French bread recipe?

[polksalet]

Anybody got one?

[SheikYerbuti]

Baking world class bread is kinda like being a wizard. It takes magical power and control of the black arts.

 

I just can't figure out how high end bakers do it. . .

[Bier Meister]

not off the top of my head. i loaned out my baking book.... will get it back and post. though i am i sure by then others with through some out there.

 

baking is a true art... would love to get better with my doughs

[McNasty]

I worked for a year as a baker, at a little start-up boutique rustic hand-crafted place here in town. Since I was in on the ground floor, I got trained by a bona-fide French baker (with the cordon bleu, and the whole nine). It's been about ten years, but here's what I remember, in bullet points.

 

The recipe is standard: water, yeast, flour and salt, and basically nothing else... it's all in how it's handled. Buy special bread flour.

 

The important thing is to develop the glutens in the dough (the proteins, mixed with the starches that give the dough it's texture). Mix the ingredients well, but don't overmix. Form the dough into balls, flour them well, cover them with a towel and let them rest, at least an hour, in a controlled environment (we had a retarder-- which was a big chill room). If it's too hot, the dough will rise too quickly (overproofing) and it'll be too soft and the crust will be lousy. If it's too cold, your finished product will be too dense and heavy. If it's too humid, you get a gloppy mess that ends up with lousy crust and texture.

 

Once the dough has rested, you shape the dough. This is all feel. The important thing being not to overwork the dough, or manhandle it-- it gets tough. You want to use a really light touch and try to handle it and shape it as little as possible. After shaping the dough, let it rest and proof some more, somewhere between a half hour and four hours (any longer and you overproof.)

 

Shaping is hard to describe in type, but basically for a french "batard" (fat loaf, as opposed to a baguette which are more of a pain in the ass to shape) punch the dough ball out into a rectangle. Fold the longer sides in towards the middle and flip it so the folds are facing down, then roll the dough against the table using really light pressure to stretch the "skin" tight and get rid of the seams. [i know that's a lousy explanation, but it's hard to explain, mebbe you could find a video or pics thru google.] After shaping, rest the dough again (at least 20 minutes) then bake.

 

You'll never be able to duplicate really great bread in a a home oven, but there are some tricks that'll help. First of all, you need really high temp consistently, so use an oven thermometer. Second, get a baking stone-- it's key for a good crust. And third, and probably the step that'll give you the most notable results-- steam the bread in the oven about 1/2 way through the baking. You can make do with a spray bottle of water set on fine mist and just spritz the hell out of the sides of the oven box, or have a metal pan on a lower rack and spritz that. It has to be steam, though. Putting a pan of water in the oven doesn't work-- steam and a lot of it.

 

I never really perfected a great way of baking at home, just because it was a lot of work, when I could pick up a loaf for a couple of bucks. Hopefully this helps, though.

[twiley]

Awesome post, I had no idea it took that much finesse.

[Azazello1313]

ingredients are easy as can be. the execution is hard as hell. i don't think french bread is something you can really learn to make effectively from a "recipe".

 

edit: i guess i shoulda just read mcnasty's post first and given him props

Edited January 25, 2008 by Azazello1313

[rajncajn]

Great post Mcnasty... and I'll agree, I've never had a home made French bread anywhere near as good as bakery bought and down here I've eaten a ton of the stuff. The best bread is baked in stone or brick ovens and freshness makes a very big difference.

 

Mmmm, I think I'll go out for a po-boy for lunch.