Okay, I know I’m late, very late, but I made the challenge in time, I promise. The date stamps on my photos prove that. I just haven’t had a chance to post yet. I’m hoping the wonderful Liz and sweet kind Ivonne (our fabulous Daring Baker founders) will forgive me. Is that laying it on a bit thick? Liz is wonderful, and Ivonne is sweet and kind and they are our fabulous founders. And bearing in mind their reminder that this is supposed to be FUN, I took my usual route of thinking that the month was longer than it actually was. In my mind months have about 45 days, yet in this reality I left it to the last (and of course busiest) week of the month to check out the challenge recipe. I knew it was French bread. No problem there, I’ve made that before. But the DB challenge is to stick exactly to the recipe and to get you out of your comfort zone. I hadn’t actually read the recipe yet and I pottered through the month in blissful ignorance.

5 days to go and I came to print out the recipe, and shock horror, realised there were 12 pages of it. Oh no! Am I going to make it in time? Hubris always comes before a fall. Let me just say, at this point, that I am in no way hostess bashing. Au contraire, I think Mary ( the unbelievably talented Breadchick) and Sara(from the great I Like to Cook) have been amazingly dedicated and clearly put in a huge amount of work on this recipe challenge. Thank you girls. I just feel a trifle faint at the realization that once again I have overestimated my time, myself, my will to bake, and underestimated my penchant for last-minute panic.

I sit down quickly before I fall over. Oh no, I’m already sitting down. Thoughts struggle to surface in my oxygen starved brain. Chocolate, that’s what I need. I stagger to the kitchen and dose myself, then put on a pot of coffee. Taking deep breaths I go through my commitments for the week and prioritise. Work, big meeting, very NB. Daughter, always VERY NB. Excercise, expendable. Husband, away. Sleep, over rated. DB Challenge NB!!!!!!!

Right, glad to have that sorted. I’ll just do some work then start the recipe before I go to collect Dakota from school. Whoops, can’t do any work, I’ve used up all the paper to print out the recipe. Back to the kitchen then.

Luckily the actual ingredients are simple and I always have them on hand, so I can get cracking. Following Mary and Sara’s advice, I pour myself another cup of coffee and read through the recipe twice. Actually, it’s just very clear and concise, leaving nothing to chance for the novice baker. My first Julia Child experience. So far so good! Hope rears its furry little head. At this point, insanity rears its much more familiar head as well. I decide that as DB’ing is supposed to be a challenge and I have made French Bread before, I will go the handmade route and give my kitchen aid another day of rest. I’ve gotten lazy and generally leave it to do most of my breadwork.
I measure out the ingredients, bung them in the bowl and mix them around. Pretty soon I have something that looks like this, and this…and this…

I like the nifty trick of measuring the volume that your dough needs to rise to in water, and marking the bowl. I wrap my precious cargo up and leave it to rise. Well that’s used up all of ten minutes and I now have a 3-5 hour wait. Clearly insanity was not the star of the day as making it by hand was dead easy and barely energetic. Buoyed by my clear baking mastery, and a strong desire to avoid hoovering, I whip up a batch of choux pastry for profiteroles and turn the remains of last night’s roast chicken into a soup for supper. Still four hours to go. I guess I really should do some work now.

Just before I leave to collect Dakota from school I pull out the dough, risen to the requisite heights and take a minute to knock it back for its second rise.

Back from school and swimming, The dough is ready to shape. It’s cold so the central heating goes on which makes my kitchen a little warmer than the recipe states, but this is my only deviation, Mary and Sara, I promise. Half an hour before supper and the bread is ready to bake. I slash and spritz with a certain relish, only to discover my pride is once again premature. I’ve shaped long baguettes and do not have a baking tray large enough for them. My baking stone is round and will not take all three, and they’re a little skinny looking for my taste. Time to adapt and improvise. The ends get folded under slightly, giving them a slightly knobbly arthritic look once baked, and one goes on the baking stone. The other two go in my banneton mould (yes I know this is VERBOTEN) , but I did cook one EXACTLY to recipe and this was an emergency as it was the only tin long enough to take the other two loaves. And I did mould them in a flour dusted tea towel. I promise.

Into the oven they go with the timer being set for the several 3-minute spritzes. This really was the most complicated part of the whole procedure as it keeps interrupting my viewing of ‘The Dog Whisperer’.

Worth it though!

I have to be honest and say this was the easiest and most delicious French Bread I’ve ever made. In fact, I made some more on Sunday, and will no doubt do another batch this weekend. The crumb is beautifully aerated, the taste lovely and sour, and the crust crisp and delicious. A salutary lesson in not judging a book by its cover, or a recipe by its length. And not having grown up with Julia child, I think it’s high time I became acquainted.

Once again thanks to Mary and Sara for all their hard work. I have yet to put my name down as a hostess for this very reason. It requires loads of dedication and slog. I appreciate it more in others! As I have repeated this recipe I have managed to distill it down to a page and a half (handwritten) but to get the original look here and here. And don’t forget to check out other DBers efforts. There are so many of them now that I am going alphabetically and trying to do one or two letters a month. I’s a great way to discover new blogs. To all of those I don’t visit, well done and see you next month.

Tags: bread, Daring Bakers, french bread

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