French Baguettes

Ingredients 1 teaspoon active dry yeast (i use the kind in the jar for bread) 2 cups warm water 4-5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons kosher salt 1 egg Directions Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup warm water. Stir well with fork and set aside for 10 minutes. Combine flour (about 4 cups and use the other cup or so to flour your board and so your hands do not get soo sticky with dough.. ps take your rings off) and salt ( i add some complete seasoning for extra taste) . Add yeast mixture, remaining 1 1/2 cups water and mix until dough it sticky enough to kneed. Kneed on lightly floured board until dough is sticky and smooth (I found this to take about 10 minutes). Put dough in bowl, cover with a damp cloth and let rise at room temp. until dough doubles in volume, about 1 hours. (sometimes mine doubles and sometimes it rises a little depending on how active the yeast is.. the less it rises the more dense it will be if this happens just butter it well before serving) Punch down dough and dive into 4 pieces. Roll each piece into a baguette shape and place on lightly greased cookie sheet. Let rise again until doubled (again, I found this to be 30 min to about an hour). Preheat oven to 450. Put 2 cups warm water in separate pan and place in oven to provide moisture while bread is baking. Brush dough with 1 beaten egg combined with 1 tablespoon cold water. Score loaves diagonally and bake for 15 minutes. Lower temp to 400 and bake additional 5-10 minutes or until golden. Let cool, slice and enjoy! (Baking Tip: Store your bread in the fridge to help it last! Since it has no preservatives, it will mold quicker if left out and uncovered!) I freeze my leftover loafs wrapped in tin foil and in a zip lock.. i will even cut it almost completely through into pieces to make it easy to reheat.. reheat at 350 for 10ish mins or you can do defrost (i hit 4 rolls and do that twice in microwave, then bake for a few mins at 350-400 )