French Bread

Apparently this is the French cooking week on my blog or something; first the steak au poivre, now this, and coming soon, a French wine. But when it's all so good it's hard not to blog about it!

As good as this bread is, I actually have a disappointing story to share about it. I first made it about two weeks ago for one of our family get togethers, and it killed me that I wasn't able to eat it right out of the oven. And then, to make matters worse, plans changed at the last minute at that family gathering and the bread didn't even get eaten. So by the time Darrell and I got to it it was already a few days old. Don't get me wrong, it was still delicious, but nothing quite beats bread fresh from the oven. Oh, and I do apologize; before I got my mixer I would get annoyed when people would post mixer-specific directions on their blog. And now I'm going to do it myself because this recipe comes straight out of the cookbook that came with my recipe and I'm not bread-savvy enough to modify it (although my assumption is just that you would knead where it instructs to use the mixer)

French Bread
(from the KitchenAid Mixer Recipes)

2 packages active dry yeast
2 1/2 cups warm water
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp butter, melted
7 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp cornmeal

Dissolve yeast in a warm water in mixing bowl. Add salt, butter, and flour. Attach bowl and dough hook to mixer. Turn to speed two and mix about one minute until well blended. Knead about two minutes longer (dough will be sticky). Place dough in greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover. Let rise in a warm place, free from draft, about one hour or until doubled in bulk. Punch dough down and divide in half. Roll each half into a 12x15 rectangle. Roll dough tightly from longest side, tapering ends if desired. Place loaves on a greased baking sheet that has been sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover. Let rise about one hour or until doubled in bulk. With a sharp knife, make four diagonal cuts on top of each loaf. Bake at 450* for approximately 30 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

The original recipe does call for an egg wash (one egg white mixed with a tbsp of cold water) to be brushed over the loaves during the last five minutes of baking, but Darrell and I tried this and thought that it make the crust unnecessarily crispy. But to each their own!