New Favorite Recipe

A month or so ago I was at Wal-Mart a little before supper and hadn’t planned anything yet for the upcoming meal (a bad combination. . . .not recommending it!). So I picked up a couple of loaves of French bread as I checked out. You would have thought I had come home with KING-SIZED CANDY BARS for everyone (all deserving of capital letters)—those loaves were not only swooned over but devoured (hopefully my boys are reserving those behaviors for food and not girls!). A few weeks later I got another loaf and the same thing happened. I decided that I either needed to stay away from the Wal-Mart bread or I needed my own little recipe. I haven’t ever liked any recipes from my bread machine book so I took the matter up at allrecipes.com. That place is my friend. I know there are other sites, but for some reason this one resonates with me and it is about the only one I use anymore. Well, I found one and it is my new favorite (with a few tweaks). Here it is:

· 1 cup water

· 2 tablespoon white sugar

· 1 teaspoon salt

· 2 1/2 cups bread flour

· 2 teaspoons yeast

Place in bread machine and select dough cycle. When finished, roll out into a large rectangle to get out all of the air bubbles. Cut in half (the short way) and roll into two loaves. Place on a greased cookie sheet. Brush egg white wash on it then cut slits in top. Let rise for 20-30 minutes. Put another baking sheet in the oven with about ½ inch of water in it. Bake bread and water @375 for 18-25 minutes. (The water isn’t required, but it gives your bread a superb crusty crust while keeping the inside soft. Yum!)

And the lovely thing about it is. . . it’s like making KING-SIZED CANY BARS, there is no oil, it is everything you have on hand, it’s better than Wal-Mart’s and did I mention no oil! The only downside is there are never left overs (but then again . . .when is there with boys?).