Rustic French Sandwich Bread
Yes, this is a recipe for French bread, but I'm going to talk a little bit about Italians instead. Does anyone love their bread more than Italians do? I'm definitely 100% biased, but I don't think any other heritage has as beautiful a love affair with bread. And because this wouldn't be a truly Italian-inspired rant without a mention of family, I'd like to dedicate this specific post to my sister Sophie, whose favorite food is bread. (No, but really.)
I would call myself a baker before I'd call myself a cook, and yet until recently I hadn't really dabbled much with bread. Well folks, consider this the start of a long, beautiful relationship between me and homemade bread. Now that I have a base recipe I love, the different types of breads are endless! And, best of all, because this recipe involves two different time periods where you have to wait for the bread to rise, it's really helping me work on my patience (or lack thereof).
I'm describing this delicious carb-filled wonder as French sandwich bread because it tastes and feels like a hybrid. It's light like sandwich bread, and shaped like it too, but it's also slightly chewy and the crust has a bit of a crunch to it. It's essentially a more hearty, rustic type of sandwich bread. It would also be great served with dinner, made into french toast, or just toasted (my personal favorite, especially if there's cinnamon sugar or nutella involved)!
This recipe makes enough dough for two small loaves of bread. If you think that's too much for you, it's not. However, you can always freeze a loaf if you're worried you won't be able to eat them both quickly enough! Since it's just two of us in my household, freezing half the dough makes sense, but this bread is so good it's easy to finish a loaf pretty quickly. If you have more than two people in your house, you'll need both loaves. With each bite I take of this stuff, I'm reminded of why I could never do a low-carb diet!
RUSTIC FRENCH SANDWICH BREAD
Prep Time: ~3 hours, including time for dough to rise
Bake Time: 25 minutes
Makes 2 loaves
Ingredients
2¼ cups warm water ¼ cup sugar
2¼ teaspoons active dry yeast 1 tablespoon salt 2 tablespoons oil 4½ - 5½ cups all-purpose flour
Directions
Prepare a clean cutting-board or counter space with flour, and oil a medium size bowl. Prepare two loaf pans with oil as well. Set aside.
If you haven't heated your water yet, heat it in a glass measuring cup for about 1 - 1½ minutes in the microwave. It needs to be very warm, but not too hot, in order for the yeast to work.
Pour your warm water into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar until it's mostly dissolved – this will help the yeast bloom – then add your yeast, stirring as you go. Let the bowl sit for about 5 minutes, until the yeast is foamy. If it doesn't bloom, start over, as this may mean it won't work to leaven your bread.
Add the salt and oil to the mix, then add four cups of your flour and mix thoroughly. Add the rest of the flour a half cup at a time so that you don't end up with dry dough. The ideal consistency will be a very slightly sticky, rubbery dough that seems torn between whether to stick to the rest of the dough or to the walls of your bowl.
Transfer the dough to the floured space/board. Sprinkling flour over it as needed so that it doesn't stick too much to your hands, knead the dough for 5 minutes until it looks smooth. Roll it into a ball, place in the oiled bowl, and cover with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap. Let it rise for about an hour, or until it's doubled in size.
After the dough has risen, punch it down and place it back on the floured space/board. Divide the dough in two. Press each half out to form something vaguely rectangular, and keep it about the length of your loaf pan. Then roll the dough up into a loaf. Do this with both halves, and place each into a loaf pan. Cover the pans and let them rise for another 45-60 minutes. The longer you let it rise, the lighter and less chewy the bread will be, so try not to let them sit longer than an hour!
Preheat your oven to about 375F. After your loaves have risen, place them in the oven for about 20 minutes. The top will be a beautiful dark golden brown. Remove from pans, and let cool before slicing (resist the urge!).
Happy Eating,
Natalie