Rustic Italian Bread ~ by Kelsey

This is from my Pillsbury Complete Cook Book.  Very easy and yummy!

Ingredients:
1 cup water heated to 120-130 F
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pkg active dry yeast
cornmeal
1 egg white, beaten

In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt and yeast.  Mix well.  Add warm water and oil, mix well.  Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface.  Knead dough five minutes or until smooth (it never became smooth and elastic for me, it was pretty hard and dense).  Place dough in greased bowl.  Cover with greased plastic wrap and a cloth towel.  Let rise in warm place (80-85 degrees) until light and doubled in size, about 40 minutes.

Sprinkle ungreased cookie sheet with cornmeal.  Punch down dough several times.  Shape dough into baguette-shaped loaf about 12 inches long.  Place on cornmeal-coated cookie sheet.  Cover loosely with greased plastic wrap and towel.  Let rise in warm place again for about 30 minutes.  Heat oven to 375 degrees make a deep lengthwise slash on top of the loaf.  Brush loaf with egg white.  Bake for about 25 minutes, or until it sounds hollow when tapped.   Immediately remove from the cookie sheet and place on cooling rack for one hour.