Cookbook:French Bread

French Bread
Category Bread recipes
Servings 2 loaves
Time 3 to 4 hours
Difficulty

Cookbook | Ingredients | Recipes

| French cuisine 

| Vegetarian cuisine | Bread

French Bread

Ingredients

Volumetric [note 1] Grams Baker's %
2 packages active dry yeast [note 2] 14.4 1.59%
½ cup warm water (about 110°F) 118.5 13.08%
1 tablespoon salt 18 1.99%
2 cups lukewarm water 474 52.30%
7 to 7½ cups flour 937.5 100%
1 egg white 33 3.64%
corn meal
Formula 1595.4 170.18%

Procedure

  1. In a small bowl, soften yeast in warm water.
  2. Combine salt and lukewarm water in large bowl.
  3. Beat in 2 cups flour.
  4. Blend in yeast, and stir in enough flour to make stiff dough.
  5. Turn out dough on floured surface.
  6. Knead 10 to 15 minutes, working in last of flour (you may want to do this with a heavy duty electric mixer with dough hooks).
  7. Form into a ball and put in greased bowl, turning to grease top, then cover with a cloth.
  8. Rise until doubled (until a finger impression stays), about an hour, depending on temperature.
  9. Punch down dough, turn out on floured surface, and divide in half.
  10. Cover dough and rest for 10 minutes.
  11. Shape each half of dough into a 5 by 12-inch rectangle.
  12. Roll up each portion tightly, starting on the long side, sealing as you roll, taper if you like.
  13. Place each loaf diagonally, seam side down, on a greased baking sheet sprinkled with corn meal.
  14. Slash loaf tops ¼ inch diagonally, every 2½ inches with floured sharp knife or razor blade.
  15. Beat egg white until foamy, add a tablespoon water.
  16. Brush top and sides of loaves with egg mixture.
  17. Cover with damp cloth, not touching loaves (drape cloth over inverted glasses).
  18. Turn on oven to preheat to 375°F.
  19. Let loaves rise until doubled, 60 to 75 minutes.
  20. Bake until light brown, about 20 minutes.
  21. Brush loaves with egg mixture again.
  22. Bake another 15 to 20 minutes, or until done.
  23. Cool on wire racks.

Tips, Notes, and Variations

Conversion Notes

  1. Weight conversions from USDA National Nutrient Database. Original recipe text and ingredient order preserved. 7.25 cups flour presumed as all purpose. Egg size presumed as large.
  2. This amount of yeast will result in a perceptible yeast flavor. To reduce this flavor, it is recommend to use no more than 1.05% active dry yeast, although you can expect fermentation time to increase somewhat. Further reductions will result in less yeast flavor and longer bulk fermentation times.
This article is issued from Wikibooks. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.