Greetings!

In my recent retirement, I've branched out from a lifetime of family cooking into the realm of baking, specifically bread baking. My goal is to bake french bread from scratch. However, I cannot get over a certain hurdle. Here's my story...

I've tried probably 7-8 different artisan recipes and have made 12-14 different attempts but ALWAYS suffer from severe slumping on the second rise. Remember how you could put a rolled up ball of Silly Putty on the counter, only to return in 20 minutes to find that it's slumped flat? That's what all of my loaves do. I've tried shortening my first rise, switching to very active yeast, kneading more, kneading less, etc., you name it- I've tried it. My loaves turn out wonderfully- egg washed to perfection, gorgeous to the eye, tasty as can be, but none of them are over 2-3 inches tall. They look like glutenized slugs. Help!

Thanks in advance!

Pete

Hello,

This is my first post so I'll keep it short since I don't know if this will work or not. I'm trying to make French bread using Julia Child's lengthy recipe. At first I used King Arthur AP flour and the results were good, but I wanted something better so I bought some French T-55 organic flour. For some reason I cannot get much of any oven spring. The bread is mostly dense and chewy.

I tried several variations of Julia's recipe but there's nothing that I've done so far that has improved the texture. The taste is to die for, the crust is crisp, but the crumb is awful.

Yesterday I made up a batch and put it in the fridge. Today I'll bake that and see what happens. I'm a novice baker but I have read about baking baguetes and I have been to France a couple of times so I know what I'm after in texture and taste.

Dean

Bolstered by my success in baking White Mountain Bread, I finally had the time and the flour to attempt the second recipe in Beth Hensperger’s Bread Bible, French bread, or Pain Ordinaire.

Things began auspiciously enough with a beautifully smelling, light, spongy and almost fluffy slurry.

Since I proofed the yeast in a glass prep bowl, I actually ended up adding the slurry to the two cups of bread flower and salt (as opposed to adding the flour to the slurry; I guess Mom was right about me never following instructions). This didn’t seem to ruin anything, however, and I proceeded to mix the batter into a dough using my trusty and deceptively strong wooden baking spoon.

Just when I thought my arm would tire, (I always mix by hand, partially because using my hands is my favorite part of baking bread, and partially because I use the kneading and mixing process as a way to justify putting melting pads of butter on the warm, oven-fresh bread I’ve baked. All that mixing has to burn off some calories, right?), the “shaggy dough” Hensperger described seemed to form.

I found, however, that I only needed to use 2 ½ cups of all-purposed flour (which I should add here is bleached, though this doesn’t seem to make too much of a difference in taste or texture).

With that, I rolled the dough into a ball and tucked it into an olive-oil shmeared bowl to rise.

I was happy to see that it did, though I worried about the lumpiness of the post-risen dough.

With that, I deflated the dough by gently turning it out on to the table. It let out a satisfying little pphht sound and gently exhaled upon hitting the surface. Knowing I have a tendency to over-work dough (which has resulted in an almost too-tight and compact sponge in the past), I resisted the temptation to sink my fingers into the dough and start kneading.

Instead, I grabbed my dough slicer (super handy with inch measurements on the side) and did my best to create three equal portions. Since I don’t have a food scale, this always gets a little tricky, but I thought I did pretty well.

Covering the hopeful little dough boules with some plastic wrap, I put them back in the laundry closet on top of the dryer to rise.

Forty minutes later, I saw that—clearly—I had not done as well of a job creating equal boules as I would’ve liked.

Still, they looked and smelled delicious, the oven and stone were preheated, and I had loving brushed on the nice egg glaze.

I used the whole egg with two tablespoons of water, even though in the introduction Hensperger does suggest just egg whites for French breads.

It was time for one of the most difficult parts of bread baking: The Transfer.

And naturally, this is where things went a little awry. Despite having sprinkled my peel with what I thought was a liberal amount of cornmeal, the boules stubbornly clung to the wood. I shaked, and shimmied, I scotched the peel, terrified of collapsing the three boules I had worked so hard to shape until finally, worried about the heat escaping from the oven, I nudged the boules in with my thumb.

