Bill's sourdough french bread

12 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
6 cups All-purpose flour; more if needed
4½ teaspoon Yeast
1 tablespoon Sugar
1 tablespoon Salt
1 cup Water; very warm (120F)
2 cups Sourdough starter; room temperature
1 tablespoon Oil
Yellow cornmeal
1 Egg white
1 hour.

Directions

Feed your starter at least 12 hours before making bread.

Combine 2½ cups of the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add water, oil and starter and beat 3 minutes with an electric mixer.

Work in additional flour by hand until dough can be handled. Amount will vary, depending on consistency of starter used. Decant dough to a lightly floured board and knead until smooth, satiny and elastic, about 10 mintues,working in additional flour in small amounts as needed to keep dough from sticking to board or hands.

Place in a large, oiled bowl, turning once to coat dough ball; cooking spray works well for this. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 to 1 ½ hours.

Punch dough down and divide into either 2 or 4 pieces, depending on size of loaves desired. Cover and let rest 10 minutes.

Roll each piece out into a rectangle and roll up from long side, pinching seam closed and tapering ends. Place loaves, seam side down, either in baguette pans or on a baking sheet which has been oiled and sprinkled with cornmeal. Gash top ¼ inch deep either along the length or diagonally every 2 or 3 inches. Beat egg white with 1 tbsp water until frothy and brush loaves with it. Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled, about Bake at 375F 20 mintues, then brush again with egg white and bake an additional

20 minutes.

Remove from pans and cool on wire racks.

Recipe By : Bill Hatcher <bhatcher@...> Posted to Digest bread-bakers.v096.n057 Date: Fri, 15 Nov 1996 20:32:25 -0500 From: "Bill Hatcher" <bhatcher@...>

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