French Bread

I have a wonderful recipe for French bread that I've been making for more than 20 years.

I don't even remember how or from whom I got the recipe. At some point, I did have the smarts to print it onto a sheet of paper.

There are also side notes for multiplying the recipe by five since I like to make it for the Wednesday Community Meal. For that, I usually make 10 batches of the recipe times five and still always run out because it's a great recipe and everyone loves homemade bread.

My bread recipe.

 French Bread
(makes 4 loaves)
2 packages yeast
2/3 cup tepid water
1/2 teaspoon sugar
7 cups bread flour (additional may be needed)
2 tablespoons rye or whole wheat flour
4 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 cups cold water
(cornmeal for sprinkling on sheet pan or parchment paper)

Combine yeast, sugar and tepid water. Let set for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes the yeast foams and proves that it's alive.

Combine the remaining ingredients then add yeast mixture. Knead.

Let rise 40 to 60 minutes in a clean, dry bowl. Then deflate and punch into a 14-inch rectangle and fold into thirds.

Return dough to bowl and let rise 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Make loaves and let rise another  1 1/2 hours.

Place loaves on baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal or lined with parchment paper, slash and place in a preheated 450 degree oven tossed with 1/4 cup of water. Bake 20 minutes and then bake an additional 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

Slashing the loaves just before baking.

Warm bread!