Confessions of a French Baker Read Free Page A

rotating oven with the initial tem
perature at 180°C [350°F]. Switch off, and leave
for forty-five minutes. The edges of the differ
ent levels should be baked separately, as should
the inside of the tower, and stuck on with food
paste.
    La Tour Auet
    Add decorations to represent the cobbles
around the base, and, to celebrate the tower's
centenary, a crown of flowers. Finally, add some
sheaves of wheat to symbolize the baker's profe
ssion.
Et voila.
    The result was a masterpiece, and Roger won his prize. Alas for the tower, it was knocked over while on display in the shop. But the photograph, the medal, and the distinction remain, a tribute to a man's passion for his work.

The Breads, the Recipes,
the Tricks of the Trade
    P EOPLE who are truly expert at what they do tend to suffer from a disarming form of modesty. They make their hard-earned skill or God-given knack sound almost effortless. Nothing to it, really, they say. I could teach you to do it in no time.
    It's a seductive theory, and I have been optimistic enough to believe it on several occasions: horseback riding, computer literacy, rose pruning, omelette making—these are just a few of the accomplishments that I was told I could master by following a handful of simple directions. Each time I followed as best I could. Each time my efforts were crowned by failure.
    Now here I am with another expert, Gerard Auzet, and he tells me that anyone can make good bread.
    “Even me?” I ask him.
    He looks at me for a moment, and I can sense a certain amount of quite justifiable doubt. And yet, finally, he nods. “Even you,” he says.
    He goes on to explain that successful baking is largely a question of using only the best ingredients—
nobles, sains, etfrais
are his exact words (noble, healthy, and fresh)—of arming yourself with some basic equipment, and of having the ability to count up to 56. This is 56° centigrade, the combined temperature of the air in the kitchen, the flour, and the water. For example: If the temperature in the kitchen is 20°C and the flour is 22°C, then the water needs to be 14°C. A degree or so of difference among these three doesn't matter as long as the total adds up to 56. And if your ingredients are as they should be, the rest, according to Gerard, is simple. Alas, that's not quite the case once you cross the Atlantic. In America we have found that conversions to the rule of 56 just don't work, perhaps because of the ingredients or higher temperatures in the kitchen. That's why we specify Fahrenheit temperatures (and American measures) in all the recipes.
    You will need a set of kitchen scales, an oven with a good thick
plaque
, or hot plate, white Type 55 or Type65 flour, 1 table salt, some baker's yeast, and pure water. You are now ready to attack the recipes. These, as you will see, start with the plain classic breads, but also include some slightly more complicated and ambitious variations using herbs and spices, fruit and nuts. Don't let these intimidate you. Once you have the basic baking technique under control, all things are possible.
    “Lepain est I'une desplus belles creations de Uhomme.
”

    1 In this book, for American use, we used King Arthur Bread Flour and King Arthur All-Purpose Flour, half and half.

Bread According to
Gerard Auzet
    G OOD BREAD is one of the oldest pleasures on earth, so if you stick carefully to the recipes that follow you will be in the happy position of making pleasure—pleasure for yourself, for your family, and for your friends.
    The products used in these recipes are all natural ingredients that have been linked for centuries to mankind's food and culture. Many of them were first used in baking generations ago, when peasants who made their own bread took baking a step beyond flour and water by adding other ingredients, among them olives, cheese, thyme, walnuts, bacon, and milk. These were grown or raised on their farms and found their way into the bread, thus adding variety and interest to