Finally, a great New Orleans Po-Boy Bread!
TX Farmer did it again - New Orleans Style Po-Boys. I live 38 miles southeast of New Orleans and have been baking bread for years. Not until this formula have I been able to produce a great New Orleans Po-Boy bread. We call them "French Breads". It seems the rice flour may have been the missing ingredient.
The bread has a crunchy crust with a soft crumb. It is light and airy, but without giant holes. The flavor is clean thanks to the commercial yeast. AND, it can be baked from start to finish in a morning.
Got the taste and texture correct the first bake, but the dough over-proofed. Need more tweaking with the final proof and scoring or not scoring. NOTE - authentic New Orleans Po-Boys are not scored. Leidenheimer Po-Boy bread is considered the real deal by the locals. IMO, this bread is better!
I was sure an image was taken of the baked loaves, but guess I forgot. The loaves sprung well in oven, but the scoring was a mess. As mentioned above, the dough seemed over-proofed. The speed of rise for commercial yeast is often under-estimated by me since sourdough is my usual method.
The method/process is located HERE.
Instructions from the original author can be FOUND HERE.
Interesting - how the bread got the name, “Po-Boy”.
As for the name, during the late 1920's, the New Orleans streetcar conductors went on strike. The Martins vowed to feed their striking brethren for free. When one of the strikers entered their shop, the call went out: "Here comes another poor boy!"
Funny I just had a shrimp po boy for lunch yesterday from our local favorite spot. I’m sure you hero roll was much better. I bet a YW version of this one would be killer.
👀
forward to seeing your final version.
Best,
Ian
Ian, TX Farmer really is a Bread Wizard…
Yeast Water sounds like a great idea. If you or anyone else try this, please let us know. I would imagine that the bread would keep longer on the counter if YW was used. Is that correct?
I think the rice flour made the difference. This bread is better that the Po-Boy bread you get in New Orleans. Since I have a mill, grinding rice into flour isn’t a problem.
If you want it to stay fresh for more than a couple of days you really need to freeze it. OR make toast.
That is beautiful. It is interesting how rarely rice seems to be used in recipes relative to other grains (I don't recall reading one here). I remember talking to the owner of a Vietnamese restaurant where I would get lunch occasionally, and he was lamenting the fact that he couldn't source the type of bread he wanted for his Banh Mi locally, which should be made with some rice flour The only "bake" I've made with rice is dosa, where more rice is added to make it crisiper. Thanks for revisiting this one.
Yes the YW should definitely help it stay fresh longer just like SD. I have to make a new one so it may be a few weeks but I do want to give it a try. A hybrid SD with yeast would also be interesting.
The crumb looks really nice. The texture is what I like as I'm not crazy about large holes. I'd like to see your next bake of this with your tweaks.
Gavin
That bread looks great. The rice is an interesting touch and it cleans the mill stones. I may give these a go. Crawfish, oyster, shrimp, catfish, right out your back door. I never met a Po-boy I didn’t like.
Don
You endeavored to persevere and in the end, you are rewarded! That looks perfect, for one of my hero creations!