Ingredients
1 heaping tablespoon butter
1 heaping tablespoon salt
1 heaping tablespoon sugar
2 cups boiling water
1 tablespoon dry yeast
2/3 cup lukewarm water
About 6 1/2 cups unbleached, hard-wheat, white flour
Yellow corn meal
In a very large mixing bowl combine the butter, salt, sugar, and 2 cups of boiling water. Stir a little as it dissolves. Sprinkle the yeast over 2/3 cup lukewarm water in a little bowl and allow it to dissolve. When the butter mixture is also lukewarm, combine the two and mix well.
Now start adding the flour, a little at a time. When you have added about 4 cups and the dough is beginning to get quite thick, beat it vigorously for about 10 minutes with a wooden spoon. Then add flour until the dough is too stiff to mix with the spoon.
Turn it out onto a large, floured board and knead, adding a little more flour as necessary, until it is satiny smooth and very elastic. Form it into a ball and put it away in a warm place to rise for about 1 1/2 hours; the dough should double in size. Punch it down and let it rise again until doubled; this time it will only take about 1 hour.
Prepare the baking sheet by buttering it and sprinkling yellow corn meal lightly over the butter.
Divide the dough into 3 parts and shape each part into a very long, very slender loaf. Do this by rolling out each part into a rectangle about 14 to 15 inches long and 8 to 10 inches wide. Roll up the long side of the rectangle tightly until it is all a narrow, even loaf about 1 1/2 inches wide. Seal the seam and the ends by pinching, and place the three loaves on the baking sheet.
Cover them with a dry tea towel and let them rise until they are almost double in size. Brush the tops of the loaves with cold water and, with a very sharp knife, make 3 or 4 diagonal slashes across the top of each one.
Bake them in a preheated 400° oven for almost 1 hour; every 15 or 20 minutes, brush the tops with more cold water. This helps make the crisp, hard crust for which French bread is famous. Keeping a shallow pan of hot water in the oven while the loaves are baking also helps.
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