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Title: Crusty French-Italian Bread
Date: 04/16/2008 14:50:34
Posted by: nabcoengineer
I make this bread often. My wife loves it and there are many things you can do with it in the way of flavorings.

2 cups Bread Flour
1 cup All purpose flour
3 egg whites
1 tsp Splenda (not Equal. You can not cook equal or it turns into fermaldahyde) or 3 tsp sugar.
2 tsp Active Dry Yeast. Bread machine yeast works best. The kind in the jar.
1 cup Powdered Skim Milk, prepared


Start warming the milk in the microwave about 1 minute. Do not boil. Proof the yeast in warm water. The water should be just a little warmer than your skin, about 100 to 102. Let it sit for about 15 min in the microwave that you have previously heated the milk in.
Meanwhile mix together the flours and Splenda and set aside. Beat egg whites to soft peaks. Mix the egg whites into the flour mixture and gradually add milk till you get a crumbly ball. Transfer to a hard cold surface. I use a granite cutting board. Spray the surface with butter cooking spray to keep the flour ball from sticking. Spray your hands too. You can use flour if you want but I find this method a lot less messy and sticky. Knead for at least 5 minutes, 10 is better. I usually knead my bread by rolling around with my right hand and folding over with my left and pushing the whole thing together with my the heels of my hands. This also doubles as an upper body workout.
After kneading place in a warmed bowl about 3 times the size as the ball. Cover with a damp cloth sprayed with cooking spray and let rise in a warm place. If you don't spray the towel it will stick to the bread dough. I usually turn the oven on for about a minute, turn it off and stash the bread in there. Let rise for about an hour or until doubled in size. If it triples don't worry about it, its all air and for this bread that is good.
After the rise transfer the ball to the hard surface, again sprayed with cooking spray. This time do not use flour or you will get a crust that is all powdery and very hard. Not that that is a bad thing it just isn't what we are going for here. Do NOT punch down the bread. Just divide it in half and roll it out with your hands into two long logs. Be as gentle as you can. Leave all the air bubbles in it you can. Paint the top with and egg wash made from the left over yolks and about 2 tbsp water. Do NOT score the bread. Put back into the oven and let rise for 30 minutes. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.
If you did everything right and the bread gods are happy with you that day you will end up with a couple of big fat long loaves of very light bread with giant holes all through. You might even get a couple of blowouts in the crust that leave pockets just fabulous for stuffing jam into.
My Comments:
There a bunch of additions I have tried to this. Add very finely diced rosemary for a unique twist. Grind caraway seeds in a mortar and pestal to a powder. I even tried cumin once. One of the best things about this bread is that when it gets stale, very stale, it is absolutly grand in french onion soup.

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