French Bread.

I grew up in a home where my dad was born in Holland and my mom's ancestors come from Germany. With all those European roots, we ate a lot of bread in our house. Even now, as an adult when I go back to visit my parents with my own family, we still eat a lot of bread. I think we could possibly eat bread for every single meal. Needless to say, I have a serious love of bread. And cheese. Together. Today I've been on a baking roll (pun intended). I've got cinnamon sweet rolls rising, whole wheat egg bread rising, and now I'm working on baking our French bread. Just to warn you, this recipe makes a lot of bread. This is a recipe I made all the time when I was in junior high and high school. When I called my mom today for the recipe, having her give it to me over the phone brought back many memories of hot summer days in the Philippines stirring this dough!

French Bread

5    C      Warm Water
1/4 C      Yeast
 4   tsp    Salt
5    Tbsp Sugar
5    C      All purpose flour
~ Mix above ingredients well with a spoon. Once mixed, add bottom two ingredients. ~
1/4 C      Oil
10  C      All purpose flour

Do not knead dough. Mix with a spoon until no more dry flour is seen in the bowl. Allow dough to sit for 10 minutes and then stir it down, even turning the dough over. Do this four times. Your dough will keep rising and will raise a little more after each stir. After the fourth time, divide dough into four pieces. Roll each piece out and then roll into loaf shape. Put on greased cookie sheet. Using a knife, slit the top of each loaf. "Paint" the top of each loaf with an egg white bath made of 1 egg white and 1 Tbsp of water. (You may also paint the loaves again halfway through baking.) Let loaves rise again until double in size before placing them in a preheated oven. Bake for 25 to 40 minutes at 350 degrees.