Whole Wheat Pizza and French Bread recipe

From Breadbeckers forum

Whole Grain Pizza and French Bread

COMBINE WET INGREDIENTS:
1 1/4 C hot water*
1/2 C milk*
3 TBSP light olive oil*
2 TBSP honey*

*For French Bread, omit the oil, honey, and milk, and use 1 3/4 C water.

COMBINE DRY INGREDIENTS:
1 TBSP lecithin
2 tsp yeast
2 tsp salt
1 tsp gluten
4 1/2 C freshly milled Hard White wheat flour

Then pour the wet ingredients onto the dry and knead with a spatula. I usually mix mine by hand in a large bowl. Using a hearty spatula, knead by folding the dough over itself toward the center while turning the bowl. Do this about 3-5 minutes or until the dough is elastic. (You can use a mixer if you like, I just find it's easy this way and dirties less dishes.) Cover and let rise 20-30 minutes in a warm place.

Pizza: When the dough is ready... Rub a little olive oil on your rolling pin. On a large, flat surface (I use a big glass cutting board), roll out the dough to around 1/4" thick or maybe less (depending on how thick you like your crust--remember, it will rise a bit when cooking). Take your pizza stone, flip it over so that the cooking surface is toward the dough. Use it as a template to cut a circle with a pizza cutter. Set the stone aside and sprinkle it with cornmeal. Take excess dough cut from the edges and put it back in the bowl to keep warm (I use this dough to make 2 baguettes or 6 dinner rolls). Using your scraper, transfer your circle of dough to the stone, sticky-side up. Using a pastry roller, roll out the dough a little more to desired thickness, maintaining round shape. Roll up and seal the edges of the crust to desired size. (Be careful not to let the cornmeal come in contact with the part of the dough you are rolling over to make the edges of your crust. They won't seal if it touches the cornmeal.)

French Bread: Shape dough into two or three baguettes. Roll the bottom of the loaf in cornmeal, and place on a baguette pan (the Beckers sell two sizes). Using a sharp knife with a serrated edge, make three slashes along the top of the crust. Allow the loaves to rise for 35-50 minutes, depending on how dense you want your bread. The longer you let it rise, the less dense it will be. But beware: this dough will only get so high, then it will collapse and not recover.

From here, you can go for a crusty crust, or a chewy crust. For a crusty crust, preheat your oven to 450 and put a stone dish in the bottom. (An iron skillet will also work, but this is bad for the skillet.) When the oven is ready, put your bread on the middle rack in and immediately throw some ice on the stone or skillet. Close up the oven and bake for 5 minutes. Turn the oven down to 400 and bake 10 more minutes or so, depending on your oven. You can try various methods such as occasionally spritzing your bread with water while it cooks.

For a chewy crust, try the same thing with the ice on the stone, but before putting your bread in to bake, brush the crust with a mixture of egg whites and water (1 egg white/1 T water, whisk). Brush the crust with this mixture again 5 minutes or so before the end of baking.

Try any combination of the above and see what works best. This is as far as I got before skipping the ice and just brushing the egg white & water mixture on the crust.

This makes great bread for bruschetta.