Most debates about baguettes between Francophiles quickly descend into acrimony. People love to reminisce about their holidays, and compare bakeries on ‘rue du this’ versus ‘rue du that’. Before too long, someone will wade in and says the best baguettes, not to mention the best spoken French, can actually be found in Geneva. At that…
A bread couche is a bed made of stiff fabric for shaped bread dough to rise in. It is used for bread that is baked free-standing, not in pans. It helps the dough keep its shape while proofing and rising.
Broad bean flour is made from dried, uncooked broad beans in pods. The dark, tough spines on the bean pods are usually removed before grinding. The classic French baguette contains broad bean flour. The broad bean flour will be up to 2 % of what’s in the flour that is used, which is usually Farine…
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 much more thinly. Generally, a Ficelle will be the same length as a baguette,…
French Bread Pans are two or three long half-tubes joined at the sides, used for baking baguettes in. The assumption in the name is that the type of French bread you want to make is a baguette — because of course there are a zillion other kinds of bread made in France. French Bread Pans…
Poolish is a starter leavener made from equal amounts of flour and water with a small amount of yeast added. You let it rise until it’s about double in size. This should take about 2 1/2 hours tops at room temperature. There are other variations to the recipe, which change the amounts of flour, water,…
Quignon usually refers to the heel end of a loaf of crusty bread, such as a baguette, particularly when torn off. Sometimes people use the word “Quignon” to refer to a thick wedge of bread from any part of the loaf, whether cut or torn off.
A simple, inexpensive take on Beef Wellington
Makes a good lunch with a leafy salad.
This is very tasty with the leeks, but you can use sliced onions instead if you have onions to hand.
