French Bread

I have had the hardest time trying to get a good french bread recipe and to find one that bakes up nice.  I finally found one!  It is about time because I love french bread with my soups.  So here goes the recipe.  This takes about 3 hrs total, so although this is an amazing recipe and tastes great it is not so much one you can make last minute.

4 c Flour
2 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 c warm water
You can add salt if you like but I don't add salt to any of my food, just a personal preference.

Put water in mixing bowl with yeast.  Let it stand for about 5-10 minutes(the yeast will look foamy when it is done)  Add 3 3/4 c flour and mix for about 5 min.  Let it rest for 2 min, if you have a wonderful mixer like my Kitchen Aide, then switch to your dough hook and mix for 5 min. Take the remaining flour and sprinkle on a clean dry surface, hand knead the dough for about 5min.  Form into a nice ball, the dough should feel tight and slightly firm.  Put it in a bowl that has been greased(I always just use Pam), and turn dough once so it coats both sides. Cover and let rise for 1-1 1/2 hrs, or until doubled in size.  Punch dough done and reform into a ball, split it in half.  Stretch one half out like a rectangle and fold both of the sides into the middle, pinch the ends together tight. *Pinching the ends together will help it rise up more than out so it retains it's shape better  Repeat with the remaining dough.  Put both loafs on a baking stone and cover and let rise for about 30 min more.  Make four cuts across the top of each loaf.  Bake at 375 for 25min.

Note: To get a good crispy crust if you have an electric oven you can throw some water in the bottom of the oven and this will create steam giving it that nice hard outside.  I have a gas oven so when there is about 15min let I use a spray bottle and spray some around the sides of the over.