French Bread

Whenever I'm in a need of a new recipe, I go straight to the Pinterest search bar. Why not? I find the recipe I want with pictures! What could be better? Last week we made an Italian feast and I needed a great french bread recipe. I found this great pin with a recipe posted by justgetoffyourbuttandbake{dot}com. It looked fabulous and I had to try it out. The ingredients are fairly simple and most likely you have any everything you need in your pantry. I like to buy a jar of yeast instead of packets. It's a little more expensive to buy upfront but it last a lot longer and you're able to get the exact amount of yeast you need. The bread came out very soft, chewy and delicious. I like a soft outer crust on my french bread but there's also a neat trick to get a crispier crust. Here's the recipe:

Recipe:

2 1/4 C warm water

3 Tbls sugar

2 Tbls yeast

1 Tbls salt

2 Tbls oil

6 C flour

Place the warm water, sugar in a  large mixing bowl. Add the yeast and let dissolve. You really want to get the yeast activated so really let it dissolve until it starts "bubbling".

Add the salt, oil and 3 cups of flour and mix. At this point change your mixer attachment to your kneader. Slowly add the remaining 3 cups of flour. Add additional flour if the dough is still pretty sticky.

Let the dough sit in the mixing bowl for ten minutes with a kitchen towel on top. After ten minutes turn the mixer on for ten seconds. Repeat this 5 times.

Take dough out and knead a few times on a well-floured surface. Split the dough in half and roll out into a 9x13 rectangle. Roll the dough and tuck the ends in. Cute three gashed on top of the dough. Place seam down on a baking sheet and let rise for another 15-20 minutes. Repeat with the other half of the dough.

Preheat over to 375.

Using a pastry brush add an egg wash (1 egg+ 1 Tbls water) on top of the bread. Place bread in the oven and cook for 20-30 minutes. If you feel like the top of your bread is getting dark to fast, add a piece of aluminum foil on top 15 minutes into cooking.

When your bread is golden brown and done take out of the over and let rest. You can't tell in the picture but we were already devouring the first loaf out of the oven as we took the second one out. It's really hard to resist which is why this recipe is perfect in making to loaves:-) It is so delicious and perfect with soups and pasta. In fact, we let this loaf cool cut it in half (lengthwise) added butter and garlic and put it under the broler for a few minutes. It was by far the best garlic bread I've ever had!

Enjoy!