Doughgirl8
 Supporting Member (Click to learn more about Supporting Membership)
Home Town: Northfield, Minnesota, USA
Living In: Seattle, Washington, USA
Member Since: Feb. 2006
Cooking Level: Professional
Cooking Interests: Baking, Dessert
Hobbies: Reading Books, Wine Tasting
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Sep. 17, 2009 6:21 pm 
Updated: Oct. 31, 2009 3:29 pm
Seattle has such great bakeries that I almost never bake my own bread. Last week, though, during a spate of cool weather, I got the bread-baking bug. I wanted a nice crusty European-style loaf with a long, slow fermentation to develop the best flavor. I chose the French Country Bread recipe. As… MORE
Pain de Campagne (French Country Bread)
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Loaf in the brotform: I dusted it well with light rye flour before putting in the dough seam-side up
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Risen loaves.
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Scoring the loaf with a baker's lamé, a razor blade with a slight curve in it.
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Baked loaf
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Images (8)
Comments (20)
Tags:  Baking, How-To
 
From The Blog:  Impress-Your-Friends Baking
Honey-Poached Quince Pie
Honey-Poached Quince Pie
Fresh quince
Pain de Campagne (French Country Bread)
Dog-chewed loaf. Bad dog!
  
Pain de Campagne
Sliced loaf: beautiful crumb structure!
Scoring the loaf with a baker's lamé, a razor blade with a slight curve in it.
Risen loaves.
Loaf in the brotform: I dusted it well with light rye flour before putting in the dough seam-side up
About this Cook
I'm a professionally trained baker/pastry chef and also, as a friend would say, an intrepid eater. My favorite foodie character in literature? Ben Gunn, the marooned pirate in "Treasure Island": "You mightn't happen to have a piece of cheese about you, now? No? Well, many's the long night I've dreamed of cheese—toasted, mostly—and woke up again, and here I were."
My favorite things to cook
Laminated doughs. Elaborate dishes that require a day of prep work. Comfort foods, spicy foods, all kinds of food. (Although I am also happy eating a bowl of cereal.)
Recipe Reviews 26 reviews
Sicilian Spaghetti
I can't believe I never reviewed this--it's one of my go-to quick dinners. It's a delicious, savory, simple dish. I brown the breadcrumbs in olive oil and set them aside; then I warm the anchovies and garlic and some red pepper flakes in olive oil. I save about a half cup of the pasta-cooking water and add that to the anchovy mixture, toss that with the pasta, then mix in the breadcrumbs and top with cheese.

0 users found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Nov. 10, 2009
French Country Bread
I loved this recipe. Seattle has great bakeries so I almost never bake my own bread, but if I lived in the middle of nowhere, this might be the recipe I'd use for everyday bread. It had a wonderful spongy texture, mild flavor, and chewy crust. I made the starter the night before, made the dough, and then—because I didn't have time to bake that night—I shaped the loaves and let them rest overnight in the refrigerator and baked them the next morning. The loaves got very slightly overproofed, but it was worth it for the convenience factor. I used whole wheat pastry flour, which is all I had at home, and the result was an almost-white bread that would be great for sandwiches (our bread got eaten too fast to try it with anything fancier than butter); it kept well overnight, too. The dough was very wet, but I just kind of kept kneading it in a mixing bowl, which was more of a flopping-the-dough-around action than kneading...but by the time I was ready to shape the loaves, the dough had tightened up nicely. I baked one round loaf and one in a loaf pan; I used a baking stone and covered the loaves with cast iron Le Crueset-type pans to trap the steam and give them a thick crackling crust. Wonderful!

2 users found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Sep. 14, 2009
Angel Food Cake I
This is a good, classic angel food cake recipe. I had leftover egg whites and creme Anglaise from making a big birthday cake, so I used them up in this light-tasting dessert. My only change was the baking method & temp: I don't really understand the reason for the cold oven. From what I was taught, you want to quickly set the cake's structure and not lose the air you so carefully beat into the batter. I baked the cake in a preheated 350 degree oven and started testing the cake for doneness at about 45 mins.

1 user found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Jul. 13, 2009
 
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