While the boules didn’t collapse, one of them did seem to crack on the side (see below, on upper left-hand side) as a result.

But, all in all, they looked gorgeous and smelled even better. We gave one to our new neighbors, who seemed to enjoy it, froze one (using both plastic and foil, which I have to admit, does seem to keep it tasting a bit fresher after thawing), and made it through the third in two days. Which is why I don’t have any pictures of the crumb. It was even, uniform, light and fluffy.

Today I baked for my daughters nursery group. Two of the most perfect fluffy and light loaves.

I made the dough yeasterday at 1300 and put it in the fridge ( in a glass blow with a lid on) this morning i heard the top blow off and I knocked down the dough. At midday I cut the dough in half and shaped it.

Im pretty satisfied with the spring of the bread, as this is by far the most succesfull attempt I have made! I can now see why it is important to handle the SD easy in order not to deflate it.

the crumb is soft. Very suitable for toddlers with only a few teeth :)

edit: bread is made from wheat flour, whole wheat, SD, salt, dollop of sirup/oil, salt and water. (and sesam seeds)

I've been trying in vain to bake french bread here in the Philippines and it has never turned out to be anything worth eating. It always ends up yeasty, hard/rubber-like and small! Would shortening the rising time or decreasing the yeast amount work?

Some details:
-instant yeast was used
-slamming was employed for the kneading
-the dough was given 2-4 hours for the first rise, 1-2 hours for the second, and 1-1/2 hours for the final rise
-the typical temperature around here is 36 C or roughly 97 F
-there was difficulty slashing the loaves because it sticks and it doesn't rise much in the oven

I think i'm finally getting the hang of making french bread. I won't say my recipe/technique is perfect, but I finally feel confident enough to share bread with freinds. Here's some pictures of what I've been up to.

I've been enjoying these results, but I can't seem to get an even oven spring. That is, where I slash the dough either pops too much or too little while baking. Any ideas how to get a more consistent pop?

Details on what I actually do: http://wchernoff.wordpress.com/2010/07/24/feel-that-oven-spring/

Hey guys! I'm taking a high school internship course called W.I.S.E. which allows a student to study about and to work in their desired trade. For my W.I.S.E. project, I chose Artisan Bread Baking as my topic.

I have been baking bread since I was thirteen, and I wanted to take this course to further my knowlege and gain work experience in a bakery. Next year for college, I plan to attend Johnson and Wales University, which specializes in the Culinary Arts. I thought that this project will prepare me for my future career, for I am going to be working in an Artisan Bread Bakery.  Also, I found that during this project, I can challenge myself to comlete the BBA Challenge. Starting in January, and ending in May, I hope to bake my way through The Bread Baker's Apprentice.

My brother, Evan, who's 24, and I decided that we would begin a blog to chronical both of our experiences through BBA. Evan lives in California, and I live in New Jersey, and we thought it would be interesting to note the different challenges and sucesses of the recipes.

Anyway, I hope that our blog will interest some fellow bakers, or fellow BBA challenge participants! We'd love to have your commentary, suggestions, or recommendations for new recipes to try!

http://bakingacrosscountry.wordpress.com/

Thank you for taking the time to read!

-Emily (18)

ps. Here is my post for French Bread.

(It might make more sense if you read my W.I.S.E. Project Proposal, as well as previous entries.)

This is my blog entry for Reinhart's French Bread:

I skipped ahead on the BBA challenge. I wanted to go through the book in order, but I didn't have time to bake bagels this weekend. They take two days to make, and I wasn't home enough to bake them. This is a difficulty in bread baking at home-although bread is easy to make, one must tend to the dough according to the starter, risings, and baking, which can be time consuming and inconvenient.

My mentor, Mr. Esteban, enjoys savory breads rather than enriched, sweet breads. I could have moved on to brioche, but I thought he would have appreciated a crusty, slightly sour French loaf more, and I have been itching to try French bread. Also, I felt like I was teasing him about my bread baking- telling him about it, but not making anything for him. I hope he enjoys the baguettes!

