French Bread

By dette

This bread brings to mind the rough country breads found in France and Italy. It often is shaped into long loaves, calle baguettes, which have a wonderful golden brown crust.

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 c water
• 4 c. bread flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast of bread machine yeast
• yellow cornmeal
• 1 slightly beaten egg white
• 1 tbsp water.

Preparation

Step 1

Select 2 pound loaf sie. Add first 4 ingredients to machine according to manufacturere's directions. Select the dough cycle.

When cyle is complete, remove dough. Punch down. Cover and let rest 10 minutes. Divide 2 pound dough in half; roll each half into a 15x10 rectangel. Starting from a long side, roll up into a spiral; seal edge. Punch and pull ends to taper.

Place seams down on a greased baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal. Combine egg white and 1 Tbsp waer; brush some over top of loaves. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 35-45 minutes or until neatly couble. With a very sharp knile, make 3 or 4 diagonal cuts aobut 1/4 inch deep across the top of each loaf.

Bake in a 375 degree over for 20 minutes. Brush with remaining egg white mixture. Bake for 12-15 minutes more or until bread sounds hollow when lightly tapped. Remove frombaking sheet; cool on wire rack.