Hooray, the hostesses of this month’s Daring Baker Challenge – Mary from The Sour Dough and Sara from I like to cook – have chosen a bread recipe for the challenge. A detailed and long French Bread recipe of Julia Child. Some of the DB buddies were scared of this mammoth text. Not me, on the contrary it boosted me up! ;-)
This is my first challenge without any difficulties. No separated butter or weepy pie, so I can’t tell you an amusing story. ;-) Okay one thing, the slashing always causes nightmares and I tried to form a batard without success. So I did go for the baguettes, of course „free from“ as requested.
Below you find the „short“ version of the recipe with my variations in parenthesis . The original recipe can be found on Mary’s Blog. Thank you Mary and Sara for this great challenge. We love the bread, and I will definitively do it again.
Pain Français – French Bread
makes 3 baguettes
20 g fresh yeast or 1 package dry active yeast (fresh yeast)
75 ml warm water, not over 100 degrees F/38C (75 g)
490 g all purpose flour (500 g)
12 g salt
280 – 300 ml Tepid water @ 70 – 74 degrees/21 – 23C (250 g)
Stir the yeast in the 1/3 cup warm water and let liquefy completely while measuring flour into mixing bowl. When yeast has liquefied, pour it into the flour along with the salt and the rest of the water.
Mix the dough on a low speed (Bosch MUM 8 speed 1.5 for 4 minutes) until all the bits of flour and loose chunks of dough have formed a solid dough ball.
I love my mixer. ;-)
Dough will be soft and sticky. Let the dough rest for 2 – 3 minutes.
Knead the dough for 7 minutes (Bosch MUM 8 speed 2).
Let dough rest for 3 – 4 minutes. Knead by hand for a minute. The surface should now look smooth; the dough will be less sticky but will still remain soft. It is now ready for its first rise.
First Rising – pointage premier temps 3-5 hours at around 70 degrees – (I let it rise 3 hours)
Deflating and Second Rising – rupture; pointage deuxieme temps 1 1/2 to 2 hours at around 70 degrees (I let it rise for 1 1/2 hours)
Flatten the dough firmly but not too roughly into a circle, deflating any gas bubbles by pinching them.
Dough with a HUGE bubble!
Lift a corner of the near side and flip it down on the far side. Do the same with the left side, then the right side. Finally, lift the near side and tuck it just under the edge of the far side. The mass of dough will look like a rounded cushion.
Slip the sides of your hands under the dough and return it to the bowl. Cover and let rise again, this time to not quite triple.
Cutting and resting dough before forming loaves Loosen dough all around inside of bowl and turn out onto a lightly floured surface.
Divide the dough into: 3 equal pieces for long loaves (baguettes or batards)
Cover loosely with a sheet of plastic and let rest for 5 minutes before forming.
Forming the loaves – la tourne; la mise en forme des patons
Place the shaped pieces of dough, sealed side up, at the flour rubbed canvas. After all the pieces of dough are in place, brace the two sides of the canvas with long rolling pins, baking sheets or books, if the dough seems very soft and wants to spread out. Cover the dough loosely with flour rubbed dish towel or canvas, and a sheet of plastic.
Final Rise – l’appret – 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours at around 70 degrees (I let it rise for 2 hours)
Baguettes after 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 250 C about 30 minutes before estimated baking time. Unmold and slash the bread and bake for 25 minutes.
That’s how it looks inside. Just perfect!
Merci Julia!
More entries and recipes in English.
Visit the Daring Bakers Blogroll to see more French Bread.
November 2007 Challenge – Tender Potatoe Bread
December 2007 Challenge – Yule Log
January 2008 Challenge – Lemon Meringue Pie
Yours look so superior, I wish I can bake like you do! incredible!
Your bread looks absolutely delicious!
dein Ergebnis. Mir hat allerdings ein Vorteig gefehlt.
REPLY:
Everybody can, but you have to practice. And of course go through many failures. ;-)
Bravo Zorra! Sieht aus wie in einer Boulangerie!
REPLY:
Es hat auch so gerochen, unwiderstehlich. ;-)
Your loaves look perfect! I love the airy inside… Very well done!
Cheers,
Rosa
They are absolutely beautiful! You bake like a pro!
wow your bread is amazing! I especially love the texture of the bread when cut!
Hi Zorra, Beautiful bread!
Perfect!
Great looking bread, Zorra! I ate mine so fast, it’s now a distant but tasty memory :)
Gorgeous bread, Zorra!
