French Bread

This is about as authentic a French bread as you can make at home. You need unbleached hard-wheat flour (available at Health Food stores) and an oven with heat coming from top, bottom and both sides. If you place a pan of boiling water on the oven floor and sprinkle the cookie sheets with cornmeal after buttering them, you can approximate the commercial product.

Ingredients

• 1 cake yeast
• 1 ½ cups lukewarm water
• 4 cups flour
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• 2 tsp. salt

Dissolve yeast in water. Stir dry ingredients, stir them into the yeast mixture and work the dough with your hands until it will absorb more flour. Knead the dough on a slightly floured board until it is no longer sticky. Place the dough in the buttered bowl, cover and let rise until doubled, then punch it out on a floured board. Divide into two parts. Shape each piece into a long narrow loaf. Place loaves on a greased cookie sheet that has been sprinkled with cornmeal, cover, let rise again. Brush tops with egg white glaze about 5 minutes before bread is done. Bake in a 400° oven for 35-40 minutes.