Reinhart begins with a pate fermente, an overnight starter which lends the final dough more flavor. It is simple- it combines flour, water, salt, and yeast into a rather stiff dough. I let the dough rise for about an hour, and then refrigerated overnight.

The next morning, I let the pate fermete warm up, and cut it into smaller pieces so I could incorporate it into the final dough. Like the pate fermente, the bread contained the same proportions of ingredients. After mixing with flour, salt, yeast, water and pate fermente into a ball, I kneaded it for about 6 minutes, or until I could easily use the windowpane test. Out of pure laziness, I kneaded the dough in the machine, rather than by hand. I feel more connected to the dough when I knead by hand, but, I was tired and didn't want to dirty the counters.

After the dough is kneaded, it rests for about two hours, to rise for the first time. Then I shaped the baguettes like I thought I should. I spread the dough out, and folded it into thirds like letters. I proceeded to elongate them into their proper shape. However, after making them I went on Youtube (great idea, huh?) and watched the proper way. After folding in thirds, you're supposed to create tension on the outside of the bread by rolling it up in two separate "folding/rollings." Afterwards, you gently seal the bread with the heel of your palm and then proceed elongating. Next time, I guess.

I let the dough rise for the last time for two hours. I do not have a lame yet, so I cut the slits with a pairing knife. On two of the loaves, I cut rather perpendicular, leaving the slashes not very attractive. However, on the third, the slashes were much more pronounced because I used a 45 degree angle.

After I took them out of the oven, I could hear the crusts crackling. I was so excited-they looked promising. After they had cooled, I sliced a piece. The crumb was rather dense, not holey and airy like I imagine a true baguette. I was rather disappointed, but the flavor made up for it-it had true bread flavor.

So, I don't know- maybe I'll make these again. I really like the use of the pate fermente and it was very cool to shape baguettes. However, the crumb was really disappointing, and for taking two days and substantial hands on time, I felt cheapened.

Hello everyone.

My favourite breads to buy seem to be -

Pain champagne du longe, Petit Parisienne and Batards.

Could someone please provide a good recipe for the above please as i am interested in making my own.

Any information is great.

Thank you.

Hi all i am new to the forum and looking for some advice on bread. It might sound like a strange question but will fresh French bread be ok to freeze? Only reason i ask is that we want fresh bread on Christmas Day, therefore i was going to get some French sticks and Pain de Campagne Longue or Batards, etc... Will it be fairly fresh if i were to put it in the freezer as soon as i got back from the shop, and then used on Christmas Day? I would buy part baked ones, however, Ive never seen part baked French Sticks or the Pain de Campagne Longue or Batards, etc... I have only seen part baked baguettes and ciabattas, which i dont really want. Any help or advice is great. Thanks all.

My sister loves dinner rolls/buns. So I figure I'd use it as a chance to really try out French folding. My previous attempts have been somewhat half-hearted. But this time, I thought I’d really do it right, focusing on stretching and trapping air.

For the formula:

Strong Canadian white flour 13.3% protein

75% hydration

0.5-0.6% instant yeast

2% table salt

French folded for 10 mins till smooth (funnily, wasn’t that sticky even at 75% hydration!), then lightly flour the top/counter and form into a ball. Put in floured bowl and rest for 1 hour, 1 fold and rest another 45 mins before shaping (65g balls) then give it a 30-40 min proof. Baked till internal temp reached 208F (around 22-25 mins at 450-500F).

As for steaming, 2-3 mins before putting the buns in the oven, I put in a (loaf) pan of boiling water (about a cup or cup and a half) on the top rack, which I removed about 8-9 mins into the baking stage (didn't mist oven because I lost my trusty spray bottle).

Et voila! It’s night and day compared to my previous breads (using same formula) that were rather dense probably due to my pathetic kneading skills :P Or, maybe I’ve been underbaking all this time? Plus, they snap-crackled and poped while cooling for something like 10 mins. I could hear them at 10 feet away!

Anyway, here are photos.

I'm really surprised what a difference the French fold method made for me with high hydration dough. Thanks to everyone here who have given links and hints on it. For the sake of curiosity, next I will try the exact formula and method with a poolish to see what difference it has on the fluffiness and aroma of the crumb.