French bread

2nd Julia Child's recipe.
a bit of a disappointment really.
It's more Au Pain Dore then Premiere Moisson. It's still nice, but not as sinewy and as chewy as a baguette should be.
the other recipe i used before is nicer. granted, it's fresh out of the oven and needs to rest for 2-3 hours to complete the baking process, but i can never resist fresh baked bread!
it's strange that Julia Child has only one french bread recipe which she uses for a variety of things. or..she just shapes it differently and calls it something else. but if my memory serves me right, a baguette is VERY different from a miche.

mommy: you will like this one i think. crusty and light inside.

HI! back again.
so step 1
dough.

you mix flour, some salt, water and yeast. then after you collect all the crumbly stuff, you turn everything out on to a flat surface. you don't start kneeding first. you take a spade? no..a flat dough thing..and keep lifting and flipping, lift and flip, lift and flip..etc until everything comes together. then you start kneeding.

after kneeding, you leave it for about 3 hours - till about 3 times the size.

julia specifically mentions that bubbles on the surface of the dough is a good sign. so - see the bubble?you then flatten it - not too much. and then do a funny lift thing. you take the nearest side to you, and bring it over to the farthest side. tuck that in. then repeat with your left side, right side and again your nearest side. then you let rise again this time not so long maybe about twice the size. then you slice the dough to 3 portions. see how fluffy it is?
french people have this batonette thing - wher eyou can place the dough in each area so that it can keep its shape. but i don't have that. so you take a piece of cloth, prop it up with a wine bottle/rolling pin..and bunch up the sections. so after you slice your dough into 3 portions. you take the first portion and flatten it out a little more until it's like a rectangle. you take the farthest side, and fold it towards you. flatten it again and fold it again. then you roll it to elongate the dough. you leave it for the 3rd rising which is about 11/2 hours.
then you make 3 cuts on the surface of the dough.

ok. then it goes into the oven for about 25 minutes. you aren't suppose to eat it straight out of the oven as i said before. let the bread rest to complete the baking process. but i don't. :)

so i tore it open - you can see the steam coming out.