French Breads

Baguettes

Baguettes © Denzil Green 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…

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Baker’s Blade

A baker’s blade (aka lame) is a sharp cutting implement used to make decorative slashes in bread dough without pressing the dough down and deflating it. The slashes also serve the function of directing steam out of the bread while baking.

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Bannetons

A banneton is a basket in which free-formed bread is put to rise. The purpose is to shape the dough, and to let some moisture leave the surface of the dough.

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Bread Couches

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.

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Brioche

Brioche is a French bread made from flour, salt, yeast and water, but enriched with eggs and butter. Sugar is often added, and the water is often replaced with milk or cream. The result is a soft, buttery, slightly sweet and rich dough approaching the category of pastry. Some recipes will call for additional flavouring…

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Brioche Vendéenne

This is brioche made as a large loaf with pleats called “barres” (bars in English.) It looks a bit like the Jewish bread, Challa. Making it like this is traditional in a western, Atlantic coast region of France called Vendée, especially for Easter and weddings. For weddings, they will even make large brioches that weigh…

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Croissants

Croissants are crispy, flaky individual serving-sized savoury rolls. It’s butter that makes them both crispy and flaky at the same time.

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Farine Levain

Farine levain is a powdered rye sour dough flour used to give breads the taste of traditional French breads, which were made from sourdough. It only adds flavouring, and has no other effect on the bread. Cooking Tips Use no more than 2 to 5% of the total weight of the flour that you are…

Tagged With: French Breads, French Flours, Rye Flour

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 much more thinly. Generally, a Ficelle will be the same length as a baguette,…

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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 of the Seals and Minister for justice, the Minister for the Economy and…

Tagged With: Bread Flour, French Breads, French Food

French Breads

French Breads © Paula Trites 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…

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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 1700s, a woman would bake her bread as…

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Pain au Froment

Bread made from wheat flour. A bread entirely from wheat flour will be “Froment 100%.” A bread whose flour is 3/4 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 wholewheat flour, but though that may occasionally be…

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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, which makes it stay fresh longer than…

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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 the flour. Nutrition Often used for special diets.

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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 wheat flour. Storage Hints Freezes well.

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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 is made from a starter, and…

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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, which have a lot of sugar in them by anyone’s standards. It…

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Pain Paysan

Pain paysan is similar to “Pain de Campagne”, but it is made in a ratio of 3/4 wheat to 1/4 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.

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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.

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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 can also be made as rolls (“petits pains”.) It…

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Starters (French Bread)

French starters for sourdough bread are not one-stage starters. They are two- or three-stage starters, beginning with a starting leavener dough that they call the “chef.”

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Tartine

Tartine is a French term for a slice of bread on which either a spread has been put such as butter, jam, or a piece of cheese. It was traditionally eaten for breakfast. The bread could be toasted or not first. Now, however, the word Tartine is also used to mean a savoury, open-faced sandwich,…

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French Breads

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