Instructions: Crostini: Place all of the ingredients into the pan of your bread machine, program the machine for Dough, and press Start. Check the dough 10 minutes before the end of the second knead cycle; it should be extremely soft and sticky. Adjust the consistency as necessary with flour or water.

When the machine has completed its cycle; transfer the dough to a lightly oiled work surface. Divide it into three pieces. If youre using a baguette pan, grease the molds of the pan, and sprinkle them with coarse semolina or yellow cornmeal. Working with one piece at a time, lay the dough in the pan and stretch and pat it to within 1 inch of each end. Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough. If youre not using a baguette pan, roll the dough as best you can into three 16-inch logs, and place them on a couple of lightly oiled cookie sheets.

Cover the dough with lightly oiled plastic wrap, and set aside to rise until its very puffy, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. When the bread has risen, bake it in a preheated 425F oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until its golden brown. Remove the bread from the oven, and transfer it to a wire rack to cool completely. When the bread is cool, drape it with a cloth towel and let it rest overnight; it needs to be a bit stale before you cut it.

Slice the bread crosswise into 1/3-inch rounds. Pour a generous coating of olive oil (about 1/8-inch) into a couple of half-sheet pans, or two large cookie sheets with sides; use your fingers to spread the oil completely over the bottom of the pans. Put the bread slices into the pans in one layer, as close together as you can get them. Drizzle the slices lightly with olive oil, and bake them in a preheated 275F oven for 45 minutes, or until theyre very dry and are just beginning to brown. Remove the crostini from the oven, and let them cool. If not serving them the same day, store the crostini in an airtight container.

Just before serving, use the following topping to complete the crostini. Serve as an appetizer, or as part of a large antipasto.

Yield: about 9 dozen crostini, enough to serve 16 people

The Topping

Note that all of the amounts are approximate. Youll use more or less depending on a variety of factors, including how big the basil leaves and tomatoes are, how thinly you slice the garlic, and how generous you are with the cheese. To say nothing of how many crostini youve sampled before even getting to the topping... If you find yourself with leftover topping ingredients, make salad.

Unwrap the goat cheese, and gently crumble it into a small bowl. Spread each crostini with 1 teaspoon of cheese, then top with a basil leaf, a slice or slices of garlic, and a sun-dried tomato slice, cut in half if overly large. Serve immediately; the crostini will get soggy if they wait more than about half an hour.

NOTES : A coarse-grained bread with lots of large, uneven holes - a typical Italian or French loaf - comes from dough which is very slack, or wet. Its simple to make a slack dough in the bread machine; you never have to knead it by hand, so you dont have to deal with sticky fingers. This dough should never form a ball which cleans the sides of the pan, but should remain sticky; itll mound up as if trying to form a ball, but it wont.

The best way to make bread for crostini is in French baguette pans. The resulting loaves, long and skinny, when sliced into thin rounds make bite-sized crostini, ideal for appetizers. Simply grease the pans, and scoop the dough into them, stretching and patting it to fit with your lightly greased fingers. Theres no need to try to roll the dough into a log and transfer it to the pan; though the stretching and patting method makes a messy looking loaf at first, once its risen and baked itll be as smooth as any shaped loaf.

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