French bread notes

French bread-Non sourdough

2 lg. egg whites whipped to soft peaks

1 cup water

3 cups unbleached bread flour

2 tsp sugar

1 3/4 tsp salt

2 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast

Adapted from Beth Hensperger: The bread lovers Bread Machine Cookbook

1)Mixed dough in bread machine on dough cycle. First kneading 20 min. First rise 30 min. second kneading 20 min. Second rise 40 min.

 2) Put in oiled bowl not punching it down-warm

 3) Put in refrigerator

 4) One hour later carefully moved to bigger bowl since it was already raised to  plastic wrap. I tried to handle it very gently. The warmth had caused it to raise  faster.

 5) 13 hours later removed from refrigerator.

 6) 11:30am Immediately pulled on the dough not much stretch. I was able to fold 1 time and shaped into a ball and put in colander with floured cloth and set aside to rest and come to room temperature to see how it looks and feels.

 7) 1:00pm shaped into a loaf. The skin was soft and smooth. I folded it over and pinched the seam closed and turned it over on to parchment paper sprayed with water and scored. Spayed again and put in 425F oven on an upside down cookie sheet and dumped water in a pan at bottom of oven and closed the door.

 8)After 10 minutes I turned the temperature down to 400F. 

 9)After 15 minutes I brushed with egg white wash and pushed back in oven to finish baking. Baked 5 minutes more. It was already a nice color and the parchment paper towards the back of the oven was turning black. Sounded hollow when knocked on bottom felt light to hold.

 Finished at 1:40pm

Crust a little crispy and a little chewy. Cut when still slightly warm. Taste so much better than my last french bread. Feb 2, 2017 second loaf of french bread. I did notice as it was baking that big bubbles appeared on sides in a couple places. They did go down as baking continued.