Friday 29 February 2008

Let them eat "Bread"???



OK, so Marie Antoinette did not say "Let them eat Bread." As we all know she really said, "Let them eat Cake." But, in all honesty the word cake just didn't sound right for this month's Daring Baker Challenge, probably because I didn't bake one, even though I'd a ruther it had been cake.

I've certainly been challenged since joining the Daring Bakers several months back. I've made some pretty awesome, if not alien looking, potato bread, some fabulous Bostini Pies, a lovely Buche de Noel and a gorgeous Lemon Meringue Pie!!!

Cake . . . I can bake! Cookies and pies too! Biscuits are no problem for me either, but bread . . . it is my nemesis.

For years, I have tried and only produced tasty looking doorstops, which the many birds in our garden have more than enjoyed. My ex husband used to produce loaves and loaves of lovely fluffy white bread week after week, which was ardently gobbled down by the five kids, and oh yes, me too. It was lovely. Beautifully fluffy and tasty loaves. Well worth the mess he made when he made the kitchen table dance across the kitchen floor while kneading it.



When I found out this month that the challenge was yet another loaf of bread I was struck with fear. I so can not make bread, but I was determined to "rise" to the challenge. (Every pun intended!)

The Sour Dough's Mary and I Like to Cook's Sara were the host's of this month's Daring Baker challenge. The recipe, Julia's Child's French bread from the cookery book "Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume 2".



My first problem came in reading the recipe which was posted online for all of us. My eyes just couldn't get around it for some reason. Not a problem though, because I work as a chef in a big house for a woman who is as cookbook obsessed as I am, if not worse(can it be possible???), I was able to find a copy of the book up there and photo copy the recipe (all umpteen pages of it) for myself and bring it home to study and work with.

I didn't have pizza stones or baking boards and I was a bit daunted when I read the part about using them, but I plunged in head first anyways and made it to the best of my ability. I have a confession to make now and I am holding my hands up, I did use my bread machine to knead the dough, and for the initial rising. I know . . . the shame of it all. But it did work marvelously!



I really got a bit confused when reading the bits about the shaping and forming of the dough, and I have to confess that by that part I was getting quite tired and so, I confess again. I decided just to make a "Boule" or . . . the lazy woman's way *out* of having to shape French Bread. Besides I was a bit afraid that in moving the dough, which was rather nicely risen by that point, I would somehow destroy the *look* of it and so I shaped the boule onto some parchment paper on my baking sheet for the final rising.

I do have to say that it turned out rather well for this rather inept bread baker and we both really enjoyed eating it. I used the leftovers yesterday to make a rather delicious Meatball Sub Casserole yesterday for our tea, which you can find here on Maries Muses (my other blog) . And, if you are so inclined as to want to try this out for yourself, you can find the recipe for the French Bread in full on the Breadchick Mary's blog,The Sour Dough.



PSSTTT!!!! It was awfully delicious fresh from the oven and spread with some cold butter and peanut butter! (childhood memories kicking in here)

Oh . . . something else I learned this month. Upload your photos right away onto a photo saving site or your husband will think he is doing a good thing and clean up the desktop without telling you and get rid of your best photos. (Can you say "dead man"?) I'm sorry folks, this was all that was left and I only *just* rescued them because he hadn't emptied the garbage that I had left in the photo downloading folder. Phew!!! Oh the shame of it all!



PS - Aunt Fern's Coconut Cookies were the clear winner this week. Look for them real soon and in the meantime, time for another Make Me Bake poll.

37 comments:

  1. Good on you for tackling your nemesis! I was realy tired by the shaping stage and my baguettes ended up a bit wonky and a little bit like an old man's legs. It tasted good though!

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  2. Hi Marie

    Congrats on completing this month's challenge. I am with you - cakes, biscuits, pies and tarts are no sweat, but bread - challenging!!!

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  3. Brava ! I renounced to do this month challenge.
    I read your post and I found myself, apart for the fact that I haven't done such a good looking and tasting bread.

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  4. Hi marie, you cheater you using a bread maker Ha! If I had one around I too would be tempted to use one. Well done and thank goodness you were able to save a few photos.

