julia child's french bread

yup, it's that time again. february was a pretty crazy month for me here in the land of undies. so much working, playing and laundry! oh, the laundry!!! so much laundry and other household stuffs in fact i almost missed this month's daring baker challenge- julia child's french bread. mmm, i love good bread. not so much making it, although derek and the kids love it when i make it for them. i just don't have the patience for the rising times and i hate getting my hands all gooey. thank goodness breadchick mary gave instructions for the mixer.

it's totally amazing that there's only 4 ingredients in this... flour, water, salt and yeast. it's also amazing that just 3 1/2 cups of flour can produce such a huge amount of bread dough!

i did end up kneading it a few times by hand just to make sure it was nice and smooth, as recommended. i was pleasantly surprised that it was so soft and springy and not sticky.

i thought i'd try to make really small batards, and a round loaf. the forming was very easy to do, and i loved the little pop of the yeast gas bubbles when i squeezed the seams closed. hehehe

i didn't have a "canvas" so used a clean tea towel dusted with flour. seemed to work fine as the dough didnt' stick to it. i also didn't have any cardboard (it was recycling day) or plywood, so i just used an extra cookie sheet to flip them over.

thanks to breadchick mary for this month's daring baker's challenge.


we didn't wait the 2 hours for the cooling time. like i said, i'm no good with waiting times! it tasted great with my turkey chilli!

sorry for the short post, but i'm sleepy and full of bread and chilli... check out what other daring bakers have done via the blogroll, and the full recipe can be found here.