Fransbröd, is my life a lie?
This is my first post here and it's a question that I've been trying to answer myself online but I can't really find anything.
So, I'm Swedish, and one of the most common loafs of bread in stores is a "Fransbröd", directly translates to "french bread" and it always looks like the picture attached to this post. It's a very round tall loaf with several scores across the top and covered in poppy seeds.
I've been practicing this loaf myself (and getting pretty close), but in trying to get everything right I started googling for recipes, and I can find some Swedish recipes that don't get super close either and I started looking for french recipes or videos and.... nothing.
Is this even a thing that exists in France? :P
How would you try to make this? I want high hydration but then it starts to flatten out, maybe I need a couche and proof it kind of like a baguette?
Welcome to TFL!
"French bread" is the baguette, as far as I know.
"Fransbröd" appears to be a Swedish take on the baguette.
Which do you want to make, the authentic French version or the Swedish version?
It's like Chinese food in America. It's mostly Amercanized Chinese cuisine, not authentic Chinese.
I'd love to take on the baguette eventually as well, but I'm really curious what the origin of the Swedish version is, if there's any "honest" origin to it at all or as you say, a Sweden-ized version of a french country loaf.
Hi,
it is definitely French in shape. It is called pain boulot in France.
But the formula is a bit different from the French bread tradition. That one show by you in the picture has 50g of oil per 1 kg flour and 18 salt per 1 kg flour, the rest is flour, yeast, water and a tiny bit of lecithin. Poppy seeds for sprinkling. French bakers do that too. The Swedish version of French bread is not made from super wet dough. It's medium soft with medium gluten development. .
Traditional French bread dough is only flour, water, yeast, salt and vitamin C, malt, lecithin, soy flour are allowed as dough improvers. Salt content is usually higher, around 22 g of salt per 1 kg of flour. Gluten is barely developed, they knead less than in Swedish version.
Oh wow thank you so much! That’s more than I’ve been able to find anywhere. How do you know all this? :D
I will start researching pain boulot, thanks!
So... "French Bread" is not the same "French Bread" the world over.
Not a surprise, as "all purpose flour" and "bread flour" is not the same around the world either.
ZOMG French Toast isn't even French: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_toast
pain viennois
French Loaf instead of bread and you’ll come up with something similar to your photo sans the seeds. I think it is a regional naming norm, you’ll see the same bread called Italian a couple of towns over.
Does it have a crisp but thin crust and a soft interior? In my USA midwest and southern experience, this kind of bread is called "Italian". It has a touch of oil and maybe a bit of sugar and isn't high hydration. BBA has a recipe, texture is good but I find the flavor lacking.