French Bread Recipe is an adaptation of one found in some forgotten King Arthur cookbook.
2 cups warm water 2 pkgs active dry yeast ( I use 2 tsps) 2 tsps salt 2 tbsps sugar 5 to 6 cups all purpose flour 1. Sprinkle yeast over the water in a large bowl. Let rest for 10 minutes. 2. Sprinkle sugar in bowl of yeast and water. Stir until dissolved. 3. Carefully, one cup at a time, add flour. Mix well after each addition. After 2 cups, add salt. At some point, you will need to forsake your spoons and use your hands. 4. When dough is no longer sticking to your hands real bad, place on lightly floured work surface.. 5. Knead until you can't knead anymore and your sweating buckets. lol About 10 minutes of kneading is good, but an expert told me you can't knead too much. When it feels stretchy like elastic and kind of silky, place in an oiled bowl. Turn it over so that all surfaces are coated with oil. (I use extra virgin olive oil) 7. Cover with towel and let rise for about 45 minutes to an hour, until doubled in size. 8. When doubled, separate in to 3 equal balls of dough. I'm not good at this, so i have one to 2 loaves bigger than the other. 9. Using a rolling pen, roll dough out in to 3 8 inch rounds, about a half inch thick or so. Roll up, pinch seams together and shape ends in to cone like shapes. 10. Place a layer of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and place loaves, seam side down on the paper, side by side with a little room in between. With a small, sharp knife, make 3 slits in top of loaf to vent and to make it look authentic. 11. Preheat oven to 350, allowing loaves to rest under a towel while oven gets hot. Using a spray bottle of clean water, sprits loaves liberally, then hurry and put them in your oven. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes. If something doesn't make since, let me know. I just typed this up, just now. lol I'll post more recipes, another day. Shannon Nicole Wells, author http://www.wildheartbook.com http://oldtimechristian.blogspot.com http://www.twitter.com/authorshannon http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1826550903 _______________________________________________ Cookinginthedark mailing list [email protected] http://acbradio.org/mailman/listinfo/cookinginthedark
