It's recipe 14 of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge! French Bread. I was excited to make this recipe. Yes, I know when I am not hot for flour, yeast and water. When am I not excited to fill the bowl of my mixer and "turn it on". When I am not ready to get "dirty' with flour covered boules. When am I not awakened by the scent of rising bread dough ready to go into the hot oven. When I am not open to the crunchy crisp flavorful mouth watering just baked hot off the stone - fresh bread. Uh - NEVER.
Those of you that are worried. It will be okay. Those of you that know I can turn a can of beans into something saucy and I am not talking baked beans...then you know there is no need to worry. Its my love affair with baked goods.
The last time I made french bread it sucked. I could have maimed a small child, hit one out of the park, built a roof, a new door stop, sanded the deck, jacked up the car...it was beyond hard...it was just awful. But this time it was perfect. Ok so the slashes - not so good and I wish it would have been a little browner. But it tasted divine. Its not a Paris loaf but rather its a damn I made that in my tiny kitchen in my old stove with my trusty mixer loaf.
I ate almost three quarters of loaf while taking pictures of the crumb! It was delightful. It tasted terrific. I again am so proud of my baguettes. So good. C'est délicieux!
Be sure to check out The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread by Peter Reinhart. (I cant say enough about what a ride its been so far!)
Happy Baking.
"I don't LIKE food, I LOVE it.
If I don't LOVE it, I don't SWALLOW."
-Anton Ego
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9 comments:
Lovely bread! You know it's good when you have to hurry up and take pictures before it's all gone!
Love the quote and snickered at your "no comment". :)
Your bread looks fabulous. I can relate to your first attempt, my first attempt at ciabatta was not good. It could have been used a replacement for exocet missiles, would have saved the army a small fortune. My own fault, the recipe is probably good but on the day of baking, I was super stressed over some crap going on on my life, that didnt pay proper attention to the recipe. Hence missile like bread. Oh well that'll teach me.
Loved your post ~ my first several attempts at making 100% whole wheat bread were a success...if I wanted to build a small adobe brick house.
Fab French bread, btw~
Your French bread looks fantastic, you funny girl. Good job!
Hi Jenn, Thanks for my morning smile. You better hope that you never become gluten intolerant or you love life will suffer!
Beautiful baguettes. Love the crumb shots. So glad you achieved success. My french bread dough is fermenting as I type.
Look at those holes! Just gorgeous...glad you tried this again. Bravo!
I enjoyed reading your post; and the loaves look great.
@ Everyone - thanks for stopping by. I love making all the bread and I am learning so much. Soon my husband will return and I will have to make room for "everyone" wink wink....sending love...Happy baking!!
Simply beautiful bread. It took me a few tries to get this one right. I think it did for most people, though.
I love reading your blog and your affairs with the breads. I am amazed you stuck with bagels, as all the fruit and nut breads had me sneaking off to eat a slice in secret!
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