Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2

by Julia Child

  13) Canvas housekeeping

  After each bread session, if you have used canvas, brush it thoroughly to remove all traces of flour and hang it out to dry before putting away. Otherwise the canvas could become moldy and ruin your next batch of dough.

  DELAYED ACTION

  Starting and stopping the dough process

  As noted in the Master Recipe, there are numerous points at which you can slow down the action or stop it altogether, by setting the dough in a colder place, or refrigerating or freezing it. Exact timings for any of these delaying procedures are impossible to give because so much depends on what has taken place during the slow-down, how cold the dough is when it starts to rise again, and so forth. All you need to remember is that you are in complete control: you can always push down a partially risen dough; you can slow the action with cold; you can speed it with warmth. You will work out your own systems and the following chart will help you:

  TO DELAY THE FIRST RISING, SET DOUGH IN A COLDER PLACE

  Approximate Hours of Rise at Degrees F.

  5–6 65

  7–8 55

  9–10 Refrigerator

  TO STOP ACTION ALTOGETHER AFTER FIRST OR SECOND RISE

  Deflate, wrap airtight, and freeze. Limit: A week to 10 days, probably more for plain French bread dough, and risky after 10 days for doughs with butter and eggs. (We shall not venture farther upon this uncertain limb.)

  TO DELAY SECOND RISING

  a) Set dough in a colder place.

  b) Set a plate on top of dough and a 5-lb. weight; refrigerate.

  TO DELAY OR FREEZE AFTER DOUGH IS FORMED

  a) Set dough in a colder place.

  b) Form dough on lightly oiled sheet; cover airtight and refrigerate or freeze, but note preceding time limit.

  TO START ACTION AFTER THAWING

  a) Thaw overnight in refrigerator; complete the rise at room temperature.

  b) Set at 80 degrees until thawed; complete the rise at room temperature.

  VARIATIONS

  Other Forms for French Bread

  Long thin loaves (ficelles, baked size: 12 to 16 by 1½ inches)

  Cut the original dough, Step 5, into 5 or 6 pieces and form as illustrated in the recipe, but making thinner sausage shapes about ½ inch in diameter. When they have risen, slash as illustrated, Step 9.

  Oval rolls (petits pains, tire-bouchons)

  Cut the dough into 10 or 12 pieces and form like bâtards, but you will probably not have to lengthen them at all after the two foldings and sealings. When they have risen, make either 2 parallel slashes, or a single slash going from one end to the other.

  Round loaves (pain de ménage, miches, boules)

  When you want bread for big sandwiches or for toast, a big round loaf is attractive. The object here is to force the cloak of coagulated gluten to hold the ball of dough in shape: the first movement will make a cushion; the second will seal and round the ball, establishing surface tension. To begin the process, after the risen dough has been cut and has rested 5 minutes, Step 5, place it on a lightly floured surface.

  Lift the left side of the dough with the side of your left hand and bring it down almost to the other side.

  Scoop up that side and push it back almost to the left side. Revolve dough a quarter turn clockwise and repeat the movement eight to ten times. This movement gradually smooths the bottom of the dough and establishes the necessary surface tension; think of the surface of the dough as if it were a fine sheet of rubber you were stretching in every direction.

  Then turn the dough smooth side up and begin rotating it between the palms of your hands, tucking a bit of the dough under the ball as you rotate it. In a dozen turns you should have a neatly shaped ball with a little pucker of dough, la clé, underneath where the edges have all joined together.

  Place the dough pucker side up on flour-rubbed canvas; seal the pucker by pinching with your fingers. Flour lightly, cover loosely, and let rise to almost triple its size. After unmolding upside down on the baking sheet, slash it as follows:

  Large loaves are usually slashed in a cross: make one vertical slash and complete the horizontal cuts as illustrated. Medium loaves may have a cross, a single central slash, or a semicircular slash around half the circumference.

  Round rolls (petits pains, champignons)

  Cut the original dough, Step 5, into 10 to 12 pieces. After they have rested 5 minutes, form them one at a time, leaving the rest of the dough covered. The principles are the same here as for the preceding round loaves, but make the preliminary cushion shape with your fingers rather than the palms of your hands.

  For the second stage, during which the ball of dough is rotated smooth side up, roll it under the palm of one hand, using your thumb and little finger to push the edges of the dough underneath and to form the pucker, where the edges join together.

  Place the formed ball of dough pucker side up on the flour-rubbed canvas and cover loosely while forming the rest. Space the balls 2 inches apart. When risen to almost triple its size, lift gently with lightly floured fingers and place pucker side down on baking sheet. Rolls are usually too small for a cross; make either one central slash or the semicircular cut.

