French Bread

Welcome to another wonderful instalment of baked goods on The Daisy Cake.
I know I haven't done a lot of cake recipes lately but I had to share with you a recipe I love to make: French bread.

I learned how to make this French bread recipe in my baking class and the recipe comes from "Professional Baking" by Gisslen, 5th edition. The only thing I've changed from the original recipe is the amount of bread it makes. This recipe makes a small loaf that will feed 4. The way you make it isn't all that difficult you just need to set aside enough time for the dough to rise and have it be done by the time you want to eat it.

Ingredients for French Bread:
Flour - 9.5 oz (2 cups*)
Water (warm) - 5.7 oz
Yeast - 1 1/2 tsp.
Salt - a little less than 1 tsp.
Malt syrup or brown sugar - 1/4 tsp.**
White Sugar - a little more than 3/4 tsp.
Shortening - a little more than 3/4 tsp.

*Here is the reason for my measurements in ounces. Baking is more of a science or if you want things to be perfect you have to exact. Even when a recipe says 2 cups of flour the way I measure two cups may be different than the way someone else measures 2 cups. When you weigh your ingredients things turn out a lot better.
Water is a lot easier to measure in ounces because liquid measuring cups have the ounces marked on them. But because it's an odd number just remember that .25 = 1/4  .5 = 1/2 .75 = 3/4. So with 5.7 just go a little under 5.75.

**Malt syrup is expensive and isn't used in a whole lot of other things so just use sugar. The malt syrup is only to feed the yeast so sugar will do the job just the same as the syrup.

If you enjoy baking and want to do it right invest in a small kitchen food scale. They are only about $10 and it is worth it to have for any recipe you may be using not just in baking.
For those of you without the use of a kitchen scale You can use the cup measurements I put up but do not pack your flour let it be loose in the cup. You don't even have to level it with a butter knife just level it by shaking the measuring cup back and forth. (Example below)

Step One: Dissolve the brown sugar or malt syrup in the warm water. Then add the yeast to the water and sugar mixture and let it sit until it starts to foam.
Mix the flour and white sugar together. Put the salt and shortening in a separate dish apart from each other.

Step Two: Place the flour sugar mixture in a bowl and make a well to pour in the water yeast mixture. Use your fingers to mix in a little flour at a time to look like the picture below:

Then pour in your salt and shortening and mix it in with your figures to spread it evening through the mixture. Once your salt and shortening is in then mix in the rest of the flour until you get a ball of dough.

Add more flour to your dough until it is no longer sticky. Knead your dough for 8 to 10 minutes till firm.

Step Three: Place the dough into a bowl sprayed with cooking oil so it won't stick and put plastic over it to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until it has doubled in size.

Step Four: When you dough is done rising punch it down lightly to release the air. Then you're going to beat your dough to help in the gluten development in the dough.
Hold your dough in one hand slam it down on the counter then fold it in half and slam it down again. You can stretch the dough in order to fold it again and again after each time you beat the dough on the counter.

Beat it for about 5 minutes. Once you've beat it for a while the dough will become more elastic and you will be able to tell a difference.
Then place the dough back in the bowl and let it sit for 10 minutes to rest.

Step Five: After your dough has rested roll it into a rectangle:

Then fold it into thirds on top of itself:

Fold in the ends and lightly roll it to form a cylinder:

Step Six: Place your dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and cover it in plastic wrap. Let it rise for 1 hour till it doubles in size.
While it rises preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step Seven: Get a very very sharp knife and cut slits in the top of your loaf. Hold the knife at a 45 degree angle when cutting and cut the slits parallel to loaf. Do not cut diagonally over the loaf.
The reason you put slits in your loaf is to give it a place to expand when it bakes. This way your loaf will not split on the sides.

Before you place your loaf in the oven get a dish with part ice part water and place it on the bottom rack in your oven. Then place your loaf in the over above the dish of water:

You put the ice water in the oven because you need to steam the French bread for the first 10 minutes. When you steam the French bread it makes the crust crispy and flaky. Take the dish of water out after 10 minutes.

Keep an eye on your loaf and take it out when it is golden brown. I only baked my French bread for maybe 20 minutes.

When your french bread is done baking let it cool but eat it while it is still warm to enjoy a delicious treat!
It takes a while to make French bread but the end result is totally worth it!

Leave a comment about your adventures in making French bread.