Simplicity

I have always been fascinated with making my own bread, but it's not often that I have the luxury of time to do it. Today, I had no choice, I had to make time for it even if I was very busy. I made french bread, and sliced them into thin discs. It's part of a Christmas basket that I'm doing with friends. I usually follow the recipe for this in my Professional Baking book but I found this super simple fool-proof recipe online.

FRENCH BREAD
1 cup WATER, warm
3 cups BREAD FLOUR
1 1/2 teaspoons SALT
3 teaspoons YEAST

In a bowl, mix bread flour and yeast together. Dissolve salt in water. Add water a little at a time until dough comes together. You may not need to use all of the water--it's plus or minus. Turn out the dough onto a floured surface. Knead for 8-10 minutes until dough is elastic. Round out the dough and place in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and put in a warm place to rise until double in volume about 1 hour. Punch dough to release gas, turn out onto floured surface, knead a little. Divide dough into 3 and form into logs. Make diagonal gashes with a knife. Place on greased and floured pans. Cover with towel and proof for 15 minutes. Before baking brush with a mixture of cornstarch and water. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool, slice into discs, brush with oil and bake for another 15 minutes. This can be used as base for bruschetta. There's nothing like the smell of freshly baked bread filling the kitchen...yum...