from: Sensible Cooking Cookbook (click here)
4 cups warm water
4 T SAF yeast (click here)
6 T sugar or honey
2 T salt
1 cup oil
10-12 cups whole wheat white flour
4 T Dough Enhancer (click here)
Place all ingredients in Bosch Universal Plus bowl. Knead thoroughly, about 8-10 minutes. Let rise in bowl about 10 minutes, then punch down. Turning on Bosch mixer with dough hook will punch dough down. Repeat 4 or 5 times. Divide dough and shape into loaves or rounds. Place on greased French loaf pan. Slash tops with sharp knife and brush with egg wash.** Let rise until doubled in size. Bake 30 minutes at 400 degrees.
**Egg wash: A basic egg wash will give a shiny, golden look to the crust. To prepare, beat together 1 egg and 1 T of water w/ a pinch of salt.
A footnote to my French bread: You can follow the recipe or you can do what I did! I simply let it rise 10 min., punched it down and put it on the pans. The recipe simply says to repeat 4 or 5 times. It may be the intent was to let it rise between punching down but it worked fine the way I did it.
The French loaf pan keeps the uniform shape. It is a wonderful pan to give you the Italian bread; sub-sandwich look. You are right that the bread will make a round flat loaf if put on a cookie sheet. Will still have the same flavor/texture.
You can use the French loaf pan and make two wonderful long French loaves at a time! (click here to see the pan!)
*Give me a call or email me if you are interested in a cookbook. I can manually lower the shipping cost!
I tried this recipe, and it was delicious. However, I could not tell much difference between my usual loaf and this French bread. It was simply a different shape. Do you have any ideas about how to make a chewier texture, a more open crumb. I did place a bowl of water in the oven and tried to steam teh crust. It got a little crispier, but not much. My family loves French bread and baguettes, and I'm trying to make a 100% whole grain alternative. Any suggestions? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteDoing extra rising then kneading makes the bread chewier and this bread you would want to bake longer to get the crispy outside crust. I have another French bread recipe that I use as well that has the chewy texture. Will post it soon! :)
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