Traditional French Bread - yeast only method

Anyone who has ever visited France can testify that what is labeled as « French Bread » in American supermarkets is far, far different from what is sold in boulangeries across France.  One of life’s simplest and cheapest joys (once you’ve paid your airfare!) is to walk into a real French bakery and buy a fresh, still warm traditional baguette.  You can’t get but just a few feet from the bakery before ripping the end off of it and devouring it right then and there.

As a licensed baker, I can assure you that the French have perfected the art of bread baking.  And once you have gotten used to the real McCoy, it’s really hard to settle for less.  My wife, who is French, loves to visit the states, but is absolutely desperate for good bread by the time we get back to France.  In this post I am going to concentrate on this recipe, but in a future I post I will write about the French laws that help you to understand just why the bread is so good in France.

Pain de tradition française can be made in any shape, but if it is labeled to be traditional bread, it can only contain five ingredients: traditional bread flour*, water, salt, yeast and/or levain, which is sourdough starter.

*Traditional bread flour is reglemented to contain no additives. More about that in another post.

By the way, you may read that French water contributes to the quality of the bread. Sorry, this is utter nonsense!  Water quality  differs all over France yet the quality of the bread is constant. When baking bread, a baker thinks in terms of hydration, which is the percentage of water used to hydrate the flour.  For example: a dough that has 1000g of flour and 700g of water is hydrated at 70%.  Disclaimer: I am purposely decreasing the hydration of this recipe in order for my readers to be more successful when kneeding and shaping.  See YouTube video for more detailed explanations.

People often ask me about which salt should be used.  Inexpensive iodized salt is used just as much as sea salt, with no noticeable difference in taste. However, many bakeries use grey coarse sea salt as a way to differentiate between salt and sugar; in a busy bakery, it helps to be able to easily distinguish between the two.  One think to note if you are using coarse salt – be sure to dissolve the salt in the water. 

Yeast is another deep subject. Professionally, fresh yeast is always preferred and is exclusively used in France. Here anyone can buy fresh yeast in a supermarket or even in most bakeries.  Some bakeries keep small 42g cubes on hand to sell to clients and others will chip some off of the baker’s big block and sell it to you by weight.  When I am traveling in the US teaching cooking classes, I usually can find fresh yeast at local artisan bakeries. Being from Texas where there is a large Latino community, I have found local panaderias to be a great source.  It does help that I speak Spanish though!

If you can’t find fresh yeast locally, you can use dry rapid rise or instant yeast. Notice however, that you will use half as much, being that dry yeast is more concentrated than fresh.  Be sure to watch my YouTube video explaining the differences between the different types of yeast and why one is to be preferred over the other!

You can make the same recipe differently according to the ferments and methods used. In this recipe we will use only yeast but you can make the same recipe with a combination of yeast and sourdough starter (levain) or with poolish (preferment method).

Important: using less yeast and increasing fermentation time will always give better results than using more yeast in an attempt to make bread fast.  The best bread takes time! Decreasing the amount of yeast and increasing the fermentation favors flavor development and an open crumb.

Disclaimer: I am purposely increasing the hydration in this recipe to take into account American supermarket bread flour that most of my readership will be using.  If using traditional French bread flour (farine de tradition T65), I would recommend starting the hydration at 64%.

Pain de Tradition Française

Traditional French Bread

Overnight recipe (less yeast, longer fermentation)

Base Recipe

1000g                    Bread flour

70ml                      Water  (66% hydration)

10g                        fresh yeast (5g if using dry yeast)

18g                        salt

Base temperature: 58°C (combined temperature of the water, flour and working environment, used to calculate the desired temperature of the water)

Process by hand:

1.                  Mix the flour and the salt together then pour out onto work surface. Make a well within the flour and add water and yeast.  Dissolve the yeast in the water and then incorporated enough flour into the water to make a paste.

2.           Using the palm of your hand and not your fingers, form a dough by smearing the ingredients    on the work surface then scraping everything back to the center.  Continue doing so until a dough forms (frasage).

3.            Knead by hand* 8-10m until the dough is elastic and will form a “window”.

4.            Place in a large bowl and refrigerate overnight.

5.            The next day divide the dough, preshape it and allow to rest 10-15m.

6.            Shape the dough into desired shape and allow to rise 1 – 1.5h, or until almost doubled.

7.            Score the dough and cook on a preheated metal pan, pizza stone or inside a preheated Dutch oven, for approximately 18-20m at 250-260°C, 480-500°F. If using a Dutch oven, remove the lid for the last 5-8 minutes of cooking.

8.            Allow the bread to cool on racks to finish eliminating its moisture.

*If kneading with stand mixer:

Stand mixer                                                                                                    

                               5m         1st speed                                           

                               3m         4th speed