February 29, 2008

Julia Child's French Bread

I am officially a Daring Baker!!! :) :) :). For the past few months I have seen Daring Baker entries and thought, wow that group sounds cool, I should join. But I always found some reason not to. Well one of my New Years resolutions is to cook more, so last month I finally sent the email to join. I eagerly awaited instructions for my first challenge, checking my email several times a day. And then finally I got it. Yes!!!

This month’s challenge was French Bread by Julia Child chosen by Breadchick Mary (The Sour Dough) and Sara (I Like to Cook). I have never made bread before so this was definitely a challenge in more ways than one. Thn I printed the recipe & instructions, and my nitial thought was WHOA! The recipe was really simple (only four ingredients) but the amount of the instructions was overwhelming (I think that is why I waited until the Wednesday to make my bread).

Once I started the process I realized that it is really not complicated, just time consuming. It took me about 10.5-11 hours to make this bread (including cooling time). I tried to follow the directions 100% but I really think I kneaded the dough too much as my loaves didnt really rise during the 3rd proof and were a little flat. I had some trouble with the cuts on the top of the bread, the razor was not slicing thru, so I tried my chef’s knife. It worked a little better but I still didn’t get the effect I wanted. Once the timer went off and I went to remove the bread I thought it was a little pale, but once I removed it from the oven the color started to set it (phew!)

Even though you are not supposed to, I just couldn’t resist eating a couple of slices right out of the oven. I love warm bread with butter and this was really good. My intentions were to keep one loaf, give one to my mom and the other to my aunt, but i wound up eating two loaves (yes they are finished) and giving the other to my mom.



All in all I am happy that I joined as this was a great experience, a great recipe which produced some wonderful bread – but I don’t think that I would make this again due to the amount of time it takes.
Be sure to check out the Daring Bakers Blogroll to see more bread!

13 comments:

CB said...

Welcome to DB! I am still a newbie too. Bread looks awesome. Great job!
-Clara
http://iheartfood4thought.wordpress.com

Nikki57 said...

Your bread looks great. Looks better than mine did and I've played with bread quite a few times. Great job and welcome to the group!

Gretchen Noelle said...

What beautiful French Bread! It is great that you challenged yourself to join Daring Bakers! Congratulations on completing your first!

L Vanel said...

Really nice looking French bread!

Mary said...

Your bread looks awesome! Very well done for a first challenge! Welcome to the Daring Bakers!

breadchick said...

Your bread looks great

Thanks for baking with Sara and I

Joy said...

I think the whole point of baking bread is to be able to enjoy it warm from the oven. Enjoy being a DBer!

Lunch Buckets said...

Congratulations!

Unknown said...

Your bread looks great. Welcome to the Daring Bakers!

Sara said...

Fabulous looking bread!

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

Welcome to the DB community. And congrats on successfully completing this challenge. Nice looking bread.

Angel said...

Welcome to Daring Bakers. Your bread has a wonderful color to it. I think you did a fantastic job!!

Madeleine said...

Welcome!!

Your bread looks so perfect!!! congratulations!

 
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