I made Musgovian Vegetable Soup for supper Monday night and we had
fresh-baked "Italian" bread with it. Here's the bread recipe; I'm
curious to know what makes it "Italian" bread. For some reason, I
think Pandora would scoff. I should note that the fine folks at
Fleischmann's don't include the egg wash or the kosher salt sprinkled on
top that was my idea. I love this bread. I'm sure the folks on the
bread baking group would sneer at it but that's okay it would be an
easy recipe for a beginner to be comfortable with before moving on to
something a little more serious.

Italian Bread

Recipe By: Fleischmann's Breadworld website, 2/24/97

1 3/4 cups warm water (105°-115°F)
2 packages active dry yeast (±4-1/2 tsp)
2 teaspoons salt
5 cups flour (maybe 5-1/2 cups)

Place 1/2 cup warm water in large warm bowl. Sprinkle in yeast; stir
until dissolved. Add remaining 1-1/4 cup water, salt, and 2 cups flour;
blend well. Stir in enough remaining flour to make soft dough. Knead
on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes.
Place in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover; let rise in warm,
draft-free place until double in size, about 20-40 minutes.

Punch dough down. Remove dough to lightly floured surface; divide in
half, thirds, or quarters. Roll each half to 12-inch circle. Roll up
each circle tightly as for helly roll to make loaf. Pinch seams and
ends to sea; taper ends by gently rollling back and forth. Place
loaves, seam sides down, on large baking sheet. Cover, let rise in warm
place until doubled in size, about 20-40 minutes.

Lightly dust loaves with additional flour, if desired. With sharp
knife, make 3 or 4 diagonal slashes (1/4" deep) across top of each loaf.
Bake at 400°F for 25 minutes (less time for smaller loaves) or until
done. Remove from sheet; let cool on wire rack.

Notes: Keeps better than I'd thought it would considering there's no
fat in it. Good stuff! Easy to make.
_____

About the soup: Several years ago I cooked up a storm at my favorite
daughter's house and put several packages of prepared foodstuffs in her
freezer (onion soup, stewed beef chunks, chicken broth, spaghettii
sauce) for some relatively quick and easy meals or bases for easy meals.
I brought them back to my house a couple months ago. When I was
thinking about some sort of meat for my soup, I happened to remember a
package of frozen beef chunks in broth from that cooking session. After
5-1/2 years in the freezer, it was the quintessential Musgovian item. I
had about 1/6 of a bag of ice-laden tortellini in the freezer, too.
They, too, must go. There's some V-8 juice in the fridge * must go.
For vegetables, I would use some frozen green beans, snapped into bite
size pieces while still frozen, some canned corn, some celery, some
onion, carrots, and some barley (cooked before adding it to the soup so
I wouldn't wind up with thick glop).

I cooked the celery, onion, and carrots in the chicken broth for a bit,
then added the mostly-thawed beef and some of the V-8 juice. Then the
rest of the stuff, the tortellini and barley going in at the end for
about 10 minutes. It needed 'something' so I added maybe a good
teaspoon of dried basil and a bunch of dried parsley (that stuff is
really worthless except for adding color to a macaroni salad, if you ask
me).
--
-Barb
<www.jamlady.eboard.com> Updated 3-16-06, Sam I Am! Hamantaschen and
Peanut Butter cookies for Grandpa; church review #9, and Musgovian Soup.
"If it's not worth doing to excess, it's not worth doing at all."

"Melba's Jammin'" > wrote in message
...
snip
I love this bread. I'm sure the folks on the
> bread baking group would sneer at it but that's okay it would be an
> easy recipe for a beginner to be comfortable with before moving on to
> something a little more serious.
>
> Italian Bread
snip bread recipe
> -Barb
Nope, folks at alt.bread.recipes don't sneer. We're about helping you make
whatever kind of bread you like or want to make. }
Janet