Rustic Italian Bread

I discovered a recipe for Rustic Italian bread on a bag of flour last week and decided to give it a try. We had it with soup during the workshop on Saturday, we liked it so much that last night I made it again to enjoy with a hearty beef stew. Yum! The perfect ending to a raw, overcast day.

Rustic Italian Bread

1 cup water heated to 100 - 110 degrees

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 cups bread flour

2 teaspoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 pkg. active dry yeast

Cornmeal

1 egg white, beaten

Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup and level off. In large bowl combine flour, sugar, salt and yeast; mix well. Add warm water and oil; mix well. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead dough 10 minutes or until smooth. Place dough into a lightly greased bowl; cover with plastic wrap and cloth towel. Let rise in warm place(80-85 degrees) for 30-40 minutes.

Sprinkle ungreased cookie sheet with cornmeal. Punch down dough. Cover dough with inverted bowl and allow to rest on counter for 15 minutes. Shape dough into baguette-shaped loaf about 12 inches long. Place dough on cornmeal-coated cookie sheet.  Cover; let rise in warm place for 35-40 minutes or until doubled in size.

Heat oven to 375 degrees. With sharp knife, make 1 deep lengthwise slash in top of loaf. Brush loaf with egg white. Bake at 375 degrees for 25-35 minutes or until loaf sounds hollow when lightly tapped.

I like that this recipe makes one small loaf of bread... with just the two of us we don't need to pig out on that much fresh baked bread!

and speaking of pigs...

I have a few new piggy banks in my Etsy shop, the rosey colored one on the left is a new color. It's our copper red glaze on white stoneware. I had an order for a pig with a pinkish tone, so of course I had to make two.