A Loon's Spoon Post |
I love French bread and I have almost got the process where I want it - thanks to the Master Recipe: Boule and directions in Jeff Hertzberg's and Zoe Francois' book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.
In the morning I mix 6 cups lukewarm water, 1.5 tablespoons yeast, 1.5 teaspoons kosher salt and 6.5 cups of flour together right in my food storage container.
Then, I cover it and carry it into the Snuggery, this is the warmest room in the house and a great place to let the dough rise for 2 hours. The Snuggery is also my office and a favorite place for all 3 dogs to hang out when I'm working. I am very careful to keep the dough away from the dogs and never leave the dogs and the dough alone - it's just not a good combination and I speak from experience.
After 2 hours or so the container is moved to the refrigerator until I want to use it.
Refrigerating the dough, for at lest 3 hours, makes it less sticky and a lot easier to work with. About an hour and a half before I want to have warm bread I remove the dough from the refrigerator and form it into loaves.
I place the loaves on parchment paper and use perforated French bread pans that my mother-in-law, Gwen, gave me from Williams-Sonoma. Then, they go back to the Snuggery for 40 minutes to rise. After about 20 minutes I preheat the oven to 450 degrees and place a low sided pan, I think it's the oven's broiling pan, on a low rack filled with water. This will create a steam environment, which is GREAT for producing a crisp crust.
The dough goes into the oven for about 30 minutes. First, I brush the loaves with tap water to help with a crusty crust.
After 30 minutes, or so, the bread comes out of the oven and is ready to eat. WARNING: Keep it way far away from counter-surfing Weimaraners. Again, speaking from experience, they have been know to take the whole loaf in the blink of an eye.
I love butter and on this point I agree with Julia. Unfortunately, butter is not part of a plant-based diet.
Neither, is cream.
So, I decided to try one of the butter substitutes that have come out since my last round as a vegan. Earth Balance products have received excellent reviews from the vegetarian/vegan communities.
I think I picked the wrong product. I bought the sticks and they're more of a baking product. It didn't taste so great spread on the bread. Earth Balance offers a number of different spreads and I think that's the route I should have taken if I wanted to "butter" my bread.
You know what? I've ALWAYS been a fan of olive oil. Dipping French bread in plain or flavored olive oils beats butter in my book.
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