Tightwad Tuesday

Today, Bake Your Own Bread. Now I know what you're thinking. Who's got time. I forget to start it. It takes too long. Here's a recipe to save you. Ask me how I know it's good to have a quick recipe.

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)

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. Preheat oven 375º Make diagonal slits, 1/2" deep, on top with a razor blade. (Optional: spray with salt water). Bake 20 minutes.

I also have made this into hamburger rolls and shaped it around a cheese stick and served it with pizza sauce for dipping and shaped it into pretzels, salted the top, and let them dunk that in cheese sauce.