French Peasant Bread

Did you know that making homemade bread isn't hard?  Seriously, why do we all eat Wonder bread when it takes maybe 10 minutes of active work to pull a delicious bakery-fresh round out of the oven.  I have recently discovered this recipe (in the Ivory Favorites cookbook--my go to recipe book) that is insanely easy...and delicious.  So if you want your house to smell like bread on Christmas morning, I'd highly recommend giving this one a try.


French Peasant Bread:

1 package dry yeast (2 1/2 tsp)

2 cups warm water

1 tbsp sugar

2 tsp salt

4 cups flour

oil

corn meal

melted butter

Dump the first four ingredients into a bowl (I put them right into the bowl of my kitchenaid) and stir until dissolved.  Then add the flour and stir until it is blended.  It is sticky and wet.  Don't knead.  Cover and let rise about one hour until it has doubled in size.  Grease a cookie sheet using oil (vegetable or olive...it doesn't matter) and then sprinkle the sheet with corn meal.  Flour your hands and remove dough from the bowl and form into two rounds.  Place both rounds on the cookie sheet and let rise another hour or so.  Cook at 425 F for 10 minutes.  Open oven and brush the tops of the rounds with a little butter.  Lower the oven temperature to 375 F and cook for another 15 minutes.  Voila!!  

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good bread!