Ali Bakes: French Bread Shorties

Yeast is slowly but surely becoming less and less intimidating.  Though, I will say that it still causes me to create quite a commotion in the kitchen.

This morning, I will blame the commotion on the bread machine.  The darn thing didn't mix/knead my dough adequately, and I basically had to re-do my efforts, requiring some manhandling of the dough and much work put forth in trying to remove it all from the machine's vessel.  (Extremely doughy fingers were one of the results...)

The below steps led me to a pretty satisfactory sub roll, and Brian happily ate one on a pepperoni sub for lunch.  The apartment smelled good, and I'm now able to experiment with another bread storage method:  plastic bag.  One of these days I'll be able to keep bread fresh for five days straight, but I'm not positive which method is best...yet.

I always share my discoveries, however, so stay tuned!

French Bread Shorties

*adapted from CooksJoy.com

Ingredients:

3 cups + 1 Tbs water

2 tsp salt

4 tsp active dry yeast

6-7 cups bread flour

1 egg white

1 Tbs water

Instructions:

Mix all of the ingredients for the dough except the egg white and additional tablespoon of water.  Knead the dough (add flour as needed) until it is soft and elastic.  (The bread machine may be useful for this step if using the 'dough' setting.)  Place in an oiled bowl, cover, and allow to rise until doubled.

Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces.  Cover and allow to rest for about 10 minutes.

Flatten or roll each dough portion into a rectangle about 6 x 5 inches.  Roll tightly in a jelly roll style along the long edge and pinch the edges to seal.  Place each dough roll seam side down on a greased baking sheet, approximately one inch apart.  Make deep slashes on each and brush the tops and sides with a mixture of egg white and one tablespoon of water.  Repeat for all portions and allow to rise again.

When doubled, bake in a 375 degree preheated oven for about 15 minutes. Then brush with the egg white mixture and bake again for about 20 minutes until the tops are golden brown.  Allow to cool on a cooling rack.