Saturday 22 January 2011

Bread can be a Pain.

Bread is a thorny subject. But let me tell you that what you're looking at above is one of the best loaves of bread in the entire world!

It comes from a tiny bakery, in a tiny nearby village, that contains an oven which, I'm told, is an absolute bugger to control. Bakers there have come and gone, and loaves have been burned by the cart load. However, the present baker has managed to master the beast, and he now produces a bread that is the farinaceous equivalent of a perfect rib-eye steak.

Good natural organic flour, proper yeast, and a man who respects his craft, makes this bread pure nectar. (I should add that his wife is a 'Phwaaar'; another reason to buy his bread)

Bring ye not gold frankincense and myrrh; one of these loaves with some Roquefort and a wedge of Rillettes d'Oie would top just about anything.


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13 comments:

  1. Come on then Cro, share your secret source.

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  2. I'm sure you know it; Frayssinet le Gelat! Try half a 'gros pain' (2€). A whole one is usually too big. I divide mine in quarters and freeze. But, of course, if you have a big freezer....

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  3. Is it like those French sticks which you have about 3 hours to eat it in before it turns into a pumpkin, Cro?

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  4. I love good crusty bread with a spongy middle. Wish I knew how to make it like that. Mine are always nice and soft, but I'd love to know the secret for the kind you show above. A large part of it probably comes from the oven—stone wall ovens cook with a different type of heat, more moist I think.

    I want to make bread now!

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  5. Bread is my weakness of all food. That looks chewy crusted and I can imagine a slab of butter on a warm hunk of it. hmmm........

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  6. You are so right Amy. It's that quality of crusty exterior with really tasty, yeasty, almost vinegary, moist interior. I wish I knew how to make it like that. I'm told that the dough should be quite 'wet'... Me too; I'm off to make some now!

    Tom. the great difference between Eng' and Fr' bread is that Eng' goes mouldy, whereas Fr' goes hard.

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  7. Good bread...manna from heaven. You can have a love-hate relationship with bread in North America. Canda has some great european bakers...south of the border, it's all been infected with sugar (as best I can figure out) and it mostly tastes awful.
    We have a very la-di-dah department store cafe in Toronto that flies in bread from the famous Poilane bakery in Paris, daily!
    Since being introduced to Jim Lahey's (Sullivan Street Bakery) No-Knead method, we make bread at home all the time. Finding the right flour is key Cro, but it's creating the humid environment with a lidded heavy pan and cooking it in a very, very hot oven that's the secret!

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  8. Right. My dough is now rising by the stove. I'll give it an hour or so. In the meantime I'll crank up the cooker (it takes about half an hour to get really hot). If I am successful I'll let you know; if not.....

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  9. That's what I call bread and cheese! Looks delicious.

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  10. oh how I miss bread in France. There's nothing else quite like it.

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  11. Yum. I'm experiencing bread envy. ((drool))

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  12. I agree - locally baked French bread, with any of the many cheeses from all over France, plus a pot of rillettes is our favourite lunch at our Normandy ruin. But disappointed in you for buying packeted cheese - do you have no local 'cheese-lady' who sells from a van in the market?

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