French Bread

Growing up, nearly all our meals included some delicious, fresh French bread.  The crisp crust and light, meltaway insides were perfect compliments to almost any meal.  Cornbread was better with black-eyed peas, Italian bread was better with spaghetti, but French bread was the staple for anything else.

Real French bread, light and airy inside, crisp outside

New Orleans had many different bakeries that mass-produced French bread, but in this case, the words "mass-produced" had no negative connotation.  Every yard-long loaf was perfect, all the time. They were delivered to grocery stores in individual paper sleeves, which were all placed into a large brown paper bag and stood upright in the bakery department, never next to the sliced sandwich breads.  Some grocery stores made them in-house, but they packaged them in plastic bags, which ruined the crust.  Boooo.

Putting French bread in a sealed, plastic sleeve ensures
 that it gets soft and chewy outside and doughy inside.
Yuck.

Here in Texas, "french bread" has neither the shape nor texture of the real stuff.  Closer are "baguettes," but they're still not quite right.  So, my only option was to learn to make French bread.  I discovered it is actually quite easy!  This recipe is done in a bread machine until after the dough/manual cycle is finished, then completed in the oven.
  

This is what French bread should look like inside: full of air pockets, not layered.
And that deep tan crust should be crisp and flaky!

French Bread

Ingredients:

1.5 cups water

4 cups white bread flour (I use King Arthur)

2.5 tbsp. sugar

2 tsp. salt

1.5 tsp. fast-rise yeast OR 2.5 tsp. active dry yeast

In your bread machine, first put the flour, sugar and salt.  Stir lightly and build up the center to a mountain shape.  Make a well in the peak of the mountain.  I guess that would mean it looks more like a volcano - go for it.  Pour the water in around the outside of the mountain shape, and then carefully pour the yeast in the well.  You can immediately begin your cycle (depending on your machine, use the white, French, rapid or delay cycle), or leave it sit until you're ready to mix it up.Once the dough/manual cycle is complete, remove the bread dough and turn it out on a lightly-floured surface and carefully form a long loaf.  You may want to make two smaller loaves depending on the size of your oven.  Do not knead or punch down.   Let it rest and rise for about an hour (it may double in size, which is why you may want to make two loaves).  Preheat your oven to 350.  Brush the loaves with water (which will give a light-colored, crisp crust) or egg white (which will give a more caramel color, still crisp), or a mixture of the two, which is what I usually do.  I just barely brush with an egg-white, and liberally brush with water after that.  Bake for about 30 minutes.  Check often, since ovens vary.  Serve immediately, to dunk into whatever creole deliciousness you've already whipped up -- or make a po-boy!  Actually, po-boy bread is wider than French, but that's a whole 'nother blog post.

Roast beef po-boy, dressed*!

*"Dressed" in New Orleans means "with lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise."