Daring Bakers: Julia Child's French Bread

I was nervous about this challenge. First of all, it is my first Daring Bakers challenge, and second, the sheer length of time needed was a bit daunting. I set aside my Saturday for bread making. I started around 11:00am and pulled the loaves out of the oven a little before 7:00pm.

The dough is simple enough. Comprised of flour, water, salt and yeast, I had all the ingredients needed in my pantry, but the recipe, when printed, was over 10 pages long. The techniques for making a beautiful loaf of French bread were mostly new too me. I have very little experience with yeast breads and had avoided using yeast for quite awhile until No-Knead Bread came along. I had several loaves made in my mom's bread machine not rise when I was a kid and was leery of using yeast for many years. After a few successful loaves of the No-Knead variety, I went for yeasted cinnamon rolls for my family and Josh's for Christmas morning. They turned out beautifully and some of my confidence in yeast doughs was restored. I even had fun making them. Bread dough is like Play-Doh for big kids, and you can eat it later.

For this bread, I went for the electric mixer method rather than the hand method because I have a mixer and love it to death. I had also used my mixer for the cinnamon rolls and had some idea of what the dough was supposed to look like in the mixer. The dough came together as it should and I started to feel good about this challenge.


During the first rise, I placed my marked container with the dough in my slightly warmed oven because my apartment doesn't usually get above 65F in the winter. The dough rose well, if a little faster than specified, to it's volume of 10 1/2 cups. My oven was a bit warmer the the specified 70F. The second rise went well too.

The shaping was the trickiest part for me. I wasn't quite sure how to go about it. I went with three small round loaves for ease's sake. My first one was a bit sloppy, but by the second I had an idea of what I was doing and it and my third one looked even with a nice tightness to the dough. They looked kinda cute wrapped in towels in the warmed oven.



They didn't rise as well as I had hoped, but were obviously bigger. Josh wanted dinner and so did I, so I got them out of the oven. A couple slashes across the top with the knife I received from the cooking competition and the loaves were ready for the oven.

I baked them on unglazed quarry tiles I picked up at Lowe's. The only problem, with the tiles was I couldn't fit all the loaves on one rack because only 4 tiles would fit on each rack which wasn't enough area for all three loaves. The bottoms of the two loaves on the lowest rack got a little burnt but they turned out pretty well otherwise.



As for the taste, the bread is salty. Saltier than I expected but should have due to the amount of salt in the dough. Normally, I don't like my bread that salty but I don't think I have ever had a loaf of "real" French bread so I do not know how it compares. I was hoping for a more rustic and crisper crust, not unlike what I can achieve with a loaf of No-Knead Bread, but either my technique or the recipe itself, didn't produce such a crust. The texture of the bread itself is nice; just what I was hoping for.

The first loaf made some excellent garlic bread to go with pasta and the second loaf was used to sop up creamy chicken and wild rice soup. The third loaf is still in the freezer, but may make an appearance during some cheese fondue this weekend or become garlic bread again since Josh was a huge fan of that. I doubt this is a recipe I will make on a regular basis, but it was a good experience. I enjoy a challenge and one that results in bread is not a bad thing.

ETA: Ok, I have now looked at other DBers' breads and many of them got a nice crusty loaf, so it must be me. Maybe I will have to try it again, but start a little earlier in the day.