I like bread. Probably too much. As explained in a previous post involving bread, I also love baking bread.
A couple of weeks ago, I tried my hand at homemade French bread, as I was making some sort of Italian dish for dinner, but really didn't want to BUY a loaf of French bread. I found a recipe for it in my bread maker "cookbook", but still did not feel satisfied at the effort it would involve.
A little over a month ago my grandparents drove through town to drop off some furniture for us grandkids. My grandma knows how I love to cook, and offered me a few old cookbooks that had been owned by my great-grandma. One of them was a Betty Crocker cookbook, which was whipped open during my need for French bread, in hopes that it would offer a recipe. It had a great one, and Ryan and I both loved the results!
For Father's Day I am making my "brain food" lasagna and homemade French bread for dinner for my whole family. The second time around with the bread (which I just finished baking) turned out just as beautifully. I think I will probably use this recipe for a long time, and I love that it makes two loaves, so we can eat one and freeze one for another day!
Here is the before-it-was-baked shot of the bread:
And here is the after-it-was-baked shot:
I love its beautiful golden-ness! And the inside is wonderfully tender and moist. You can find the recipe here. A few notes:
1. This is time consuming. Make sure you have plenty of time to do it - I started the process at noon and took it out of the oven at 4:30. It rises longer to get the whole French bread consistency.
2. There are two baking stages. The first lasts for 20 minutes, after which you brush on an egg white wash. It says to bake it for an additional 30 minutes. Maybe it's just my oven, but I only needed to bake it for 10 more minutes before I got that lovely hollow sound when I knocked on it. I am very glad that I checked it or else all of that time would have gone to waste! Just a heads-up.
3. I did not use any cornmeal. I'm just a rebel like that.
I hope that you try this bread and enjoy it as much as we did! Bon appetit!
3 comments:
Mucho delicioso!! Thanks for the meal, Chantal. The lasagna and french bread were fantastic!!!!!! I look forward to another taste of the bread soon!!
We should have a cooking pot luck! I would like your french bread recipe! We need to get together again soon :)
that looks yummy! I prefer my bread maker's recipe for french bread over the "traditional white" but not as french bread. Does that make sense? I have a super yummy bread recipe I should give you.
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