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Pain Façon Beaucaire – Making french bread with only 4 basic ingredients

richard bertinet handmade loaf bread

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.

richard bertinet Pain Façon Beaucaire

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.

richard bertinet handmade white bread

Pain Façon Beaucaire

Recipe adapted from Dough

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.

Pain Façon Beaucaire

I am submitting this to Yeastspotting

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45 Comments

  1. Peachie

    gosh! that’s one beautiful loaf of bread and looks quite easy to bake! Lovely photos too!! 🙂

  2. Richard Elliot

    They 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!

  3. Sylvie @ Gourmande in the Kitchen

    Beautiful loaves and such a nice airy crumb!

  4. fanny

    I 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

  5. Dwiana

    I must say your bread look great, I like the color on your click.

  6. Heidi @ Food Doodles

    Oh 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!!

  7. Sneh | Cook Republic

    Beautiful bubbles! Love the texture, very very nice!

  8. Kari @ bite-sized thoughs

    That first picture is amazing. And you almost make the process sound easy! Great results 🙂

  9. betty

    beautiful looking bread Amy i like your bread posts, they are inspiring!

  10. rebecca

    wow what an amazing loaf of bread your making me hungry

  11. Nami | Just One Cookbook

    Amy, 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

      The secret to making bread is to not be afraid your doing it wrong. Yeast is very forgiving. Slow down and enjoy the process!

  12. TasteHongKong

    Yes, they look sexy! Are you sure you are a novice bread maker : )!

  13. Kulsum at JourneyKitchen

    OH MY GOD. That loaf looks absolutely perfect. So airy. I’m bookmarking this and will be making it pretty soon. Thanks for sharing.

  14. Heaevnly Housewife

    I 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

  15. Trisha

    You are so great with breads. These look utterly rustic and fantastic!!!

  16. Lisa H.

    these babes looks amazing… indeed..very sexy too ;P

  17. yummychunklet

    This looks fantastic! I’m definitely trying this recipe this weekend.

  18. Nancy

    Homemade 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.

  19. Kelsey

    This bread looks great! I love the fact that it only takes about 2 hours to make!!

  20. Tamara

    nothing like a good home made bread. Great recipe! The bread looks perfect

  21. cityhippyfarmgirl

    Look at those gorgeous loaves. Well done!
    Tiny Tea Room Bakery?

  22. Sanjeeta kk

    Wow..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!

  23. grace

    french bread is wonderful and SO adaptable. i love the crusty outside and fluffy innards–it’s hard to beat!

  24. apronless

    hooBOY that looks gorgeous. I’m going to have to try this.

  25. mycookinghut

    Lovely looking bread!

  26. peachkins

    Oh gosh , I hope I get the courage to try baking bread…

  27. Joanne

    That looks super ciabatta-esque to me! Love those big holes.

  28. Vivian – vxdollface

    I have a fascination with baking my own bread too 🙂 but I have never thought of leaving it to rise in the microwave!

  29. Juliana

    Wow, 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!

  30. Karen

    Beautiful loaves! Just like they make them in France.

  31. Kankana

    that is the best homemade bread I have ever seen. Those pockets are so perfectly created. just beautiful and well done!

  32. Von

    I 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!

  33. apronless

    Well, 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!

  34. Julie

    that bread looks amazing! Wish i could have a taste 🙂

  35. Stefanie

    Your 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.

  36. Jenny

    You make bread-baking seem so easy and effortlessly! 😀

  37. veggie mama

    I drool every time I read this post! I should really get my act together and make them. So easy, so delicious!

  38. chopinandmysaucepan

    To me, making your own bread is hard enough, let alone doing it with 4 ingredients and it turns out so beautiful!

  39. Stevie

    I am really impressed with your bread. Gorgeous! It looks very tasty and once you pointed it out, the shape was sexy.

  40. Cherine

    The bread looks AMAZING!!!

  41. mycookinghut

    The french bread looks really good!

  42. Dolly

    gosh that looks even better than the shops!!

    kudos to u!

  43. grace

    what perfect, crusty loaves you’ve made! this bread is precisely what i like to use to sop up meat juices and soup broth. 🙂

  44. Pat

    Great 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!!

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