French Baguette Recipe | Bread Recipes | PBS Food (2024)

FAQs

What is the traditional food in France baguette? ›

The baguette is one of France's most-loved loaves and is eaten throughout the day. Baguettes can be eaten as early as breakfast time—often toasted, buttered, and dunked in coffee. It's a source of carbohydrates and the fiber necessary to start the day off right! Fruit jam can also be added for an extra treat.

One of the secrets of a great baguette is to start with a sponge (a mix of flour, water, and yeast), which gives the yeast time to mature and combine with the other ingredients, creating the mildly sour and nutty flavors and chewy texture.

Baguettes, either relatively short single-serving size or cut from a longer loaf, are very often used for sandwiches, usually of the submarine sandwich type, but also a panini. They are often sliced and served with pâté or cheese.

First and foremost, the flour used in France is of very high quality. But the major difference between French and an American baguette is the fermentation process. Most French bakers use a poolish process, which consists of a mix of yeast and water that's allowed to ferment overnight.

Baguette or pain courant, which is what we typically call “French bread,” would be more of a commercial style (cottony texture and yeasted) whereas baguette de tradition would be more of the long-fermented style.

Don't use too much force, but do it slowly and gently to prevent the baguette from suddenly cracking in half. Use your canine teeth to bite into the crust. Your front teeth will be too fragile, and the back teeth will not be sharp enough to cut through the crust.

Usually, just breaking off a piece from an end is sufficient. That's the norm at table. Also the norm when bringing the baguette home from the bakery! If it's to be used for a sandwich, then a baguette can be sliced horizontally and cut into however many pieces are required.

You don't slather butter over your baguette. If you must have butter, you can put a pat on a small piece of bread, but not on a slice. No sandwiches!

This thin-crusted variety of French Bread—more commonly known as the Baguette, Po' Boy Loaf or Sunday Cap Bread—is fundamental to the New Orleans gastronomy. Each version of the French bread is slightly different. The baguette is the traditional 18-inch loaf that is served in many New Orleans restaurants.

In France, bakers pay careful attention to where their flour is made and which grains are used in the milling process. The result is usually softer, heartier, and tastier bread than can be found in other parts of the world. French flour tends to be made with a lower ash content than the flour from other countries.

Do the French eat a baguette a day? ›

95% of French people eat bread every day. This is the number of baguettes sold in France every year. That means more than 300 baguettes sold every second, and more than 27 million per day.

Bread & cheese

For soft rind-washed cheeses, such as Camembert, Brie, or Chaource, a French baguette is the best. It provides a tasty contrast of creamy cheese and crispy baguette. Bleu du Vercors, Fourme d'Ambert, and other blue cheeses go well with rye bread.

Of the four main types of baguettes — baguette ordinaire, baguette moulée (moulded baguette), baguette farinée (floured baguette), and baguette de tradition (traditional baguette) — the baguette de tradition is the true artisanal loaf, calling on the skills of the baker as outlined in the Bread Law.

Spraying water when putting the the dough in the. oven helps keep the crust soft to allow maximum. oven spring.

The cool thing in France is that you are free to eat your baguette (and whatever you eat, really) the way you like. So yes, some eat their baguettes in thin slices, while some other just break pieces off. Some others don't eat it and store it to make some pain perdu (lost bread), which I recommend.

Paris Baguette if you don't know, is known for it's baked goods. The menu consists of items like breads, pastries, croissants, and even cakes.

A French baguette de tradition is obliged to respect a number of rules. For example, it cannot be frozen in any way while being made (such as freezing pieces of dough), nor may it contain any additives or enhancers that might be used to facilitate or shorten one or several stages in the cooking process.

How are baguettes made? Traditional French baguettes are normally produced from a relatively lean formula that may or may not contain sugar or shortening. Most French baguette doughs are made with a pre-ferment such as poolish or a sponge which takes up to 10 hours prior to dough making.