7/26/2010 - Pain a l'Ancienne

This is the first bread of many in this book whose name I don't know how to pronounce.  It also seems to be the bread of most significance in BBA.  The book begins with a story about Peter Reinhart's trip to France and his discovery there of this amazing bread.  And so I wondered as I read, what is it about a bread that would make a bread expert stop and say "Wow. This is something special."?  Will I, by following this formula, be able to bake bread that amazing, or is it about more than just a good recipe?  If I did bake bread that good, would I even recognize it as awe inspiring, lacking in bread expert-ness as I am?  And so as I baked this bread, I will admit I was both curious and a bit intimidated.

It was actually one of the easier breads that I have baked.  The dough is made with ice-cold water and, once mixed, placed directly in the refrigerator.  The yeast is not activated until the dough comes to room temperature the next day, which gives the enzymes in the dough time to work on the starches, improving the flavor.  Once the yeast has activated and risen the dough, it is shaped into baguettes and baked on a stone.  My baguettes were cooling on the rack by 10am and ready to pair with some homemade soup for lunch.

We spent our lunch enjoying and analyzing this new bread.  It was good.  But if I was meandering through France, would this bread make me pause?  I don't know.  I don't think I've ever even had a baguette before, so how could I possibly know if this one was great or mediocre?  It was the best baguette I had ever had.  J4 gave it a thumbs up and J5 didn't eat a bite of soup, so focussed was he on the bread.  We polished off three of the six baguettes at lunch, and had another two with our supper that evening.  We made fast work of the remaining two the next day.  Just for perspective, this recipe called for 6 cups of flour, which is the same amount I would use to bake a batch of my regular sandwich bread.  That recipe makes two panned loaves which usually last us at least a week and a half.  So we ate over a week's worth of bread in two days.  So who knows?  Maybe that's what really good bread tastes like.  Either way, we enjoyed it.