IHC: French bread

French bread: So easy a horse can do it.

What you will need: 
1 1/4 cups water at 110-120 degrees
1 1/2 tsps yeast
2 tsps sugar 

3 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp salt 
1 tbsp olive oil
various spices (oregano, rosemary, etc.)
dusting of cornmeal
1 egg
original recipe taken from www.allrecipes.com


Baking French bread is not hard. For years before Kroger started selling its $1 Take 'n Bake loaves little old ladies in France were rising at the crack of dawn to rustle up some dough and slide it into their wood-fired ovens. If they can do, we can do it with our KitchenAid Mixers and Viking ovens. Not that I have a Viking. My stove was a dented Sears discount. Anyway.

For this simple French bread recipe, you just need a few ingredients, as well as good planning skills. If you lack the latter, this recipe is pretty forgiving if you let the dough rise for an extra hour while you shuttle the kids to lacrosse practice. 

First things first: Heat up 1 1/4 cups water. This takes about 25 seconds in the microwave, and it should be between 110-120 degrees. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons yeast (the little packets are 2 1/4 teaspoons). Then, add two teaspoons of sugar and let it all sit for 10 minutes. Why add the sugar? This shows you whether or not the yeast is active (should become frothy and bubbly as it "eats" the sugar) or dead as a doornail.

Easier without paws.

In a separate mixing bowl, meanwhile, measure out two cups of flour, one teaspoon salt and whatever spices you want to use. Oregano and rosemary work well. Once the yeast has finished proofing, add one tablespoon olive oil (forgot about that, too) directly into the flour, then incorporate all the yeast mixture and mix well. You can use a KitchenAid mixer for this, but I find it's more trouble than it's worth. Too much cleaning. Slowly work in another 1 1/4 cups flour. At some point, take your rings off and mix by hand. You'll know you're done adding flour when the dough is no longer sticky.

Now it's time to knead. Why knead? Well, there's actually a scientific explanation. It helps form gluten strands and trap the carbon dioxide inside the dough. Then, when you bake it, the bread rises. If you didn't knead it, all the carbon dioxide would just escape through the top and you'd have a flat loaf. Do this for 8-10 minutes, pushing the bread down and folding it over again and again. 

Now comes the easy part. Put your ball of dough in a bowl lined with olive oil, cover it with a towel, and let it rise in a warm place for an hour or so, until it has doubled in size. If your bread isn't rising, try turning your oven to 200 degrees and putting it in there. Or, I've had success putting it on top of the running dryer. 

After an hour, pound it down and divide it into two halves. Take the first half and place it on a clean surface to roll it out. This is where a non-slip pastry mat comes in handy (or, as my kids call is, the magic carpet). Roll it out fairly thin (like, 1/8 inch) into a long narrow rectangle. Then, starting on a long side, roll it up and seal it at the seam. Do the same for the other.

Now you should have two identical snakes of dough. Take a baking pan and brush olive oil in two lines. Cover these with a dusting of cornmeal. Place your loaves on these, and let 'em rise. Should take another hour or so. 

I thought we were making oats.

All ready? Good. They should be puffed up nicely. Preheat your oven to 375. I've found that putting a pie plate or small bowl of water in the oven helps to keep the crust crispy. Use a knife to make four diagonal slits across their tops. Brush the loaves with egg. Bake for 20-25 minutes, and enjoy with some olive oil.