French Bread

Since we all need more bread in our lives, I decided to share a recipe I just tried a couple of days ago.  My picky-eater of a husband loves white bread: soft, fresh white bread.  He does not like wheat bread or bread that has been sitting on the counter top for more than 2-3 days.  French bread from Walmart costs $1.60 a loaf and is difficult to eat in the 2-3 day time frame, so we often waste quite a bit of the loaf.  This recipe is really cheap.  Plus, I wanted to see if I could make it on my own.

Honestly, this bread doesn't taste like the loaves you find at Walmart--not even close.  However, it is really good bread and it went well with our Italian-themed meal last night.  Also, I have it on good authority from my chief minion (I'll let you decide who that is, haha) that it tastes good fresh out of the oven AND is still good the day after.

Ingredients:

5.5-6 cups all-purpose flour
2 packages yeast (4.5 tsp)
2 cups warm water
1 egg white
1 Tbsp water

Directions:

1.  Mix 2 cups flour, yeast, and salt in your mixer or by hand, then add in 2 cups warm water.  Mix in the remaining flour--as much as you can. (I used my kitchen aid mixer and got all 6 cups of flour mixed in, but it took quite a while, and I had to stop the mixer and turn the dough ball upside down once in order to get it all mixed in.)

2.  Dump the dough on a floured surface and knead for a couple of minutes until it is smooth and elastic.  Spray a bit of cooking spray into your original mixing bowl.  Shape the dough into a ball and place it in your greased bowl.  Flip it over so that both sides are greased a bit.  Cover and allow to rise for about 1 hour.  (In our refrigerator of a house, I allowed 2 hours for it to double in size.)

3.  Punch the dough down and place it on a greased or floured surface.  Divide it into 2 balls (or 4 if you want smaller loaves).  Cover with plastic wrap and allow them to rest for 10 minutes.

4.  Roll each dough ball into a large rectangle (15x10 inches if you did halves).  Roll each rectangle the long way into a loaf (kind of like you would do for cinnamon rolls).  Place these loaves on a greased pan and pinch the ends so they'll stay together.

5.  Mix 1 egg white with 1 Tbsp water and brush over the tops of the 2 loaves.  Then allow them to rise for 35-45 minutes, until they've doubled in size.

6.  Drag a sharp knife, diagonally, over the tops of the loaves to make the traditional French loaf ridges.  Then bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 375 degrees.

7.  Remove the loaves and brush them with the remaining egg white mixture, and then bake them for a final 15-20 minutes until they're golden brown and delicious.

We like to slice the loaves and butter them up, then add garlic and cheese....mmmm good!  I think that next time I may try adding some herbs (garlic, parsley, Italian mix) to the egg white mixture.  Although I didn't try, I bet you could freeze leftover loaves.

This recipe worked out well with my baby minion yesterday, because the steps are relatively short with lots of breaks in between.  This allows for cuddles and playing with trains and keeps the micro-minion happy :)