French bread for the masses

Thus far my bread has only been made for immediate family other than the Rosemary bread, which was for a small group. Last night, a crowd of 8 family members, plus Toddler Girl, were subject to my novice breadmaking skills. I would have loved to bring Italian bread to compliment my mother-in-law's amazing cooking but I'm too nervous to make the transition to the oven for that crunchy crust. So I tried the Sunbeam manual's French bread setting. After the last rise & collapse due to Sunbeam's recipe, plus a helpful review on Amazon, I used almost half as much yeast.

Well, no one fell over in their chair at the freshness or flavor of this bread. but no once really batted an eye, either. The bread usually served is thick-sliced and bakery-fresh so my loaf was oddly shaped by comparison, but no one complained or commented so I'm going to call it a success. Soft white bread? Toddler Girl was sold!  We wont rush into making this one for home use since I prefer the health whole wheat, but I would be proud to bring this to the family dinner.

• Recipe: French Setting Recipe from Sunbeam's manual on page 31
• Mistakes: Not-a-one!
• Changes: Used 2-1/2 teaspoons of yeast instead of 4 teaspoons (!)
• Rating: 7/8 Crunching Munchers
• Next time: Maybe an extra quarter teaspoon of yeast