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Julia Child's French Bread
Since the recent passing of Julia Child there has been much
discussion of her French bread recipe. Here is my first attempt.
It's a direct method dough, but it uses long fermentation and proofing. It comes close to a preferment. On the left is the just mixed dough. On the right is after the second rise. The blue line is where the first rise got to. Before and after a 2 1/2 hour proof. Flipped, scored and ready to bake. The dough was reasonable light and started to expand when cut. I think I may have pulled them a bit soon. They were nice and brown and light. The crumb opened nicely, but I think next time I'm going to tweak the hydration back up a bit.
The first rise was just over 3 hours. The second was about 2.
As printed, the dough was 87% hydrated. I thought this a tad extreme, even for a baguette. I brought it down to 64%. But the crust was not quite as crisp as I want it.
It's a direct method dough, but it uses long fermentation and proofing. It comes close to a preferment.
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