French Bread

 

My wine class was covering food and wine paring last night, so we were asked to sign up for specific foods. I signed up for bread, and secondarily, for the fruit, I found cheap oranges, and an enormous papaya that were perfectly ripe. For the bread, I wanted to bake a nice, simple french bread. My recipe is based on this one from the Food.com website. Got to say, Food.com is two for two on superlative recipes I've looked for. I made two batches, one plain, one sesame seed. The plain batch had an egg wash to get a crispier crust, and I used a milk wash to hold on the sesame seeds in the second batch.

One thing I like about this recipe is that is one utilizes one raising. Makes for a faster turn around between batches. Also, the food processor does all the work of kneading for you.

Food Processor French Bread

1/2 cup warm water
1 package yeast
1 tsp. sugar
3 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. sugar
1 cup water
1 egg, beaten

Place 1/2 cup warm water, yeast, and 1 tsp. sugar in the bowl of the food processor. Pulse processor once or twice to mix. Let stand 5 minutes, or until yeast is foamy. Add 3 1/2 cup flour, 1 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1 tsp. sugar to processor bowl. Process for 30 seconds, then slowly add 1 cup water to the running processor. Process another 60 seconds. Check to see if dough is to sticky. If it is, add 1 Tbsp. of flour at a time, processing 15 seconds after each spoon of flour, until dough is not excessively sticky. Lightly grease a cookie sheet, and scatter cornmeal over it. Divide the dough into two parts, and roll into logs about 10" long. Place on cookie sheet. Cover with a warm, wet towel. Let rise about 40 minutes, or until doubled in size.

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees. Place a shallow bowl of warm water on the lower rack. When dough has finished raising, brush with egg, then place in oven. Bake 10 minutes, then turn temperature down to 400, and bake another 15 minutes.
Happy Eating!