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Home » Bread » French Breads

French Breads

French BreadsFrench Breads
© Paula Trites

Contents hide
  • 1 Literature & Lore
  • 2 Sources
  • 3 Related entries
    • 3.1 Baguettes
    • 3.2 Ficelle
    • 3.3 French Bread Law 1993
    • 3.4 Miche
    • 3.5 Pain au Froment
    • 3.6 Pain au Levain
    • 3.7 Pain au Son
    • 3.8 Pain Complet
    • 3.9 Pain de Campagne
    • 3.10 Pain de Mie
    • 3.11 Pain Pavé
    • 3.12 Pain Paysan
    • 3.13 Pain Poilâne
    • 3.14 Pain Viennois

French Breads are very hard to imitate exactly outside of France, owing not only to the different flours used in France, but even to the different wheat the flours are made from. (See entry on French Flours.)

Classically, bread in France is made from only four ingredients: flour, yeast, salt and water.

The average person in France throws away 30% of the bread they buy, because it is “yesterday’s” bread. Bakeries in France bin sacksful of baguettes that didn’t sell that day. The average store in France discards around 100 baguettes a day, as their customers will only eat bread baked that day — many customers will even reject bread more than a few hours old.

See the entries on various types of French Breads for detailed information about each type of French Bread.

Literature & Lore

“In Paris today millions of pounds of bread are sold daily, made during the previous night by those strange, half-naked beings one glimpses through cellar windows, whose wild-seeming cries floating out of those depths always makes a painful impression. In the morning, one sees these pale men, still white with flour, carrying a loaf under one arm, going off to rest and gather new strength to renew their hard and useful labor when night comes again. I have always highly esteemed the brave and humble workers who labor all night to produce those soft but crusty loaves that look more like cake than bread.” — Alexandre Dumas, père (24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870)

Sources

Brodier, Joy. Smile and say oui to yesterday’s French stick. London: Daily Telegraph. 11 December 2009.

Sage, Adamn. Gontran Cherrier: France’s hottest baker. London: The Times. 11 March 2010.

Related entries

Baguettes

Baguettes

A baguette is a long, relatively thin loaf of crusty bread made in France. In the 20th century, they grew to take on iconic status as a universally-recognizable symbol of French food.

Ficelle

A Ficelle is a long, cylinder-shaped French bread. A Ficelle has crispy brown, split-top crust, and a chewy interior with air-pockets. It is identical to a baguette, including the production method and the scoring on the top, except it is made...

French Bread Law 1993

Le Décret Pain (1993) Decree n° 93-1074 of 13 September 1993 made for the application of the law of 1 August 1905 with regard to certain categories of breads NOR: ECOC9300130DThe Prime Minister, On the advice of the Minister of State, Guard o...

Miche

Miche is a French word for a large loaf of bread. It is usually round, but can also mean large rectangular loaves with rounded corners. It is sometimes referred to as a large country loaf. History Notes Often in France and in Quebec in the 1600 and...

Pain au Froment

Bread made from wheat flour. A bread entirely from wheat flour will be "Froment 100%." A bread whose flour is ¾ wheat flour will be "Froment 75%" -- the remaining 25% of the flour may be rye, spelt, etc. Some think that "pain au froment" means stoneground...

Pain au Levain

"Pain au Levain" is French bread made from a sourdough starter. It is a dense bread, usually round or oblong, with a very delicate tang to it. The sour tang -- or the acidity ("acidité", as the French refer to it), helps to hold moisture in the bread, ...

Pain au Son

Pain au Son is made with wholewheat (wholemeal) flour. Under legislation, bread called "Pain au Son" must have a minimum bran content of 20%. It is made with French flour type 150 which is a whole wheat flour with additional fine wheat bran added to...

Pain Complet

Pain Complet is a whole wheat (wholemeal) type bread with a medium-fine crumb. It is made with a mix of both French flour type 55 (white bread flour) and type 80 (wholewheat flour.) It is not the same as "pain intégral", whose flour is totally whole ...

Pain de Campagne

Pain de campagne is a big round loaf with a chewy, thick crust. It can be made with white flour, rye flour and / or "farine bise" (aka Farine de Blé Type 80.) These last two flours are mixed in with the white, which remains the predominant flour. It ...

Pain de Mie

Pain de mie is what English speakers would consider regular sandwich bread. It is sold in French supermarkets sliced and packaged. It has sugar in it, making it sweeter than other French breads, but not as sweet as normal North American commercial breads,...
Pain Pavé

Pain Pavé

Pains pavés are French rustic white wheat breads, often smallish, that are usually flattish, slightly rounded on top, and not very tall, so that they look vaguely like a cobblestone.

Pain Paysan

Pain paysan is similar to "Pain de Campagne", but it is made in a ratio of ¾ wheat to ¼ rye flour. Milk is used in it, which gives a finer crumb, a soft crust, and helps the bread stay fresh a bit longer than regular Pain de Campagne.
Pain Poilâne

Pain Poilâne

Pain Poilâne is a round loaf of sourdough bread made by the famous Poilâne bakery in Paris. Its actual name is “miche Poilâne.” Made since 1932, it's only ingredients are wheat flour, sea salt, tap water, and sourdough starter.

Pain Viennois

Pain Viennois is normally made in the shape of a baguette, though the crust is softer than a baguette, the texture is finer, and the taste is sweeter. The loaves will have horizontal slashes on top, and be glazed with milk and sugar before baking. It...

Other names

French: Pains français
German: Französisches Brot

This page first published: Aug 20, 2004 · Updated: Oct 4, 2020.

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Tagged With: French Breads, French Food

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