  THE SIMULATED BAKER’S OVEN

  Baking in the ordinary way, as described in the preceding recipe, produces an acceptable loaf of bread, but does not nearly approach the glory you can achieve when you turn your home oven into a baker’s oven. Merely providing yourself with the proper amount of steam, if you do nothing else, will vastly improve the crust, the color, the slash patterns, and the volume of your bread; steam is only a matter of plopping a heated brick or stone into a pan of water in the bottom of the oven. The second provision is a hot surface upon which the naked dough can bake; this gives that added push of volume that improves both the appearance and the slash patterns. When you have the hot baking surface, you will then also need a paddle or board upon which you can transfer dough from canvas to hot baking surface. For the complete setup, here is what you should have, and any building-supply store stocks these items.

  For the hot baking surface

  Metal will not do as a hot baking surface because it burns the bottom of the dough. The most practical and easily obtainable substance is ordinary red floor tiles ¼ inch thick. They come in various sizes such as 6 by 6 inches, 6 by 3 inches, and you need only enough to line the surface of an oven rack. Look them up under Tiles in your directory, and ask for “quarry tiles,” their official name.

  For unmolding the risen dough from its canvas

  A piece of 3⁄16-inch plywood about 20 inches long and 8 inches wide.

  For sliding the dough onto the hot asbestos

  When you are doing 3 long loaves, you must slide them together onto the hot asbestos; to do so you unmold them one at a time from the canvas with one board and arrange them side by side on the second board, which takes the place of the baker’s wooden paddle, la pelle. Buy a piece of 3⁄16-inch plywood slightly longer but 2 inches narrower than your oven rack.

  To prevent dough from sticking to unmolding and sliding boards

  White cornmeal or small pasta pulverized in the electric blender until it is the consistency of table salt. This is called fleurage.

  The steam contraption

  Something that you can heat to sizzling hot on top of the stove and then slide into a pan of water in the oven to make a great burst of steam: a brick, a solid 10-lb. rock, piece of cast iron or other metal. A 9 × 12-inch roasting pan 2 inches deep to hold an inch of water and the hot brick.

  Nonessential professional equipment

  Instead of letting the formed dough rise on canvas, sur couche, many French bakers place each piece in a canvas-lined wicker or plastic form called a banneton; from this you turn the risen dough upside down directly onto a board and then slide it into the oven. Various sizes and shapes are available in French bakery-supply houses.

  These are bakers’s blades, lames, for slashing dough; they are about 4 inches long and ¼ inch wid
e, with very sharp, curved ends.

  USING THE SIMULATED BAKER’S OVEN

  At least 30 to 40 minutes before the end of the final rise, Step 7 in the Master Recipe, line the rack of your oven with quarry tiles, slide onto upper-third level, and preheat oven to 450 degrees. At the same time set the brick or metal over very high heat on top of the stove so that it will get sizzling hot, the hotter the better.

  Provide yourself with 2 stiff spoons or spatulas, or with fire tongs for lifting brick from stove top into pan of water in bottom of oven when the time comes, and test lifting the brick to be sure you have the instruments to do the job. NOTE: You may use a spray bottle rather than a brick; it works reasonably well though less dramatically.

  When the final rise is complete, sprinkle pulverized cornmeal or pasta on the long side of the unmolding board and on the surface of the sliding board. Your object now is to unmold the loaves one at a time from the canvas to the sliding board, then to slide the 3 of them together onto the hot tiles in the oven. Place the long side of board at one side of the dough, then raise and flip the dough softly upside down onto board.

  Slip the dough, still upside down, from the unmolding board onto the right side of the sliding board. Line up the rest of the dough side by side in the same manner.

  Slash the dough as described in Step 9.

  Place pan of cold water on the lowest rack of an electric oven, or on the floor of a gas oven, add sizzling hot brick, and close oven door.

  The 3 pieces of dough are now to be slid together off the sliding board onto the hot tiles in the oven: the movement is one quick, smooth jerk like that old magician’s trick of pulling the cloth from under a tableful of dishes. Open the oven and, holding the sliding board at the two ends nearest you, rapidly extend your arms so the far end of the board rests on the far end of the asbestos at the back of the oven. Then with one quick jerk, pull the board toward you and the three loaves will slide off onto the tiles. This must be a fast and confident action because if you pause midway, the dough will rumple off the board and once it touches the hot tiles you cannot move or reshape it, although it will come loose after 5 to 6 minutes of baking. You may muff this every once in a while, and produce some queerly deformed shapes, but they will all bake into bread.

  Remove the brick and pan of water after 5 to 8 minutes of baking; the crust will have started to brown lightly. The oven should be dry for the rest of the baking. Total baking time will be about 25 minutes for bâtards; the bread is done when it makes a hollow thump if tapped, and when the crust is crisp and, hopefully, nicely browned.

  SELF-CRITICISM—OR HOW TO IMPROVE THE PRODUCT

  Certainly one of the fascinating aspects of cooking is that you can almost endlessly improve upon what you have done, and when you realize that professional bakers have spent years learning their trade it would be surprising indeed if your first loaves were perfect in every respect. If they seem below standard in any of the following points, here are some possible explanations.

