French Peasant Bread

This simple, rustic bread was the perfect accompaniment to an Italian meal. It uses only five ingredients in the actual bread and had a fabulous chewy texture and nice flavor. My husband couldn't stop raving about how much he liked it and I've already made it four times in the last week and a half. Thanks to my friend Jenny for a great recipe!

(perfectly yummy and dripping with melted butter)

Click here for printable recipe.

The ingredients:
1 Tbs. dry, quick rising yeast
2 cups warm water (110-115 degrees)
1 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. salt
4 cups all-purpose flour  (NOTE:  this will not be firm bread dough, but if the weather is humid and the dough is really sticky, you may need to add up to one extra cup of flour)
olive oil (for greasing the pan)
corn meal (for pan)
1/4 cup butter, melted (for brushing over top before and after baking)

Place yeast, water, sugar, and salt in warm bowl and stir until dissolved. Add flour and stir until blended, but do NOT knead.

Cover and let rise one hour or until double in size.  (NOTE:  I usually skip this first rising and still love the way it turns out!)  Flour hands, remove dough from the bowl and place in 2 roughly equal rounds on an oiled cookie sheet sprinkled with corn meal (dough may be sticky and not hold its shape well--that's okay.  It's not supposed to be pretty.)  Let rise an additional 20-30 minutes.

Brush the tops and sides of the rounds with melted butter and bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees and cook an additional 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and brush tops and sides of rounds again with melted butter. Serve warm. Enjoy!

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