French Bread

I really, really like the taste of this bread, but only when its fresh from the oven. It loses quite a lot of flavour in mere hours after baking, or at least mine does. If timed just right, it comes out of the oven just as a meal starts and takes the whole meal to the next level. The very smell of it baking can help whet the appetite for the meal.

Aside from those obvious benefits, the left over bread as I mentioned is lacking in its original flavour. This makes it a prime candidate for being used as an ingredient in other dishes. Topping an Onion soup, or used as a base to a juicy cut of meat, bread crumbs, or as I am planning on doing with the left overs from this batch, turn it into Croutons.

I learned an interesting lesson when I was rolling the dough into a baguette. I rolled it out, but didn't like it so I folded it in half and rerolled it again. Again, I didn't like the shape, so I did this one more time, now it was in a shape I liked. However, when it baked, all the folding back on itself had not caused it to stick to itself, so I ended up with some pretty funky baguettes. They still came out tasting great, they just didn't look anything like a traditional baguette would.

 I thoroughly mixed the dry ingredients together (Flour, yeast and salt). Once I add the water there won't be any further chances to nicely mix stuff into the dough.

 I mixed the water into the dry mixture until it was all loosely held together in clumps. This part is really sticky, so I used a butter knife to do the mixing. I chose the knife above all other potential tools solely because the knife would be really easy to clean.

 I turned out the clumpy, floury mixture onto a table and set about the task of kneading the dough. A note on the height of the table, if you are kneading, I find it is a lot easier (a lot) if the table is low enough that you can let gravity help you. The table I use is below my belt line, but above my groin. If the table is too high, you end up using your arm muscles, which unless your a body builder, is a hard work out. Your going to be here for about a 1/2 hour, so make it easy on yourself!

 The dough is starting to come together after a few minutes of kneading. If you find the dough is wet and sticky, flour the table and work it into the dough, if it is too dry, you can add some water. However, a little water goes along way, most bread recipes recommend adding water by the teaspoon, I personally either wet my hands and then work it in, or spray with a spray bottle of water. This is a finer grained measurement than a teaspoon and as such allows you to adjust the moisture content very easily, without having to worry about over shooting.

 The final dough is stretchy, and if you want, tastes great. What can I say, I really like bread.

 I boiled a medium pot with some water in it, the exact amount of water is really of little concern. More water acts as a larger heat sink and will hold more heat to be dissipated later. This is a good thing.

 It is a good thing, because it is going to be used to keep the dough warm while it is rising. As a byproduct, it will keep the oven at a high level of humidity. The high humidity means you don't knead (groan) to cover the dough while it is rising. You will be rewarded with a soft and fluffy dough. Keep in mind the oven is off, I'm just using the space to help raise the dough.

 After an hour or when the dough has doubled in bulk, your going to beat on it, punch it and in general have fun with it. What? I enjoy punching down the dough. Try it, I think you'll agree.

As the mobsters from the Simpsons once said about roughing up Homer "This guys easy on the knuckles, I could work him over all day!". Well the dough is the same weigh (groan). You want to put it back into the oven until it has doubled in bulk again, also reboil the water. When the dough has doubled in bulk again (or an hour has passed) punch the dough down and form into baguettes.

 As I mentioned above I formed then reformed each baguette, I let them sit on a lightly floured surface until they had doubled in bulk again, then I cut slices in the top. The slices serve a double purpose, they help prevent the surface from cracking as it cooks and it looks really nice on the final product.

The final product, distorted by the refolding of the baguette when I should have left it alone. If I hadn't refolded it, the slices I had made would have made it look really nice. Despite looking like it was the horribly disfigured progeny of a monster, the taste was just as I have always loved. I mostly ate one loaf, before I could take this picture.






The bulk of the cost of both of the loaves was from the flour, which only came to $0.89. Thats $0.46 per loaf or $0.03 per slice. That definitely knocks homemade bread weigh (grown) down from the cost of store bought bread. So if you don't make bread at home for the fresh taste, then you might as well do it to save a few bucks on your grocery bill.