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sdavisva
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| Joined: | Tue Jan 15th, 2008 |
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Posted: Wed Jan 16th, 2008 07:29 pm |
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I was delighted to find this forum....maybe someone here can help.
I am looking for a reliable French Bread recipe to use with my whole grain flour. Actually, any crusty bread will do. I have tried numerous recipes and techniques but have not found success (including the BB Recipe Collection one). I used to make French Bread with my white flour but have not been able to achieve the same results with the whole grain.
Any help/recipes would be great. We certainly miss having some yummy bread with spaghetti or soup. And as much as I love what I make for sandwiches, it just doesn't fit the bill!
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KSherrill
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Posted: Fri Jan 18th, 2008 06:59 pm |
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I have not achieved the crusty bread you might find at an Italian restaurant, but that's only because I finally decided what I had was good enough. If you keep at it, you can probably come close to that crust. I have a book called "The Bread Bible" which describes, in depth, how to get that kind of crust. You generally need a brick oven. There are some things you can do to mimic a brick oven, and that book covers them all.
But if you want my "good enough" recipe, here it is:
Whole Grain Pizza and French Bread
COMBINE WET INGREDIENTS:
1 1/4 C hot water*
1/2 C milk*
3 TBSP light olive oil*
2 TBSP honey*
*For French Bread, omit the oil, honey, and milk, and use 1 3/4 C water.
COMBINE DRY INGREDIENTS:
1 TBSP lecithin
2 tsp yeast
2 tsp salt
1 tsp gluten
4 1/2 C freshly milled Hard White wheat flour
Then pour the wet ingredients onto the dry and knead with a spatula. I usually mix mine by hand in a large bowl. Using a hearty spatula, knead by folding the dough over itself toward the center while turning the bowl. Do this about 3-5 minutes or until the dough is elastic. (You can use a mixer if you like, I just find it's easy this way and dirties less dishes.) Cover and let rise 20-30 minutes in a warm place.
Pizza: When the dough is ready... Rub a little olive oil on your rolling pin. On a large, flat surface (I use a big glass cutting board), roll out the dough to around 1/4" thick or maybe less (depending on how thick you like your crust--remember, it will rise a bit when cooking). Take your pizza stone, flip it over so that the cooking surface is toward the dough. Use it as a template to cut a circle with a pizza cutter. Set the stone aside and sprinkle it with cornmeal. Take excess dough cut from the edges and put it back in the bowl to keep warm (I use this dough to make 2 baguettes or 6 dinner rolls). Using your scraper, transfer your circle of dough to the stone, sticky-side up. Using a pastry roller, roll out the dough a little more to desired thickness, maintaining round shape. Roll up and seal the edges of the crust to desired size. (Be careful not to let the cornmeal come in contact with the part of the dough you are rolling over to make the edges of your crust. They won't seal if it touches the cornmeal.)
French Bread: Shape dough into two or three baguettes. Roll the bottom of the loaf in cornmeal, and place on a baguette pan (the Beckers sell two sizes). Using a sharp knife with a serrated edge, make three slashes along the top of the crust. Allow the loaves to rise for 35-50 minutes, depending on how dense you want your bread. The longer you let it rise, the less dense it will be. But beware: this dough will only get so high, then it will collapse and not recover. 
From here, you can go for a crusty crust, or a chewy crust. For a crusty crust, preheat your oven to 450 and put a stone dish in the bottom. (An iron skillet will also work, but this is bad for the skillet.) When the oven is ready, put your bread on the middle rack in and immediately throw some ice on the stone or skillet. Close up the oven and bake for 5 minutes. Turn the oven down to 400 and bake 10 more minutes or so, depending on your oven. You can try various methods such as occasionally spritzing your bread with water while it cooks.
For a chewy crust, try the same thing with the ice on the stone, but before putting your bread in to bake, brush the crust with a mixture of egg whites and water (1 egg white/1 T water, whisk). Brush the crust with this mixture again 5 minutes or so before the end of baking.
Try any combination of the above and see what works best. This is as far as I got before skipping the ice and just brushing the egg white & water mixture on the crust.
This makes great bread for bruschetta.
Give it a try and post your results, along with any variations you come up with.
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sdavisva
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Posted: Mon Jan 21st, 2008 06:05 pm |
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| Thank you so much! I will look forward to trying this soon.... I need to get my hands on some hard white, though. And I will post my results!
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lovemyhome
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| Joined: | Thu Oct 18th, 2007 |
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Posted: Sat Jan 26th, 2008 10:26 pm |
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| Taste of Home site has a great Sourdough French Bread recipe. A friend of mine told me about it and I made it today and it is the best so far that I have made. My family told me not to mess with this recipe as it is the best. I made mine with wheat instead of the white they called for.
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Gigmaster
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Posted: Wed Mar 19th, 2008 07:17 am |
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French and Italian Bread are the simpliest of bread recipes. You do not want to use any extra ingredients in them, as that will effect the crust.
True French and Itailian breads contain 4, and only 4 ingredients.
6 cups-freshly ground Hard White Wheat
2 cups-warm water (100 degrees)
3 Tbsp yeast
1-1/2 tsp-salt
Notice that there is no oil in this recipe. Oil makes bread tender, with a soft crust...something you don't want in French-Style Bread. This is all that goes into the dough. There are a few other ingredients that we will use on the outside, to make a crunchy crust.
1-egg white
1 Tbsp cornmeal
1-Tbsp water
In your mixer on low-med, using a dough hook, starting with the water, add water, yeast, salt and 2 cups of the flour. When this is mixed, add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until a smooth doughball is formed. It should not be sticky. Knead the dough for 8 minutes, and allow it to rise until doubled.
Punch the dough down and turn out onto a floured work surface. Divide the dough in half and allow to rest for another 10 minutes.
Roll each half into a rectangle, about 1/2" thick. Roll long-wise into loaves. Moisten the edges with water and seal. Taper the ends.
Grease a large baking sheet and sprinkle with the cornmeal. Place loaves seam-side-down on the cornmeal and baking sheet. Beat the egge white with 1 tbsp of water and brush the loaves with it. With a sharp knife, make 3 or 4 diagonal cuts across the top of each loaf, about 1/2" deep. Cover the loaves with a damp cloth and allow to rise once again until nearly doubled (around 30-40 minutes). Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
Place loaves into the oven and bake for 20 minutes. If you want the crust even crunchier, you can periodically mist the loaves with water from a sprayer as they bake. Remove them and brush once again with the egg mixture. Return the loaves to the oven and bake until bread tests done (usually around 20 more minutes). The loaves should sound 'hollow' when thumped.
Remove loaves from oven, place on cooling racks and allow to cool.
For Italian Bread, brush loaves with melted butter while still warm, and sprinkle poppy or sesame seeds on top.
There are a few tricks to making certain styles of bread. One is to place a pan of water in the bottom of your oven while baking. This makes absolutely wonderful tall, moist loaves. Another trick is to use oven bricks.
Congratulatons! You have just created classic old-world French and Italian Bread, suitable to grace the table of any restaurant in the world!
Bon Apetit!
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sdavisva
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Posted: Tue Jul 22nd, 2008 01:33 am |
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Gigmaster,
I tried your recipe for French Bread last week but I must have done something wrong. The bread is quite heavy and the inside of the bread is tight instead of airy or fluffy. Any thoughts on where I might have gone wrong? My first thought is that I used too much flour. The dough was pretty firm. TIA!!!
And thank you guys who have posted other recipes. I will try those as well. I am a woman on a mission!
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