French Toast

This is one of my favorite foods ever! I love French Toast and recently I've been taking the extra time to make the french bread homemade. It really isn't that much time extra and the taste is soooo much nicer. You will be surprised to know that it only takes about 10 minutes of working time to make homemade bread. The extra time comes from rising and baking--time you can be doing something else. Then the actual cooking it takes to turn it into toast took maybe 10-15 more minutes. So, I think this fits into the easy and small amount of "working" time. You just have to plan to get started a little earlier, or make the bread a day before.

French Bread

• 5-6 cups all purpose flour (you can do this with white and wheat flour, whatever your family likes.)
• 2 tablespoons dry yeast
• 2 cups comfortably hot water
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 tablespoon sugar or honey (when making french toast I add 3 TB)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons yellow cornmeal
• 1 egg white
• 1 tablespoon water

1. Mix 3 cups flour and dry yeast in mixer bowl. Turn it off and add the water, oil, sugar, and salt. Mix for 1 minute. Quickly add the remaining flour, 1 cup at a time, until mixture cleans the sides of the bowl and forms a ball. (You may not need it all, and you may need a little more. The trick is the dough needs to still be soft and just a little sticky but not a lot sticky. It will pull the dough off the sides of the bowl so watch for that.) Knead for 3-4 minutes.

2. Put egg white and 1 tablespoon water in a bowl and whip with a fork--set aside. Lightly oil your hands and spray surface for rolling out the dough. Divide the dough in half and roll each into a 12 x 15-inch rectangle. For normal french bread, simply roll back up tightly from the long side. (Yes, I know this sounds like a lot of pointless work, but it makes the bread light and fluffy, so definitely worth it.) For the french toast, I sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, not butter.

3. After you roll the dough back up, pinch the edges to seal and shape the ends like a loaf of french bread. Place them on a lightly oiled pan that has been sprinkled with yellow cornmeal with the seams down. Cut diagonal slits ever 2" along the top. These are shallow 1/4" cuts. Brush tops with the egg and water mixture, then let rise until doubled.

4. Bake the loaves in a preheated 350 oven for 25-30 minutes. Let cool a little before slicing. Slice (see the pretty swirls!), dip in the French toast egg mixture(see below), and cook over med-high heat, turning to brown both sides. Top however you like.

We like to top ours with vanilla yogurt, strawberries and whipped cream.

Egg Mixture for French toast (for my family of 6, I double this and it will cover 1 loaf of bread.)

• 4 egg whites, lightly beaten
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

In a shallow bowl, beat together all the ingredients. Dip the bread into this egg mixture, coating both sides. Heat skillet on medium heat, spray or use a little butter. Cook both sides until golden brown and serve however you like them! Easy and delicious!

Bread info(without cinnamon and sugar)--81 calories, 1g fat, 120 sodium

Egg mixture info--191 calories, 1g fat