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  5. My dad used to make the most delicious bread which was so tasty fresh from the oven slathered in butter :D This month was a challenge but the results are worth it and we "rose" to the challenge :D

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  6. aaah it looks great, and with peanut butter!!! yummy!

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  7. I do the butter/peanut butter thing too..shhh. haha

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  8. It looks wonderful MArie. You are a breadmaker after all.

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  9. You used the bread machine? Cheater! Wish I would have thought of it.

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  10. Congrats on a beautiful set of loaves! i'm drooling a bit :)

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  11. Yay! Marie your bread looks beautiful - and I'm so happy you liked it as well!

    Now I'm going to go look at that meatball sub casserole of yours. ;)

    xoxo

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  12. Hooray you "rose" to the occasion and conquered bread! I wish I had thought of cheating with the bread machine!

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  13. Well done for seeing off your bread demons. I trust the birds didn't share any of this excellent loaf. ;)

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  14. I am a master with the bread machine. It is my friend.

    :) Too bad the birds won't get any! It looks wonderful!

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  15. I love peanut butter on top of butter on fresh bread. Now I want to go make the bread again. I had a lot of guests eating my bread up and I didn't get my fill.

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  16. I used to bake my own sourdough back in the day, but seeing this I think I'll have to try the french bread...especially since I just picked up a lovely pizza stone!

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  17. oh yum! your bread looks so light and fluffy. Bummer about your best pics. I've trained my husband to stay away from my laptop or be threatened with a slow and painful death! haha. Great job!
    -Clara
    http://iheartfood4thought.wordpress.com

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  18. So glad you were able to retrieve your photos before they were dumped! And you're about as far from lazy as a person can get. I made boules, too, because they're actually our favorite shape of bread. I'm game to try a different recipe now that my fear of tackling French Bread is semi-over. Yours is gorgeous -- the crumb is lovely (and I ate mine just out of the oven, too!)

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  19. Marie, you've been writing and cooking up a storm this weeks, unlike me. I just had to catch up on your last four posts. The bread looks great and you must be starting to get over your fear of yeast!

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  20. My husband and I have separate computers, and this is one of the reasons! Haha! Well, despite being "garbage" the photos are great! The bread looks beautiful.

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  21. Despite the challenge your results look heavenly! Congrats!

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  22. Sorry about your photos you must be a saint to not throttle the helpful one. :)
    What you had left shows beautiful bread!
    x x x

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  23. Fighting the yeast demons with a bread maker! Good thinking! (And a boule is not the lazy way out, it's a work of art as well) Nice job Marie

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  24. You did a great job facing your demons! The bread turned out lovely and what a great dinner to pair it with!

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  25. I think there's a bread baker in all of us--you did well :)

    j

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  26. I was scared of this one as well. Nice job looks like your bread turned out great!

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  27. Your bread looks great! I did not understand all of the folding to shape the bread either but it turned out pretty good anyways. It was so good just out of the oven with melting butter! I will have to keep the peanut butter in mind for when I make some more bread.

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  28. ha! i would have killed my hubby if he did that! but he knows better now, how precious my food photos are and would never touch them ;)

    great job! your loaves look great!

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  29. See! You CAN make bread!! This one's crumb is perfect (and I won't say a thing about the bread machine)

    Thanks for baking with Sara and I

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  30. Congratulations, you did it! And it was hard to wait before to try.

    Ulrike from Küchenlatein

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  31. You did a lovely job on your bread. I'm so sorry your husband deleted your photos by mistake. However, I'm so delighted you were able to salvage these so we can see all your efforts at making a wonderful loaf of bread.

    Natalie @ Gluten A Go Go

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  32. Uh oh! Glad you had a few pics still left. Good job on the bread...I don't think ANY was is an easy way out with this bread.

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  33. Bread machine!?!?!? Well it looks great anyway.

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  34. Well, those don't look like doorstops to me. Good job! This recipe is not the easiest, and I hope you'll try it again... I hope to, for sure.

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  35. Your bread looks great! Well done!

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