Pain Façon Beaucaire – Making french bread with only 4 basic ingredients
Carrying on from my previous post, my fascination with homemade bread continues. I am currently in my second week of of nurturing a sourdough starter and it is bubbling away beautifully. I am too impatient to wait to the third week to make bread again so I pulled out this recipe from Richard Bertinet’s book, Dough. This is a fabulous book for novice bread makers like myself. The book concentrates on technique and timing. There are some great informative step-by-step pictures and includes an in-depth 30 minute DVD. The book uses fresh yeast, I was unlucky on my last visit to the local deli, they had run out of fresh yeast and were not getting a delivery until the following week. With some advice from a friend on twitter I substituted it with instant dried yeast.
The result was glorious. This gorgeous bread was made with only 4 ingredients. It created a wonderfully chewy, soft, light as air crumb and the crust is thin and delicate, reminiscent of ciabatta. The whole process didn’t take more than 2 hours. All of the hard work was in the first 30 minutes and the rest of the time the dough was rising in my microwave.
The unusual thing about this bread is its shape. The slit in the middle is deliberate and makes for a very sexy roll of bread.
Pain Façon Beaucaire
Ingredient
500g unbleached bread flour
350ml (350g) water at room temperature
2 teaspoons (5g) instant dried yeast
2 teaspoons (10g) fine sea salt
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and the yeast. Add the salt and water. With a wooden spoon combine ingredients until it just comes together. Scrape the mixture onto a lightly floured board and knead the dough until the gluten is fully developed (approx 20 minutes – try not to add more flour). Place the dough into a lightly oiled mixing bowl and allow to rise for an hour in a warm, draft-free place.
Preheat the oven to 230°C (450°F).
When the dough has risen to double its size gently push it out to a 6″x12″ rectangle. Brush the top of the dough with some water and dust with some flour. Fold the dough over to make 6″x5″ rectangle leaving 2 inches. Brush the 2 inches with water and fold it back over the dough and seal. Layout a clean tea towl and dust it generously with flour. Lay the dough – seam side down – on the tea towel. Loosely wrap the dough with the tea towel and leave to rise for 30 minutes.
Unwrap the dough and with a sharp knife divide the dough into approx 6 pieces. Lay the pieces back onto the tea towel, wrap it back up and allow to rise again for another 30 minutes.
Bake the bread for 12-15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
I am submitting this to Yeastspotting
45 Comments
Peachie
August 3rd at 8:09 pmgosh! that’s one beautiful loaf of bread and looks quite easy to bake! Lovely photos too!! 🙂
Richard Elliot
August 3rd at 8:16 pmThey look like wonderful rustic loaves. Check out the open texture in the bread!
I’m glad that the dried yeast worked out and I didn’t get my quantities wrong!
Sylvie @ Gourmande in the Kitchen
August 3rd at 8:24 pmBeautiful loaves and such a nice airy crumb!
fanny
August 3rd at 8:42 pmI love to make bread too. it’s such a magical thing to me.
this one looks particularly great. reminds me of the michette of my childhood in France. xx
Dwiana
August 3rd at 10:45 pmI must say your bread look great, I like the color on your click.
Heidi @ Food Doodles
August 4th at 3:42 amOh my goodness, that is an incredibly beautiful bread! I love the flour over it and how wrinkly it looks. It has so much character 😀 And the crumb looks fantastic. I’m so impressed. I can’t wait to see more bread from you!!
Sneh | Cook Republic
August 4th at 7:15 amBeautiful bubbles! Love the texture, very very nice!
Kari @ bite-sized thoughs
August 4th at 10:27 amThat first picture is amazing. And you almost make the process sound easy! Great results 🙂
betty
August 4th at 12:05 pmbeautiful looking bread Amy i like your bread posts, they are inspiring!
rebecca
August 4th at 1:47 pmwow what an amazing loaf of bread your making me hungry
Nami | Just One Cookbook
August 4th at 2:08 pmAmy, you are amazing!!! You “just” started making bread, right? I told you… you are so talented! I wish I live near you so you can teach me step-by-step. I really really really want to learn how to make bread considering how much I LOVE good bread. The holes (how do you call it?) in the bread is perfect amount. GREAT JOB!!
Sally A Henderson
November 18th at 3:09 amThe secret to making bread is to not be afraid your doing it wrong. Yeast is very forgiving. Slow down and enjoy the process!
TasteHongKong
August 4th at 2:42 pmYes, they look sexy! Are you sure you are a novice bread maker : )!
Kulsum at JourneyKitchen
August 4th at 11:41 pmOH MY GOD. That loaf looks absolutely perfect. So airy. I’m bookmarking this and will be making it pretty soon. Thanks for sharing.
Heaevnly Housewife
August 5th at 12:05 amI went to Bertinet’s bread class in Bath and it was so inspiring. He is fantastic, and his breads are amazing. You’ve done a beautiful job with this, I think he’d be proud!
*kisses* HH
Trisha
August 5th at 6:09 amYou are so great with breads. These look utterly rustic and fantastic!!!
Lisa H.
August 5th at 11:35 amthese babes looks amazing… indeed..very sexy too ;P
yummychunklet
August 5th at 11:52 amThis looks fantastic! I’m definitely trying this recipe this weekend.
Nancy
August 5th at 12:47 pmHomemade bread, still warm out of the oven, is one of the best things in the world! Thank you for sharing this great book and recipe. The bread looks so good.
Kelsey
August 5th at 12:48 pmThis bread looks great! I love the fact that it only takes about 2 hours to make!!
Tamara
August 5th at 12:49 pmnothing like a good home made bread. Great recipe! The bread looks perfect
cityhippyfarmgirl
August 5th at 2:08 pmLook at those gorgeous loaves. Well done!
Tiny Tea Room Bakery?
Sanjeeta kk
August 5th at 3:30 pmWow..this is what I always love to look out for…a bake which is easy and have few ingredients yet looks delightful. And this loaf has all of them. Lovely!
grace
August 5th at 5:54 pmfrench bread is wonderful and SO adaptable. i love the crusty outside and fluffy innards–it’s hard to beat!
apronless
August 6th at 1:32 amhooBOY that looks gorgeous. I’m going to have to try this.
mycookinghut
August 6th at 4:32 amLovely looking bread!
peachkins
August 6th at 10:32 amOh gosh , I hope I get the courage to try baking bread…
Joanne
August 8th at 2:22 amThat looks super ciabatta-esque to me! Love those big holes.
Vivian – vxdollface
August 9th at 5:14 pmI have a fascination with baking my own bread too 🙂 but I have never thought of leaving it to rise in the microwave!
Juliana
August 11th at 9:52 amWow, your bread looks fabulous, love the texture of it…and rising in the microwave? I have to try this one 🙂
Hope you are having a great week!
Karen
August 11th at 11:17 pmBeautiful loaves! Just like they make them in France.
Kankana
August 12th at 9:54 amthat is the best homemade bread I have ever seen. Those pockets are so perfectly created. just beautiful and well done!
Von
August 12th at 10:09 pmI love the shape of the bread- I’ll have to agree- it’s quite sexy! 😉 The texture of the bread itself looks really good! It’s been quite a while since I made bread like this…..
Btw, those beakers are so cool! I wish I had some for my kitchen!
apronless
August 14th at 3:28 amWell, i made this bread and it’s wonderful. I kneaded it in my KitchenAid for 5 minutes on medium (4) instead of by hand and it turned out perfectly. I’m making again RIGHT THIS MOMENT. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Julie
August 16th at 9:10 amthat bread looks amazing! Wish i could have a taste 🙂
Stefanie
August 17th at 4:04 amYour pain Facon Beaucaire looks great! The Bertinet Book is a great book, not only for beginners. Easy recipes, great pictures, I like it very much.
Letting the dough rise in the microwave is a favorite trick of mine, too. Especially when I need a warm place for the sourdough to rise overnight, then I turn the light on and let the dough open a jar. Then the lightbulb in the microwave heats it to perfect 28°C.
Jenny
August 20th at 11:53 amYou make bread-baking seem so easy and effortlessly! 😀
veggie mama
August 22nd at 9:57 pmI drool every time I read this post! I should really get my act together and make them. So easy, so delicious!
chopinandmysaucepan
August 28th at 11:02 pmTo me, making your own bread is hard enough, let alone doing it with 4 ingredients and it turns out so beautiful!
Stevie
September 1st at 9:21 amI am really impressed with your bread. Gorgeous! It looks very tasty and once you pointed it out, the shape was sexy.
Cherine
September 19th at 4:12 amThe bread looks AMAZING!!!
mycookinghut
October 1st at 7:05 amThe french bread looks really good!
Dolly
October 3rd at 7:11 pmgosh that looks even better than the shops!!
kudos to u!
grace
January 12th at 4:14 amwhat perfect, crusty loaves you’ve made! this bread is precisely what i like to use to sop up meat juices and soup broth. 🙂
Pat
February 1st at 12:35 pmGreat looking bread. I love the big air holes in it. I too love to bake bread it is magic! I must try this recipe. Yum!!