New Orleans French Loaves

New Orleans French Loaves
Yesterday I've got Bill's mail (Bill lives in Texas) he wrote me about the New Orleans French Bread:
"...It is from the cookbook Cajun-Creole Cooking by Terry Thompson a chef and food critic who lived all her life in New Orleans. It is the simplest recipe there is and makes the best French Bread with on fancy equipment or ovens. What housewives used to bake every week for their families.." So, I couldn't wait (again..) and I went to my small kitchen to make the dough.It's very warm here in Israel these days, so working in the kitchen, close to to hot oven wasn't a delight...But every new and tasty Bread recipe I find is a great pleasure to me.The same thing was with this Bread ,Somehow this Bread reminds me the No knead bread ,as the dough was very wet and sticky ..same crispy crust more or less, soft inside ..small and larger holes.. but I like this Bread more, and you will not wait a day or more to get your fresh Breads...- soon more.

after 1 1/2 hours
let is rise..it's very soft dough.. I have no baguette pans, so I use my Italian red and new pans.. ..make 2 French loaves, let them rise for an hour... 2 loaves after one hour .. in the oven ... New Orleans French Loaves /Cajun-Creole Cooking by Terry Thompson
"French Bread—the kind with large, airy holes in the middle and a crispy crust that falls all over the table when you tear off a nice, big piece can be created in the home kitchen. In fact, it is simple to prepare and bake. You don't need misters, steam, clay bricks or the complicated procedures often recommended in recipes for French bread. The following recipe was developed for the food processor. The loaves require no intricate rolling and measuring to shape them.
1-1/2 cups warm water (110F, 45C)
1-1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 (1/4-oz.) pkg. active dry yeast (I use 7 gr dry yeast)
about 3 cups bread flour
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon apple-cider vinegar or other mild fruit-flavored vinegar ,
1/4 cup vegetable oil -I didn't use it)
1/4 cup unsalted butter (or margarine), melted with 1/2 teaspoon salt"

In a 2-cup liquid measuring cup, combine water and sugar. Sprinkle in yeast; stir until blended. Let stand until foamy, 5 to 10 minutes.
In a food processor fitted with the steel blade, blend 3 cups flour, salt and vinegar. Add dissolved yeast mixture to flour mixture all at once.
Process 3 to 4 seconds to combine. Stop machine to check consistency of dough. The dough should be wet and sticky with a slight degree of body. If it is too soupy, add additional bread flour, ONE TABLESPOON AT A TIME, processing to blend between each addition, until a wet, sticky dough is formed. Process no more than 15 seconds to knead dough. Pour vegetable oil into a large bowl; oil hands and fingers well. Remove blade from processor, placing any dough which clings to it in bowl. Remove rest of dough to oiled bowl, forming dough into a loose ball. Turn dough over several times to coat completely with oil.
Cover bowl with plastic wrap; let rise in a warm place, free from drafts, until doubled in bulk, about 1-1/2 hours. When dough has doubled in bulk, stir down dough, removing all air from first rising. Position oven rack in center of oven.
Preheat oven to 400F (205C). Lightly grease 1 double-trough French-bread pan, or a triple baguette pan, using some of oil remaining in bottom of bowl. Thoroughly grease hands with some oil from bowl.
To make 2 French loaves, pinch dough in half; lift out of bowl, 1 piece at a time. To make baguettes, divide dough into thirds. Lay dough in 1 trough of bread pan; repeat procedure with remaining dough. Because of its very wet and loose consistency, dough will shape itself. Brush dough surface thoroughly with some butter-and-salt mixture. Loosely cover loaves with plastic wrap.
Let rise until double in bulk, about 1 hour. Reserve remaining butter-and-salt mixture. When loaves have doubled in bulk, carefully remove plastic wrap; brush loaves with remaining butter-salt mixture. Use very light pressure when applying butter mixture, taking care not to deflate loaves.
Bake in center of preheated oven until golden brown on top, 25 minutes. Carefully turn loaves over in pan; bake about 10 minutes more to brown bottoms. Cool completely on cooling racks.
To slice, cut at a 45-degree angle using a serrated bread knife.
Makes 2 French loaves or 3 baguette-size loaves.
-fc
A scientific discovery made by my good friend, Shirley Corriher, led to the addition of flavored vinegar to the French bread recipe. When testing breads prepared according to the age-old, long, slow-rising French method, it was discovered that the dough became acidic during extended and numerous risings. Her conclusion was simply to add acid at the beginning of the bread-making process. The resulting loaves had both the aroma and taste of the slightly soured and yeasty breads of Europe, without the long rising! Try this method with your favorite bread recipe, using as your guide one teaspoon of fruit-flavored vinegar for every three cups of flour. Don't be tempted to add more vinegar; excess acid can destroy the gluten in the flour.
25 + 10 minutes later .. Mixing the dough

Chanita Harel© כל הזכויות שמורות על תכנים ותמונות שלנו התפרסם היום בבלוג האוכל של חניתה הראל ורן This content belongs to Chanita Harel at My Mom’s Recipes And More. All writing and photography copyright © 2005-2010 unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.http://momsrecipesandmore.blogspot.com

Israeli Bread flourלחם צרפתי מניו אורליאנס, ותודה לביל ששלח לי את המתכון הנפלא הזה