Crusty French Bread

Total Time: 2 hrs 10 mins Preparation Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 2 hrs

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/4 cups water, lukewarm
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 1/4 teaspoons dry active yeast

Recipe

• 1 proof the yeast in the water and sugar.
• 2 knead in salt and flour until dough is well-developed.
• 3 let rise until double in size.
• 4 knead down gently, and allow to rise again.
• 5 form dough into two loaves and drop into greased bread pans. allow to rise again.
• 6 bake at 400* until the loaves pull away from the pan edges, and sound hollow when tapped.
• 7 *for really beautiful loaves, egg wash each toward the end of baking time with 1 well-beaten egg plus 1 tb of water.*.