I, too, was relieved that this challenge went off without much of a hitch. :)
Beautiful loaves!
Your bread looks wonderful and so authentic. i love how well your slashes have turned out.
These look perfectly delicious! Great job, zorra!
oh what gorgeous french bread we’ve got here!! great job for this month’s challenge
Well, one would never know that slashing was a nightmare for you (for me too) by the photos. Those loaves look perfect — crusty outside and light inside.
Dein Brot sieht super aus! Ich habe leider (jetzt wo ich die ganzen tollen Brote sehe ärgert mich es wirklich) von dem langen Rezept zurückschrecken lassen,….
Congratulations ,your bread is perfect !
You did a wonderful job on your bread. I so glad that you didn’t have any challenges with this recipe, it’s so nice to have some turn out like they are meant to turn out. Great pictures!
Natalie @ Gluten A Go Go
Your baguettes look fantastic! Well done! Picture perfect!
I did not expect any less from you: gorgeous! I love how the innards of the bread turned out!
Glad to hear you had success with this one, your loaves look great!
Your bread turned out absolutely beautiful!! Congratulations on yet another successful challenge.
Bravo! Bravo! That is one professional crumb. It’s perfect.
Look at the beautiful bubbles in your bread! I love how smooth your doughs are. Mine was really wet and sticky. Great job!
Your innards look absolutely scrumptious! congrats on a job well done! :)
Your bread looks beautiful!
Fabulous bread!
totally under control ! great job :)
I love your step by step photos!! Your bread looks beautiful! It was a fun challenge this month!
Great going Zorra, they look perfect!! And the instructions didn’t intimidate you….woww…I was almost gonna faint when I read it for the first time :D
What beautiful bread! The crumb is perfect!
Your baguettes turned out wonderfully and the texture inside looks perfect!!!
Einfach perfekt! Im Gegensatz zu mir hast Du das Slashing doch sehr gut hingekriegt (ich fand es bei diesem Teig noch schwieriger als sonst). Irgendwie ist die Krume bei mir auch immer kleiner strukturiert – was meinst Du, haette ich den Teig laenger gehen lassen muessen oder haette er noch feuchter sein sollen? Die grossen Loecher am Rand kommen bei mir wohl eher davon, dass ich die Naht nicht genug festgedrueckt hab, kam bisschen Mehl dazwischen.
Beautiful bread, Zorra. Great job!
Dear Zorra, I love your beautiful step-by-step, taking us through the laboriously loving process that is baking bread :)
And I must agree with you that your French bread came out just perfect!
Fantastic bread! It’s beautiful. Nice job on this challenge!
Zorra,
I am so glad you enjoyed the challenge. When Sara and I picked it, I mentioned to her that you, Ulrike both would be quite thrilled to have a challenge that would be fun but didn’t involve overly sweet things ;-)
Thanks so much for baking with Sara and I!
wow, what beautiful results!
Zorra, Gorgeous bread! You never cease to amaze me when it comes to your baking skills.
Very nice looking loaves :)
j
Huch … comment number 44.
Very nice breadreceipe, indeed. I ‚ll try one day. ;-)
wow, you bread looks so damn professional!
your bread looks just perfect/ Well done
Your French bread loaves are just beautiful! Great job!
Hi Zorra…I was one of the ’scared ‚ ones…add panicky to that with yeastophobia thrown in!! Your loaves are beautiful…& am SO GLAD you’ve enjoyed it. I enjoyed the challenge too, but maybe after they were done!! LOVE the enthusiasm & the pictures…Cheers (BTW, have done something for IWD; will hopefully post it ina day or 2) Deeba
REPLY:
If possible post your IWD-entry on March 8, the idea is that on this day all over the blogspehre pop up yellow recipes.
Both the breads look gorgeous!
hui.. hier ist ja richt was los gewesen :-) ich hab mir bei andern blogs die anderen french breads angeschaut und deines gefällt mir am besten. super gemacht :-)
I think your slashing looks great! What a success to have this be your first DB challenge that went perfectly – that takes some skill (and some good yeast!).
That’s the most lovely looking bread. And I think that it’s ok there are no stories, because there’s bread!
Yes, it looks just perfect!
Yum – your dough looks so smooth and the finished result is perfect.
Ooh, delicious air bubbles, both in the dough and in the final result! Great job!
They look just *perfect*!! I love the open crumb shown in the last picture. I think the baguettes turned out superb!!!! Very nicely done!
Awesome Looking bread!!
Nice job on your bread it’s beautiful!
I love the crumb!
x x x