(from "A World of Breads")
(by Delores Casella)

This is about as authentic a French bread as you can make in a home oven. To make real French bread, you need unbleached, hard-wheat flour (available in health food stores), and an oven with heat coming from the top, bottom and both sides. If you place a pan of boiling water on the oven floor, and sprinkle cornmeal on the cookie sheets after buttering them, you can approximate the commercial product.

  • 1 cake yeast
  • 1&1/2 cups lukewarm water
  • 4 cups sifted flour
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 2 teaspoons salt
Recipe:
  1. Dissolve the yeast in the water.
  2. Sift the dry ingredients, stir them into the yeast mixture, and work the dough with your hands until it will absorb no more flour.
  3. Knead the dough on a slightly floured board until it is no longer sticky.
  4. Place the dough in a buttered bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled.
  5. Then punch it down and turn it out onto a floured board.
  6. Divide into two parts. Shape each piece into a long narrow loaf.
  7. Place the loaves on a greased cookie sheet that has been sprinkled with cornmeal, cover, and let rise again.
  8. Brush tops with egg-white glaze and bake in 400 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes.
  9. Brush with glaze about 5 minutes before loaves are done.

Makes two small loaves or 1 large one.
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French Bread