I have always been so intimidated by bread making! Well, the first batch was a total disaster! So, knowing there must be some tricks to French bread making, I researched online. Trick no.1: I found out that by adding natural dough enhancers (1/2 tsp soy lecithin added to the liquid ingred., a pinch of citric acid and a dash of ground ginger added to the dry ingred.) you get a fluffier bread that will stay fresh and soft longer. Trick no.2: kneading and flour qty. I used 5 cups flour. The kneading for 10 minutes is a must if you want fluff in your bread. Trick no.3: let it raise! The dough needs to double (this could mean 15-20 min up to one hour) and you test for doneness by sticking a finger in the middle of the raised dough, making sure the indentation stays and it does not spring back. If it springs back and it is not double in volume, it needs to stay longer. Trick no.4: Roll it thin in the rectangle shape and then roll it up tight forming a thin "baguette". After trying many different ways, I decided my breads looked best when I made my diagonal cuts at this step, then I let it raise again for about 10 minutes. One remark: French bread requires a water wash and baking with steam to come out crunchy, eggs are a no-no on this type of bread. To get the steam, simply put an oven safe container on the bottom shelf of the oven and use a water spray pump to mist water over the loaves twice while it's baking, instead of the egg wash the recipe mentions.
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