French bread lends a certain joie de vivre

We're having friends over for dinner tonight, so I made French bread today. Grocery store baguettes are lovely, but it's more rewarding to bake my own fresh bread. And French bread is such simple stuff-- just flour, salt, water and yeast.

For dinner, I'm serving Alanna Kellogg's parmesan chicken, a corn-tomato-and zucchini salad, and I think roasted potatoes. For dessert, because these are friends who are joining us on our trip to France in the fall, I made crepes to fill with peach-blueberry compote. Crepes are fun to make and delicious, but a little labor-intensive. Next time we have them it will be in Paris, hot from a street vendor's cart. Oh la la.

French bread

6 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
2 packages active dry yeast
2 cups warm water (125 degrees)
1 egg white
1 tablespoon water

In mixing bowl of standing mixer, combine 2 cups flour with yeast and warm water. Beat on low for 30 seconds. Scrape sides of bowl. Beat on high for 3 minutes. Add remaining flour. Knead with dough hook for 10 minutes.

Form dough into ball. Put into a buttered bowl, turn dough to coat all sides. Cover. Let rise for one hour, 'til doubled in size. Punch dough down. Divide in half. Cover, let rest 10 minutes. Roll each half into a 15-by-10 inch rectangle. Roll up from long sides, seal well. Pinch and pull ends to taper. (To make rolls, cut one loaf into portions to make single servings.) Place seam-side-down on a cookie sheet covered in parchment. Cover. Let rise 35 -45 minutes. With a sharp knife, make diagonal slashes in tops of the loaves. Mix egg white with water. Brush on loaves. Bake at 375 in convection or standard oven for 20 minutes. Brush again with egg white and water mixture. Continue baking for 20 minutes more or until bread is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped. (Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook ,1989 edition)