Daring French Bread

A little bit of maths for all of you out there...

+

=

and

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lots of time
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Now, I know I'm not a Daring Baker yet. This month will be my first challenge. But how could I resist? I mean, Julia Child's French Bread? Taking anywhere from 7 to 12 hours to make bread with just four ingredients? I couldn't help myself.

But let me tell you, this entire venture was hilarious. It started with me realizing that I keep my apartment way too cold to make this in less than 12 hours, followed by the realization that my boyfriend's apartment was much warmer, and therefore more amenable to rising bread. But wait - I watched the video of Julia making this bread, and 800-850 kneads? Seriously, I definitely needed my stand mixer. Oh, and a consistent oven in an apartment? Okay, I'm done laughing now. So off to buy unglazed quarry tiles to line his oven. And a pastry brush, because I didn't own one yet. And an oven thermometer, because god knows how far off his oven would be. Dough scraper? Check.

So basically, my car was filled with stuff for this project. The boyfriend had to help me carry everything in, and it still took a couple trips. But I was prepared. I was ready to do battle. I woke up at 6:30 on my own because I was that excited to make this bread. The boyfriend, I believe, thinks I have a problem. A very serious baking problem. My retort is that he has a problem as well. He's the one dating me. (I tell him over and over that I wouldn't date me)

Moving on, this was quite fun. With the sauna-like temperatures of his apartment, all of the rising times were on the very lowest end required by Julia's recipe. The texture and springiness of the dough was just what I was told to look for, shaping went relatively smoothly, and I managed not to tear the delicate gluten cloak throughout the transferral of the loaves to the oven. Waiting 3 hours for it to cool though, was torture. I absolutely love freshly baked bread.


Luckily, this bread integrated perfectly into our dinner that night. The boyfriend made a no-salt lemonade spice rub (tasty, if a bit odd) for some chicken, I slow roasted leeks per Joy of Cooking, and then this bread, with just a little smear of butter. Sooo good. So was it worth the day's work? Well, given that it took very little active time, this would be a relatively simple bread to make on a bad day when I'm stuck in my apartment. Otherwise, I think I'll go with my great grandmother's white bread. Not quite as crusty or chewy, but still quite good.