French Bread is a wonderful all-round bread. This recipe makes long, crusty, slender loaves with a soft, chewy center. The bread goes stale in a day, so freeze any extra.

There are several ways to develop a good, thick, crisp crust: creating steam in the oven is the secret, and you can achieve this by spraying the loaves with water from a plant mister or atomizer, or putting a pan of boiling water in the bottom of the oven during baking.

You can purchase special trough-shaped pans, designed for forming French loaves, which is the simplest way to shape them and results in the roundest loaves. If you don't have the pans, just form the bread on baking sheets, the loaves will be fine, only a little more flat.

Ingredients

Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water in a large mixing bowl, and let stand a minute or so to dissolve. Add the salt and 5 cups of the flour, and beat vigorously until well mixed. Add enough additional flour to make a manageable dough, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for a minute or two. Let rest for 10 minutes

Resume kneading, adding just enough additional flour to keep the dough from being sticky, and knead for about 8 to 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Place in a large greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until double in bulk. (This first rise might take 2 or more hours, because of the small amount of yeast in proportion to the flour.)

Punch the dough down and divide into four equal parts. On a lightly floured, use the palms of your hands to roll each piece into a rope about 14 inches long and 1 3/4 to 2 inches across, don't worry if it is slightly irregular. Place the formed loaves in greased french bread pans (described above), or about 3 inches apart on large baking sheets that have been generously sprinkled with the cornmeal. Spray a fin mist of water over each, cover lightly with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm spot for 40 minutes.

Carefully remove the plastic, and brush each risen loaf with the egg-white glaze. Using a sharp knife or razor blade, slash each loaf three times. Place in a preheated 450 degree oven and bake for 15 minutes, then spray with a fine mist of water and lower the oven temperature to 375. Bake for 15 minutes more, then spray the loaves again. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes more, until the crust is dark golden. Remove the loaves and cool on racks.