French Bread

So, I've been craving french bread lately. There is just something about the chewy interior, and the crispy, crunchy crust. Of course, a little sour dough wouldn't be a bad thing either, but I didn't feel like making a start and waiting days for it to be ready, I wanted fresh bread now. Anyways, my homemade bread has been lacking lately. It hasn't been very good. So, I'm making a VERY basic bread, hoping to remember what makes bread good.

French Bread

• 1 1/2 c. Milk, luke warm
• 2 tsp. Yeast
• 1 Tbl. Sugar
• 2 tsp. Salt
• 1 Tbl. Butter
• 3 c. Flour

First I combined about a half cup of the milk and yeast in my mixer bowl and let it proof. Then I added the rest of the ingredients and let it knead in my mixer for about 9 minutes. Then I formed it into a ball and put it into a lightly greased bowl and covered with plastic wrap to rise, about an hour, till it's doubled in size. Then, I'm going to bake it on my stones, rather than in a loaf pan. I guess we'll see how it turns out. *shrugs* I hope it has a chewy interior and a crispy crust, and a good flavor. Maybe I'll make a sour dough start. I'd love to make one of wild yeast, but it's winter....so it'd probably take a long time. I'll wait till spring!