French bread extraordinaire!

1 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
1¼ cup Water
For Welbilt/Dak and Zoji add
2 Tablespoons more water
3½ cup Unbleached white flour
1½ teaspoon Salt
2 teaspoons Red Star brand active dry
Yeast

Directions

1.Place dough ingredients in bread pan, select Dough setting, and press Start 2. When the dough cycle ends, the machine will beep. Set a timer and allow the dough to rise 1 more hour. Open the machine, punch down the dough, set the timer again and let dough rise another hour in the machine. Turn off bread machine, remove bread pan, and turn out dough onto a lightly floured countertop or cutting board.

Form into a smooth round ball then flatten it with your hands. 3.

Place a clean kitchen towel (not terry cloth) in a round wicker basket that's at least twice the size of the dough. Dust the towel liberally with flour. Place the round dough in the center of the basket. Place basket in a warm place and let dough rise, uncovered, about 45 minutes until double in size. 4. Gently turn dough out of basket upside down onto a greased baking sheet. With a very sharp knife held almost parallel to the loaf, carefully slash the top of the dough at sharp angles in a # pattern. 5. Preheat oven to 450F.

Place a small pan on the floor or bottom shelf of the oven and carefully add at least 1 cup boiling water to the pan. Place dough in oven and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and place on cake rack to cool 1 hours before slicing. To preserve the crisp crust, do not store in plastic wrap or bag. Bread can be loosely covered or left out for up to two days before it dries out completely. From THE BREAD MACHINE MAGIC BOOK OF HELPFUL HINTS by Linda Rehberg and Lois Conway.

Formatted by Linda Caldwell

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