2 envelopes dry yeast
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp salt
2 1/2 cup warm water (105 - 115 f)
7 cup bread flour
1 egg white beaten with 1 tsp water (, glaze)
Directions
Makes 4 loaves
Sprinkle yeast, sugar and salt over water in large bowl; let stand
until dissolved. Stir to blend. Let stand until foamy and proofed,
abut 10 minutes.
Add 5 cups flour to yeast mixture and stir to incorporate. Stir in
another 1 cup flour. Turn dough out onto generously floured surface.
Knead in remaining 1 cup flour. Continue kneading until dough is
very smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.
Butter large bowl. Add dough, turning to coat entire surface. Cover
and let rise in warm draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 1
hour.
Punch dough down. Let stand 15 minutes at room temperature.
Generously butter four 18-inch baguette pans. Knead dough 3 to 4
times. Divide evenly into 4 pieces. Roll 1 piece into 7x15-inch
oblong. Roll up as for jelly roll. Set seam side down in 1 prepared
pan. Repeat with remaining pieces. Using razor blade, make three to
four 3/8-inch-deep slashes atop each loaf. Brush each with glaze.
Let stand in warm draft-free area until dough rises to top of pans,
about 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 450 F. Bake loaves 15 minutes. Reduce oven
temperature to 350 F. Continue baking until bread sounds hollow when
tapped on bottom, about 30 minutes. Remove from pans. Serve
immediately. (Can be prepared 3 months ahead. Cool completely. Wrap
in foil and freeze. Rewarm in 350 F oven for about 20 minutes.)
Bon Appetit
Servings: 4 servings
New Orleans French Bread Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Bread; Breads; French
The History of Recipes
We can read the history of meal recipes way back into the distant past, certainly as far as pharonic Egypt, and maybe further still. However, mostly, these early cook books were just primitive pictorial instructions for preparing meals.
In fact, the oldest recipe in existence, according to Professor Solomon Katz, is a collection of tablets in Sumerian describing the baking of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made anyone who drank it feel `exhilarated, wonderful and blissful`. Later on, in Roman times around 25BC a man called Apicius assembled a number of documents detailing recipes prepared by wealthy Romans. In his publication, Apicius tells us how the meals were separated into starters, main meal and dessert, a style of dining still practiced today. He also recounts how the ancient chefs made use of many spices, including some familiar names such as basil, rue and asafoetida. Later on in the 1400s, the Crusaders brought back a variety of foods and herbs from Arab countries, including coriander, parsley, and rosemary. These new herbs and spices was responsible for an explosion in publications on food, many of which still exist in academic collections. The introduction of the TV brought us TV cooks and the demand for the accompanying recipe books. And that pretty much brings us to the present day and the invention of the internet, permitting us all to search through thousands of recipes like the ones you can find on this web site. |
We hope you enjoy this New Orleans French Bread recipe.
