Main | Outstanding Wine Values at Wine Commune »
Finally, decent French bread!
By perryd | November 13, 2007
I’ve been playing around with French bread recipes ever since our last trip to Paris. There’s just something magical about a warm baguette from the corner boulangerie and that crispy, chewy texture. Nothing but flour, water, yeast, and salt.
What I’ve discovered is that there’s a fifth ingredient that many books and recipes for the American market allude to but don’t seem to emphasize all that much…time. Most books focus on the kneading process and hint that a good knead will line up the gluten into a mesh that contains the gases created by the yeast. And over the past year I’ve tried a vast set of kneading time, rising time, temperature, and ingredients without getting even close to traditional French taste and texture.
Julia Child provided the clue in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, volume 2. She nearly didn’t include a recipe for French bread; as she points out in the book, most French don’t bake bread, since it’s never more than a few minutes’ walk to the boulangerie. Julia was also skeptical that French bread could be made with American ingredients in American ovens. She herself had never really attempted to make the stuff before her editor insisted that it be added to the book.
Julia emphasizes the time element. She correctly describes the ripening process that the gluten must go through to gain that familiar chewy texture and nutty flavor, and goes so far as to recommend that the rise take place at a relatively low temperature, around 70 degrees. At this temperature, it takes a good three hours for the first rise, and two hours each for the second and third.
It’s worth the wait. The dough transforms from a heavy mass into something light yet full of body, and once baked it pushes back when bitten. Julia’s recipe as too much salt for my taste and should be cut in half. A spritz of water against the bread every four or five minutes helps develop a brown, crunchy crust.
Bon appetit!
[DEcember 23rd] Several readers have asked for my recipe… here it is!
Topics: Food |
Comments are closed.