easy french bread

This recipe is from a well-worn cookbook that has been the basis for most of my cooking as a young mother.  Written by Doris Janzen Longacre, "More with Less" emphasizes whole food cooking and a responsible, thoughtful approach to eating.  Around the same time, I discovered "The Country Store" in Mount Joy - a small deli and bulk food store run by a Mennonite woman at the back of her house.  With these resources I began to can, cook and bake in earnest, spending one year determined to by absolutely nothing in a can or box (well, I found I couldn't give up tuna or peanut butter, and though I had managed to make just about everything imagionable that year with tomatoes, tomatoe paste just wasn't worth the trouble!)

Those summers were filled with gardening and canning, my Grandma Stella always willing to lend a hand with paring and pickling.  We had so many cucumbers one year there were 10 buckets of 14-day pickles going in the basement!  We always made tons of applesauce, spaghetti sauce and canned peaches, and froze boatloads of blueberries and strawberries.  And I happily attacked the challenge of cooking and baking everything from scratch.

I remember proudly picking up a load of mushroom soil in the old red Toyota pick-up for my garden, which I had heard was just the absolute best fertilizer.  I was knee deep in the stuff, happily shoveling it out of the back of the truck when my brother came by.  "Do you know what that is?" he asked with a smirk.  "Of course," I confidently replied, "it's decompozing mushrooms!"  "Well no," he said with a laugh, "you're standing in cow poop!"  Well, I think I had the last laugh - hardly any weeds all summer in the pitch black garden, and hearty vegetables to boot!

A long story leading to this easy, simple recipe for bread!

Combine with a fork in a medium-size mixing bowl:

2 cups very hot water from the tap - almost too hot to touch

1 tbs. honey

2 tbs. yeast

Let stand until bubbly, then add and stir with a wooden spoon:

3 cups occident flour

1 tbs. olive oil

1 tsp. salt

Add more flour until it becomes hard to stir, then place on a floured countertop and begin to knead the dough.  Continue kneading and adding more flour until it is smooth and elastic, and no longer sticky.  Knead another 3-5 minutes for good measure, then place back in bowl which you've greased with more olive oil.  Cover with linen towel and put in a warm dry place to rise.

When the dough has about doubled in size, pound it down and knead it a bit more, dividing it into two equal parts.  Roll each part into an oblong slab about a 1/4 inch think - you'll hear air bubbles popping as you do!  Roll it into a long loaf and place on greased cookie sheet.  Do the same with the other.  Both rolls will fit on one baking sheet.  Score the tops with a knife and spray with olive oil cooking spray.  Cover with the towel and let rise until double - about a half hour.

Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes, or until lightly browned and the bottom has a hollow sound when tapped.

If you have any left the next day, count yourself lucky.  It makes delicious toast!