Bread of the Week--Italian Bread

Italian Bread
Great Bread Machine Recipes Copyright 1992

For 1 lb loaf:
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
5 ounces warm water
4 teaspoons olive oil

For 1 1/2 lb loaf:
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
3 cups bread flour
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 cup warm water
2 T olive oil

Load ingredients per your bread machine's instructions. Use French bread setting if your machine has one.
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This was a plain bread this week. I made it to go along with the Baked Ziti. I actually used it for garlic bread which wasn't very good since I was too lazy to dig out fresh garlic (I used garlic powder) and I went too light on the butter. I preferred the bread plain. I thought it would be great to make a loaf of this to use to make panzanella (bread salad).

I used the light setting on my bread machine. The top of the loaf had no color at all. I was just experimenting. I used the French bread setting too, as the recipe suggested.

It was good (and cheap to make), although not like the Italian bread I remember growing up. You could always pick up a loaf of Italian bread (in the paper sleeve) in the small local grocery store on our block. I might be lucky to find something similar in my grocery store bakery but I can't count on it. They don't offer the same breads every day which is a real pain when you go in there for something particular that you need right away.

Question of the Day: How do you make garlic bread?