the loaf.

Now its ready! Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes or until the crust is a nice crusty gold. Place a small oven-proof bowl of water in the oven also (apparently the steam helps make the crust crusty...who knew! Probably everyone except me!).

Let it stand for 15-20 minutes, and its ready to eat!