French bread

I have a couple of sandwich recipes I want to try. They call for sourdough and Italian bread. I've decided to make a couple of French loaves to stand in since I don't have an Italian bread recipe on hand and don't have the time to prepare sourdough.

The recipe I followed is from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I've listed the ingredients and steps below. Included are additional information/tips I've used in the past when baking bread that have helped a lot in my being successful with yeast breads.

Yield: 2 loaves Time: about 3 hours total

• 5.5-6 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 packages active dry yeast
• 1.5 tsp. salt
• 2 cups water (120-130F)
• cornmeal
• 1 egg white, slightly beaten
• 1 tbsp. water
• oil, whatever type you like
• I used extra-virgin olive oil, aka EVOO, since I am a Costco member and bought a 2-pack of 2-liters of the stuff because of the great deal. So, yeah, I have about a gallon of EVOO. Since we are a 2-member apartmenthold, I try to use it whenever possible since the clock is ticking before it, eventually, goes rancid.

 

In a large mixing bowl stir together 2 cups of the flour, the yeast, and salt.

Add the warm water to the mixture.

Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed for 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes.

Using a wooden spoon (or Pampered Chef spatula), stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough remaining flour to make a stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (8 to 10 minutes total). Shape dough into a ball.

Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease surface.

Tip: use a bowl large enough to hold 2-3 times the amount of dough, put in about a tbsp. of oil, and roll the dough around in it. It'll seem pretty greasy, but it will make the dough fall out of the bowl (and won't be nearly as greasy) later.

Cover; let rise in a warm place until double in size (about 1 hour). 

Tip: Use your oven as a proofer. Adjust the racks (i.e. remove the lower rack) in your cold oven to accomodate a big bowl of hot water in the bottom and your bowl of greased dough, covered with a clean kitchen towel, in the middle. I used the giant bowl I mixed the dough in and filled it with hot water from the tap (which comes out nuclear reactor hot in my apartment). It'll help proof the bread, plus the doughy residue is soaking in water for easier cleaning later. Total win-win!

Punch dough down. (Literally, push your fist into the super puffy dough and you'll see/feel it deflate).

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half. Cover (with the same clean kitchen towel used during proofing above); let rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile lightly grease a baking sheet with Pam, butter, or do as I did and use EVOO dispensed via MISTO. Sprinkle generously with cornmeal as those beads will prevent your bread from sticking to the sheet.

Roll each portion of the dough into a 15x10-inch rectangle. Roll up, starting from a long side; seal well. Pinch ends and pull slightly to taper. Place seam side down on prepared baking sheet. In a small bowl stire together egg white and water. Brush some of the egg white mixture over the loaves.


Let rise until nearly double in size (35 to 45 minutes).

Preheat oven to 375°F. Using a sharp knife, make 3 or 4 diagonal cuts about 1/4 inch deep across the top of each loaf. Bake for 20 minutes.


Brush again with some of the egg white mixture. Continue baking for 15 to 20 minutes more or until bread sounds hollow when lightly tapped. Immediately remove bread from baking sheet. Cool on wire racks.

As you can see, the loaves turned out great (one better-looking than the other), tasted fantastic and had excellent texture.

Total cost is hard to determine since I had all the stuff on hand and didn't have to shop for anything to make this, but here's an estimate, assuming I bought everything required specifically to make the bread:

• 5-1/2 to 6 cups all-purpose flour = $4 for 5 lb.
• 2 packages active dry yeast - $1 each
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt =$1 for a lb.
• 2 cups warm water (120 degrees F to 130 degrees F)
• Cornmeal $2 for a lb.
• 1 egg white, slightly beaten = dozen eggs is about $2
• 1 tablespoon water

That puts the total cost of 2 French bread loaves at $11 or $5.50 each. Seems pricey, but if you were to use all of the ingredients to make French breads alone, you'd likely yield 4-6 loaves, which reduces the price per loaf drastically, to about $2.20 a loaf. That's not bad when you consider this bread uses 7 ingredients you can pronounce. Check that against what you'd get from the store. I dare ya.

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