French Bread

Today, we as a class are having a baked-chicken lunch with yummy sides. As a group, we decided to make french bread because no meal is complete without some sort of bread. There are so many different types of bread and it was hard to choose. We wanted something simple, classic, and would work well with carrots, potato dishes, and most of all, chicken. French bread is something that can be enjoyed by many different people because its just simple bread that is good plan or with butter.

French Bread
-Yields 2 baguettes

Ingredients:
4 c All purpose flour
2 t Salt
2¼ t Active dry yeast
2½ c + 1 T water
1 Egg White

1. Mix the flour, salt, and yeast in a large bowl.
2. Pour in 1½ c warm water and mix by hand until the dough become elastic.
3. Cover with a moist cloth and let rise for 1½-2 hours.
4. When the dough rises to twice it’s original size, punch it down and divide it in half.
5. Place the halves onto a floured surface and pat into a rough rectangle. Then, roll the dough away from you to form it into the traditional baguette.
6. Place the two loaves onto a greased baking sheet. Be aware that they will double in size. Cover with a floured cloth. Let rise.
7. Preheat the oven to 400° F.
8. With a sharp knife, score the top of the loaf. The cut should be about ½ inch into the dough.
9. Pour 1c of water into a baking pan and place it on the bottom rack of the oven. The steam will make the crust of the bread crisp.
10. Bake the bread on a center rack for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350° F and bake for another 25 minutes, or until crust it is golden brown.
11. Brush the bread with a combination of 1 egg white and 1 T cold water. Bake for another 5 minutes.
12. Let cool on rack and serve.

This classic recipe resulted in a delicious outcome of warm, crunchy french bread that really complemented the chicken lunch. Even though at points, one has to carefully read the recipe otherwise mistakes can be easily made, the end result was completely worth the long wait and attention. One of the things that as a group we noticed is make sure that once the french bread is done cooking, let cool until a reasonable temperature, otherwise it is difficult to cut to serve. Also the water bath is key to the crust of the bread, making the crust crunchy and delicious. Overall, the french bread was a success!

Bull’s-Eye Eggs (Egg in Toast)

Time Commitment: <15 Minutes

Yield:  1 Bull’s-Eye

1 Egg
1 Slice 12 Grain Bread
2 T Butter

This is how you want to cut the bread before buttering it.

1.    Cut a 2-inch in diameter hole in the slice of bread.
2.    Butter both sides of the disk and ring of bread.
3.    Melt about a teaspoon of butter in an 8-inch frying pan over medium heat and heat the butter until it bubbles.
4.    Place the two pieces of bread next to each other in the frying pan and crack an egg into the ring of bread. If the yolk breaks, scramble the egg lightly. 
5.    Cook both pieces over low heat until the bread disk is well browned, shaking the pan to prevent the egg from sticking. Then flip the disk.
6.    Lift up the bread and egg with a spatula and drop a little less than a teaspoon of butter on the pan and turn the Bull’s-Eye onto the melted butter.
7.    Remove the pan from the heat, let the egg finish cooking (about 20 seconds), and serve.

This time the egg broke after I added it, so I scrambled it.

Normally, I cook with nonstick pans, but I didn’t have one today. Despite my efforts to keep the egg from sticking by shaking the pan, the egg stuck repeatedly. I was able to prevent some sticking by adding a little cooking oil to the pan each time I added butter. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a foolproof solution and the egg still stuck to the pan, even with the oil.

This is how the dish is served. Notice how there is egg that leaked onto the pan after it was flipped. This is normal.