Labor of L♥ve - French Bread ~ 麵包初接觸

Third time is a charm. Batard from batch #3.

Getting better; loaves from batch #4.

I would have never thought that I would be capable of baking bread from scratch! NEVER! It is the most rewarding baking experience I had so far! The sense of accomplishment is overwhelming! Thanks to Sara and Mary , my fellow Daring Bakers, they have chosen this bread as the February challenge =)

I am pretty sure most of you are familiar with the breads you see here because it is nothing but the classic French bread! This got to be the most popular and widely available among all breads! Don’t you agree with me?! I always pick up a baguette for lunch at the bakery near school and I would have never thought one day I would bake it myself ~__~ This particular French bread, is a recipe from the legendary Julia Child. The recipe is so wordy (13 pages!) that I was so dumb found by it, I didn’t have the guts to visit it again until a week before the post time >.<




When I first found out this month’s challenge, I was quite disturbed. I don’t understand that something made up of yeast, water, flour, and salt would take up so much time to make! A total of 8 hours! How am I going to squeeze into my somewhat hectic work/school schedule?! Well, I did manage to squeeze in not 8 hours, not 16 hours, but more like 48 hours! Yes, as you can foresee, a novice baker like me would never get this right the first time! This is my third batch! I almost broke down in tears when I finally got them to look “right”! It is a plus to me that they also taste right, crusty and soft just like the one at the bakery but taste way better because I bake it! If you would like to see the recipe that got me so work up then click here.




French bread is good with a lot of things, cheeses, dips, wines, you name it! The choices are endless. Personally, I like to spread a thick layer of brie and eat that as a quick bite before dinner since dinner is always late at around 8:30pm. It is good for grill cheese panini too! For brunch and small gathering, I brush it with olive oil and grill it to make bruschetta(pronounced brus-ket-ta) . Though I can somewhat say I have accomplished my first bread making challenge, I would just head over to the bakery if I crave it next time because I can’t go through another emotion roller coaster ride!

For the French Bread recipe, click here.


Tomato and Basil Bruschetta
makes 2 cups

1 large vine tomato
2tbs coarsely chopped basil
1tsp extra-virgin olive oil
pinch of salt
some freshly grounded black pepper

1 baguette
Some extra-virgin olive oil for brushing

Dice the tomato and coarsely chop the basil. Combine olive oil, salt and pepper in a large bowl then add the diced tomato and basil to the dressing and toss to coat. Allow to marinate for 15 minutes.

Slice the baguette, on the bias, into 3/4-inch slices. Brush both sides of the bread slices with olive oil and place them on the panini grill until golden brown (for oven - place bread on baking sheet and place in oven instead) for approximately 2 minutes. Remove to a platter, spoon the tomato mixture onto the slices, Sprinkle with pepper and serve immediately.