This is one of the best homemade French bread recipes I've tasted. The photo above is the loaf my brother made to go along with some fabulous pasta (another post to come)and it's his recipe that I'm sharing with you today. Placing the bread atop scattered cornmeal to bake and adding ice cubes to the oven floor during baking time gives you the texture you're looking for in good French bread. The ice cubes create the steam that would be found in a genuine French baker's oven.
What you'll need:
3 1/2 tsp. dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1/4 tsp. sugar
1 cup cold water
2 Tbsp. butter
3 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tablespoons cornmeal
Place your yeast in the warm water and stir until dissolved. Stir in your sugar and set aside for 5-10 minutes. After this time, the mixture should become foamy and smell like bread. This step is called proofing the yeast. It's a precautionary step that will save your whole recipe if the yeast turns out to be old or inactive. As long as it foams and has the bread smell, you're in good shape.
In a small saucepan, slowly heat your butter and cold water until melted.
In a large mixing bowl, combine your flour, salt, proofed yeast and melted butter. Mix well until it feels like a good dough. Knead it together with your hands, forming into a ball and place it in a large mixing bowl that has been lightly greased with butter or olive oil. Cover and set it aside to rise. Once it has risen, punch down the dough, remove it to knead again and place it back in the covered bowl to rise once more. This time after the dough has risen, punch down the dough and remove it to form into a loaf about 15 inches long. Sprinkle your cornmeal on a baking sheet and place the loaf upon it. Set it aside in a warm place to rise.
Preheat your oven to 450 F. Once the loaf has pretty much doubled in size, use the tip of a sharp knife to cut three long diagonal marks in the top. Place the loaf on the cornmeal baking sheet into the oven and throw 4 ice cubes onto the oven floor. After 5 minutes, throw in 4 more ice cubes. Ten minutes later, turn the oven heat down to 400 F and bake for 20 minutes longer. Remove from the oven and cool on rack. You will love the crackle of the crust and the soft center!