French Bread

Since we seem to be on a baking theme this late winter, here is a French bread, or long roll, we made last Friday.  Notice the aluminum loaf pan.  I had a hard time finding the pans at any local store and these aren't quite what I wanted.  My parents have a couple but the pans are 700 miles away.  My brother, who is a cook, has one but it is too big to fit in a residential oven.  This pan cost eight dollars.  The pan is important for maintaining the shape.

1-1/2 c. 120 degree water
2 1/4 tsp yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 egg
3 1/2 c. flour

I mix the ingredients, as noted below, in the bowl for the Kitchen Aid mixer, I use the dough hook for all the mixing.

Add sugar and yeast to warm water, mix and let rest 10 minutes.  Mix in salt and egg.  Add flour and mix, knead on medium speed for 10 minutes,  add more or less flour to have a workable dough.

Place in a lightly oiled bowl, let rise 1 hour or until doubled.  Punch down the dough and divide into  two pieces.  Form each into a round loaf, roll between hands to make along skinny loaf almost as long as the pan.  Place into lightly oiled pan and let rise until doubled.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Score top of loaf with a sharp knife, it's decorative and keeps the top from splitting (the bottom loaf in the picture got a little dry while rising and fell a little when scoring).  Bake about 30 minutes or until loaves are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped.  Remove from pans and cool. 

We ate one loaf warm and made the other into an anvil sandwich to take with to Spark's basketball tourney.