My New Favorite Recipe!

If you know me at all you know that I have a personal desire to cook everything I serve for my family from fresh ingredients. I like to cook as homemade as possible as often as possible. So my new recipe follows these guidelines perfectly.

Bread has not been my friend in the past. Rolls and I get along quite nicely but for some reason Bread and I haven't been able to come to a common ground. But I have found a new recipe that is starting to change my view on the subject. It is a very simple french bread recipe that - get this - takes ONE hour from start to finish. So here is the recipe let me know if you like it.

One-Hour French Bread
1½ cups warm water
1 tablespoon honey
1½ teaspoons salt
1½ tablespoons Active Dry Yeast
3 - 4 cups flour (any combination of white and whole wheat)

Preheat oven 450º. Combine water, salt, honey, and yeast in a medium bowl. Let sit 5 - 10 minutes, until bubbling. Add flour, stirring with a wooden spoon, until dough is no longer sticky (I'll sometimes dump the dough out onto the cutting board with what flour is in the bowl and roll it around,adding a bit more flour, until it's not sticky). Roll dough into a 12 - 14" roll (or you can divide it in half and roll it into two long skinny baguettes). Place dough roll(s) on a cookie sheet (this won't work in a bread pan), greased or sprayed with non-stick spray, cover, and let sit 20 minutes. Make diagonal slits, 1/2" deep, on top with a razor blade. (Optional: spray with salt water). Bake 20 minutes.

You could even add Rosemary or any other herb you may fancy.

ENJOY!