French bread (pão francês)

Time of preparation: 4 hours

1/2kg of flour
15g of yeast (2 envelopes)
15g of salt (2-3 tspoons)
20g of sugar (1 tbspoon)
1 tbspoon of butter
300g of water

Dilute the yeast in warm water with the sugar. Mix all the other ingredients. Kneed the dough, stretching it forward with your palms, folding it on itself. The dough has to be elastic, not sticking to the hands, looking light and sponge like. If
necessary, add more water and flour.
Let it rest for 2 hours. Kneed it again and prepare the bread in the shape you want. Put it on a greased baking tray. If it is sticky, put more flour on top of the dough. Let it rest for another hour.
Bake it in a pre-heated oven for 30-40 min.

IMPORTANT: in order to make the crust while it bakes, you need to put a smaller tray in the oven with a bit of water. It needs water vapour to bake.