Plain old French bread recipe
November 13th, 2008Charlotte has tagged me for some sort of bread-making/donation challenge to alleviate poverty in Africa. Part of the rules is to publish the recipe.
So here you go: the simplest sort of bread, the one I make every other day now, because it tastes much better than the one from the local (i.e. 7 km away) baker, and I can make it with organic flour (bought in 25-kg bags).
1 kg hard bread flour (organic)
20 g salt (knowing what we dump in the se, I doubt there is such a thing as organic salt)
42 g dehydrated organic levain (find it here)
600 ml warm water
Mix all ingredients with your (clean) hands, then knead for fifteen minutes. I put the dough on my bench and sit on the bench with my legs on either side to lean on the dough and have more kneading power.
Leave the dough to rise under a damp cloth for half an hour (room temperature 22°C or one hour if your room is at 18°C like mine yesterday).
Knead again and shape your breads. Then leave to rise for one to two hours.
Bake in very hot oven (250°C) for 20 minutes. Do not forget to put a bowl of water in the oven so that the hot air is saturated in moisture. For a thinner and crispier crust, you can wet the breads with your fingers before baking. Oh, and you have to make cuts with a rasor blade so the dough can expand nicely while baking.
Et voilà. Bon appétit.
This is a great idea. And I like the recipe. It seems simple enough. I think I may try this next weekend. It’s been a long time since I’ve baked bread. I usually make it in a bread machine, but i think it will be fun to knead it for a change.
I also find it fun to knead, but when it must be done on a bi-weekly basis it can become a chore. I am seriously contemplating buying a kneading machine.