Recipe: Delicious Country French Bread

Country French Bread. You could make this bread, and no other, for the rest of your baking career, and never feel cheated. It uses the sponge, or poolish, method: sort of a poor man's or woman's sourdough starter — no feedings, little pre-planning, lots of flexibility, and superb bread. If you've always wanted crusty, hole-ridden, French-style bread, this is it.

Stir in the whole wheat flour until the mixture resembles a thick batter. French country bread, or pain de campagne, is a combination of white and whole wheat flour, and is typically made with sourdough, but can also be made with baker's yeast. I have a lot of French country bread recipes on this blog, including this one, that takes a couple of days to make, this one , that requires a three to four hour rise, and. You can cook Country French Bread using 6 ingredients and 14 steps. Here is how you achieve that.

Ingredients of Country French Bread

1. Prepare 1 tsp of Active dry yeast.
2. Prepare 2 cups of warm water.
3. You need 4-5 cups of unbleached flour.
4. It's 2 tsp of salt.
5. You need 1 of egg mixed with 1 tbsp of coldwater.
6. Prepare of Oil to grease the pan.

Country French Bread is classic all-purpose bread-great for sandwiches, delicious for morning toast, and a wonderful loaf to set at the center of the table. This is the style of bread that appeared on the table throughout my childhood, and it has never lost its appeal. But with this recipe closely adapted from Paula Wolfert's Country-Style Bread in The Cooking of South-West France - I've found it! It is the simplest of breads: flour, water, salt, yeast.

Country French Bread step by step

1. In a small bowl combine the yeast with 1/2 cup of water. Set aside for 10 minutes until foam starts to form..
2. Combine 4 cups of flour with salt in a large mixing bowl..
3. Add yeast mixture and remaining water to the flour. Using a mixer with a dough hook, knead the dough until it is no longer sticking to the bowl. Add more flour as needed..
4. When dough is no longer sticking to the bowl, set the bowl aside and cover with a dampened cloth. Leave for about 1.5 hours or until dough has doubled in size..
5. Remove the dough from the bowl cut into 4 peices..
6. Roll the dough with your hands into long buns using a rolling, pulling and squeezing technique.
7. Transfer loaves to lightly oiled baking sheets (2 on each). Let rise until doubled again..
8. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and ensure that racks are on the middle and bottom locations..
9. Beat the egg with 1 tbsp of cold water and glaze each loaf..
10. With a sharp knife cut diagonal slits in the loaves.
11. Place a metal pie pan with water on the bottom rack of the oven..
12. Bake loaves for 15 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 400 degrees, switch the places of the pans and bake for another 5 - 10 minutes until loaves are golden brown..
13. Remove from oven. Let cool and serve. Tastes great with butter!.
14. To freeze: once cooled, wrap in saran wrap and keep in freezer until you're ready to serve it..

It's good, chewy, coarse, basic: more European than. No need to be intimidated by yeast with this easy French bread recipe. Nothing beats homemade bread fresh and warm straight from the oven! I ventured into the world of French bread a while back. Line a french bread pan with a clean kitchen towel (a large flour sack towel works well) and sprinkle with a little flour.