Newbie - In Need !
Hi all U Bread Lovers, HELP!!!!!! My wife(Judy) & I are katrina transplants dat never gotta a shot at gettin back home cuz of the rough financial times we live in(plus living in such a beautiful part of our country & don't forget NO HUMIDITY to even measure on der scales-I no longer have 2 empty my tenny-shoes no more cuz they be full-of sweat)Des R da things I don't miss but der R a-lot I do! I can get or make just bout anything Nawlins,all sept REAL NEW ORLEANS FRENCH-BREAD,der ain't nuttin close,everything is too heavy,too chewy,no crispy enough,shall I go on,& on & on....? I'm sure many of U folks dat have had a True Nawlins Po-Boy know just what I mean! We have tried so many recipes & tricks but NO CIGAR! This was a problem dat we just started 2 accept da fact "We Ain't Gettin No Po-Boy Bread" Then we decided to Introduce Real Cajun/Creole Food 2 our new hometown & surroundings,So now maybe ya'll can get a betta picture of our situation(I can create all dis fantastic food & stuff only to ruin it cuz "I Ain't Got No FrenchBread". I am considering FEDEX....but i can only make so much bread-puddin with "Stale FB",so now dat Ya'll got a little picture of our situation can "ANYBODY" HELP! Big Blessings 2 All Ya'll, Nailed(Robert)
With the exception of New Orleans, the Northeast, and a few other places, the good ol' USA lacks a decent loaf of bread. My last stop when I used to fly back from a trip to Boston was always a bakery so I could carry a loaf of bread to wherever I was living. Do consider the flour you use. I'm a recent convert to flours that the big boys only sell to bakeries in enormous bags -- but there are some vendors who re-bag and sell to us at home. Stan Ginsberg at www.nybakers.com is my new best friend. I'm finally eating bread that has some of that wonderful flavor I missed. Nothing I did with grocery store flour had as much taste.
Not even in the darkest reaches of the bayou country does anyone talk or write that way.
That said, try Mike Avery's recipe: http://www.sourdoughhome.com/threestagefrench.html
Quit embarrassing the Creoles.
Ford
I never claimed Cajun or Creole Bloodline in my post (but both are part of my Family-Line) But what I am is a 9th Warder/Chalmation as these were my neighborhoods.So theres lies your mistake as 2 how we talk & we also learn to laugh at ourselves & even laugh harder at folks like you(if U were not born above The Mason/Dixon,U should have been) I really feel sorry 4 folks like U ,consider Lightening Up A-Bit,things are tough,time is getting short,try a little Joy it sure spreads better then the stuff you are trying 2 spread.I also LOVE 2 Pray & I'll be doing quite a-bit 4 U(if U like it or not!) Nailed
I know the bread of which you speak, having eaten it right out of the oven every Sunday morning for about 20 years, slathered with butter and pear preserves.
The closest I've found is Peter Reinhart's Vienna Bread, p. 261, in The Bread Baker's Apprentice. Yes, Vienna, not Paris, but trust me, it comes very close to the French bread made everywhere in Southern Louisiana.
(Oddly enough, none of Reinhart's French Bread recipes come close the the bread you want, even though he has a recipe for French bread in, I think, all of his books. *Crust & Crumb* has several recipes for it. I think he means French bread as in Parisian, not New Orleanian, but not sure. It's a good bread, but not the French bread you want.)
wow.