  Crust did not brown

  If you have not used the hot brick and pan of water steam-contraption, you will not get a very brown crust. Or if you have used the brick, perhaps it was not really sizzling hot; heat it 15 minutes longer the next time, or use 2 bricks. On the other hand, your oven thermostat might be inaccurate, and the oven was not really at the required 450 degrees. A third possibility is that your dough might have been under-salted; check your measurements carefully in Step 1 the next time.

  Crust was too brown or too red

  If you were using the brick system, you might have had too much steam in the oven; next time use a smaller brick, or heat it a little less, or take it out several minutes sooner. Another possibility is that the dough mixture in Step 1 got an overdose of salt, and salt affects color; next time be sure your teaspoons are level.

  Crust was tough

  A tough crust is usually due to humidity: the day was damp and sticky, or your kitchen was steamy, and the starch has coagulated and hardened on the surface of the dough.

  Slashes did not bulge open in the crust

  Go over the instructions in Step 9 to check on whether you cut them as directed. On the other hand, it might be that the bread had over-risen in Step 7, just before baking, and the yeast had no strength left for its final push in the oven. Conversely, you might not have let it rise enough in this step and the dough was too heavy to bulge out the way it should.

  Bread seems heavy; no holes inside

  This is always due to insufficient rising, particularly during the pre-bake rise in Step 7. Next time be sure it feels light and springy, and looks swollen, and that it has risen to almost triple its original size before it goes into the oven.

  Flavor is uninteresting

  Again, the only reason for this is insufficient time taken for rising: the yeast has not had an opportunity to produce the slow aging and maturing that develops flavor. For your next batch, follow the timing and temperature requirements particularly in Step 3, for the first rise.

  Flavor is unpleasantly yeasty or sour

  A yeasty over-fermented smell and taste are due more often to the dough having risen at too high a temperature than to its having over-risen. Next time, watch the room temperature at which it is rising, and if you are making bread in hot weather, you will have to take a longer time and let it rise in the refrigerator.

  MACHINE MIXING AND KNEADING OF FRENCH BREAD DOUGH

  French bread dough is too soft to work in the electric food processor, but the heavy-duty mixer with dough hook, illustrated in the equipment section at the end of the book, works perfectly. The dough-hook attachment that comes with some hand-held electric mixers and the hand-cranking bread pails are slower and less efficient, to our mind, than hand kneading. In any case, when you are using electricity, follow the steps in the recipe as outlined, including the rests; do not over-knead, and for the heavy-duty mixer, do not go over a moderate speed of number 3 or 4, or you risk breaking down the gluten in the dough. When the kneading is finished, take the dough out of the bowl and give it a minute or so of hand kneading, just to be sure it is smooth and elastic throughout. Then proceed with the recipe as usual, from Step 3 on.

  PAIN DE MIE

  [White Sandwich Bread—for sandwiches, canapés, toast, and croûtons]

  It is almost impossible in present-day America to find the firm, close-grained, evenly rectangular, unsliced type of white bread that is essential for professional-looking canapés, appetizers, and fancy sandwiches. In French this is pain de mie, meaning that the mie, the crumb or inside, is more important than the crust; in fact the crust exists merely as a thin and easily sliced covering. French boulangeries form and bake the bread in special covered molds; the bread rises during baking so that it fills the mold completely and emerges absolutely symmetrical. The form can be round or cylindrical, but it is usually rectangular. You can easily achieve the round or the rectangular shapes by baking in any straight-sided bread pan or baking dish, covering the pan with foil and a baking sheet, and topping that with some kind of weight to keep the bread from pushing up out of shape while it is in the oven.

  For about 1 pound of flour, making 3 cups of dough, to fill one 8-cup covered pan or two 4-cup covered pans

  1) The preliminary dough mixture—le fraisage. Either by hand:

  1 cake (0.6 ounce) fresh yeast, or 1 package dry-active yeast

  3 Tb warm water (not over 100 degrees) in a measure

  2 tsp salt

  1⅓ cups tepid milk in a measure

  3½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour (scooped and leveled)

  A 4- to 5-quart bowl with fairly straight sides

  A rubber spatula, and a pastry scraper or stiff metal blade

  Mix the yeast in the warm water and let it liquefy completely while measuring out the rest of the ingredients. Dissolve the salt in the tepid milk. Measure the flour into the mixing bowl. Then stir in the liquefied yeast and salted milk with a rubber spatula, cutting and pressing the dough firmly togethe
r into a mass, being sure all bits of flour and unblended pieces are gathered in. Turn dough out onto a flat kneading surface, scraping bowl clean. Dough will be quite soft and sticky; let it rest for 2 to 3 minutes while you wash and dry the bowl.

  2) Kneading—pétrissage

  Start kneading by lifting the near side of the dough, using a scraper or spatula to help you, and flipping it over onto the other side. Scrape dough off surface and slap down again; lift, flip over and slap down again, repeating the movement rapidly.

  In 2 to 3 minutes dough should have enough body so that you can give it a quick forward push with the heel of your hand as you flip it over. If it remains too sticky for this, knead in a sprinkling of flour. When it begins to clean itself off the working surface and draw back into shape, it is ready for the next step—kneading in the butter.