French Peasant Bread

I wish I knew some fancy french words so that I could properly rave about this recipe. (Ooh la la?) My sister-in-law, Becca, had me copy the recipe from this (great!) book of hers, and heaven help me, I love it! It is as simple as bread gets. When I'm planning on soup for dinner, I always add this peasant bread to the menu. Hot, freshly baked bread with soup? Yes, please!

Here is the recipe:

1 package (2 1/2 tsp.) dry yeast
2 cups warm water
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. salt
4 cups flour
oil
corn meal
melted butter

Place yeast, water, sugar, and salt in warm bowl and stir until dissolved. Add flour and stir until blended. Do not knead. Cover and let rise one hour or until doubled in size. Flour hands, remove dough from the bowl and place in 2 rounds (they're not particularly pretty, and yes, the dough should be very sticky and goopy!) on an oiled cookie sheet sprinkled with corn meal. Let rise an additional hour. Brush the top with melted butter (sometimes I just use cooking spray!) and bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees and cook an additional 15 minutes. Remove from oven and brush again with butter. Serve warm.

Here's what I love: You are making 2 loaves at a time. You don't have to wait for your yeast to proof. You don't have to knead a thing. Seriously, you stir it all up with a spoon and that's it!

Only catch? It's not whole grain. Shh. Don't tell Joan! ;)
-Anne