Quick French Bread

Bread Recipe

Dear Friends,

Last year about this time I shared my pesto recipe with you. I just made a fresh batch for a Empanada party to celebrate Bolivia's Independance Day. But I have found another recipe in my notebook. When Bill and I were both school teachers with young children in the early 1970's, we taught our kids to bake bread. I came across some wonderful pictures of Bill teaching in those years while helping to clear Bill's apartment in Cambridge a few weeks ago. There's Bill sitting in one of those tiny chairs with a circle of children sitting on the floor. They all looked like old friends enjoying complete trust in an adult they knew was on their side in a peaceable classroom.

Here's Bill's recipe for bread from his kindergarten. Enjoy.
Thanks, John

Bill's Quick French Bread
1 1/2 cups warm yeasty hospitable water
1 Tbs honey, warmed
1/2 Tbs salt, warmed
1 1/2 Tbs dry yeast or 1 packet 4 cups flour

oven heated to 450
combine water, salt, honey, and yeast
rest for 10 minutes
Slowly add most of flour
make loaves and let rise 20 minutes
warm in blankets pulled up
slash tops diagonally
bake 20 minutes