Bread Machine Recipe-French
Neana Saylor
I read. I have a West Bend automatic breadmaker with cycles for bacic, sweet,
french, and dough. I had tried a dried starter I purchased at the Coop but it
didn't take (I think my oven light was too hot). I also wrote to the guy who
has advertised here that he has dried starter, but someone stole the starter
out of the envelope and all I got was the page with recipies (the top of the
envelope was slit open!). Anyway, I finally started a starter with 2 cups
flour, 2 cups water and 1 tsp. yeast (it's quick). After letting it do its
thing for a few days, I then fed it and tried it in my machine. I used the
"FRENCH" cycle because it has the longest length for rising and kneading. It
worked very well. Basically, what I did was replace 1/2 cup of the flour and
1/2 cup of the water in the recipe for 1 cup of starter. I will copy the
recipe here in case anyone wants to try it. It has a wonderful french bread
taste. Our Spanish exchange student says it takes just like the European bread
she is used to.
SOURDOUGH FRENCH BREAD
***1-1/2 pound loaf***
1 cup starter
1/2 Cup + 3 Tbsp. water (80 degrees)
3 Cups bread flour
1-1/2 tsp. sugar
1-1/4 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. oleo (butter?) cut in 4 pieces
2 tsp. active dry yeast
Add ingredients in order according to your machine instructions. (I placed the
starter in when the water was called for.) Place bread in chamber, close
cover. Set program select to "FRENCH", medium color. (This gave a nice light-
to-medium color and thick, crisp crust.) Cool on rack before slicing.
This bread rose VERY well. You could probably reduce the yeast to 1 or 1-1/2
tsp. It is also warm and humid here right now, so that may have helped.
---
Neana Saylor "Life is not tried, it is merely survived
Iowa City, Iowa if you're standing outside the fire"
Garth Brooks