Saturday, January 9, 2016

Conquering the French "Boule"

Hello, everybody! For a long time, I've been trying to perfect the "boule", a French bread that's traditionally baked in a round cast iron dutch oven. I've tried it many ways, with several different recipes and I could NOT get it quite the way I remembered it in France. It can be made from any type of flour, with any kind of leavening, but it has a certain crusty exterior. And it MUST be shaped in a sort of squashed ball. 
(wikipedia)
The shape is also the reason a bread maker is called a "boulanger" and a bakery is called a "boulangerie". It's sort of the most basic of French breads and as I said before, I could not for the life of me recreate it in my own oven. I read a lot of recipes that said the trick was "proofing ovens" or pizza stones or organic rye flour or a starter in the fridge for ten days or.... I'd just decided it wasn't one of those things I was going to be able to make on a whim. 
Then my friend Cassey gave me some truffle oil and I wished with all my heart I had some simple crusty bread to drizzle it on. My fourteen year old makes a great French loaf, but it's got that sourdough/nutty taste that comes from the sweet fermentation and I wanted the simple salt bread. But when I mentioned this to another friend of mine (ok, so I was whimpering and wringing my hands), she said that she'd never had a problem with les boules, and we had almost the same oven, and lived in similar climates. I decided to give it one more try, following her instructions. .

Ingredients:
3 cups warm water
1 TBS salt
1 TBS yeast
6 1/2 cups flour
extra flour for the top

Mix the water, yeast and salt together. No need to let it sit for several minutes. Just stir together. Mix in the flour. Let it rise for several hours in a warm spot. Now, at this point you can put it in the fridge for several days, up to two weeks. I actually did put it in the fridge because we ended up going in a different direction for dinner (read: everyone was hungry so we ate).
But the next day, I knew it was time to try for the perfect boule. You can make a large loaf, or several small ones. Since I'd tried larger loaves before without much success, I decided to try smaller versions with a loose foil "oven" wrapped around them.  
The secret to a good boule is NOT to knead or express any of the the gas. Gently take a grapefruit sized ball of dough, stretch the outside and tuck it under, keeping it in a ball shape but keeping the top very smooth. I don't have a picture at the point, but let it rest for another few hours in a warm spot. Right before putting it in the oven, sprinkle with flour and make three vertical slits in the top. 
Preheat Oven to 450F and bake for 40 minutes. 
At 20 minutes, remove the top of the foil. This gives the entire roll a very crispy crust, but the bottom is the crispiest. The American roll is prized for being very soft, but the French love their crusty bread. All the better to soak up sauces!
After removing from the oven, let the bread cool for another two hours. (NO KIDDING. Just when you think you get to crack into it... nope. It will continue to cook and the inside will be set by the time you cut it. No gummy, dense dough inside)
 The bottom of the boules are crispy and dark. One of my kids said, "Oh, the bottom is chocolate!" haha!
 Cutting into the little loaf makes my heart happy because I can hear that perfect hollow sound a crusty top makes when the inside is full of air pockets.... but not too many. (If it was a sourdough, there would be a lot more air pockets, but I'm not very fond of sourdough, tbh.)
 Some home made butter on top and it's ready for a taste test! I drizzled olive oil on mine for the first slice, and added an anchovy to the second. YUM.
 I wasn't sure whether the kids would be excited about this bread as I was since they are, of course, American and raised on soft, white bread and the occasional French loaf. But who can resist a perfect boule with fresh butter?
 This guy, actually. He made pancakes instead. My picky eater did admit they SMELLED good, but now that he's ten, I've learned to accept his taste buds as they are. He still gets his fruits and vegetables, but I won't make him eat crusty French bread if he'd rather have a pancake. Especially if he cooks it.
 So, if you've always wanted an easy, fool proof boule recipe, this is the one! You can always make up the dough for any time during the week, even cooking them one or two at a time.
Until next time! Feel free to stop by my facebook page at Mary Jane Hathaway, my blog at The Things That Last, or my posts at Huffington Post Books.



19 comments:

  1. Drooling just imagining the smell. Another recipe to add to my bread baking quest for perfection.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It really WAS easy. It's just the waiting that people don't like.

      Delete
  2. I'm with Kav as I'm imagining the smell of fresh yeasty bread cooking in the oven. It looks yummy and especially smothered with real butter.

    Kids are cute too. smile

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Looking at all the pics of the boules, now I want to try sourdough so I can have one that's mostly air. I have no idea WHY because I don't even like sourdough! But... now I must. It looks beautiful.

      Delete
  3. Virginia, I've never even heard of this bread! Is it pronounced "bool"?? It sounds divine!! Warm with butter would be perfect. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Right! The first part of boulangerie, the same "bool" sound. :)

      Delete
  4. Oh, I'm craving one now. We're blessed to have some amazing bakeries including Le Pain Quotidien, so I haven't bread in years. When my children were young, we had a play group. One of the mothers was French and she shared a sourdough starter with us. I used to make a divine chocolate chip sourdough that was almost dessert. But nothing beats a crusty loaf.

    Thanks for sharing.

    Oh, and I'd always heard it was the water that made French loaves better.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That was supposed to say - haven't BAKED bread in years.

      Delete
    2. LOL! Haven't bread/bred in years, huh? ;)

      Delete
    3. Cate, just tonight I made some loaves with the water in the bottom of the oven... but didn't put enough in and it had baked off by the time the loaves were done. I think I bent one of my best metal pans! Silly mistake. :P

      Delete
    4. And SO jealous of your boulangerie. We do have a panateria. LOL. Lots of tortillas and pan dulce.

      Delete
  5. Virginia, I don't like sourdough either, it's almost an obnoxious bread... I'm that way with Irish soda bread, too, there's a reason that other breads took over the Western World as we know it.... I love crusty breads! My soft palate does not, and I've got two kids who have the same problem, chips and crusty breads cut their mouths and they end up with canker sores, so I eat them sparingly, but I still eat them. There's something wonderful about that crispy outside folding itself around the soft, chewy inside... And when I make bread for our produce stand, I find that people love the Artisan-style free-form loaves best. And you know why? More crispy crust outside in the ratio to tender inside.

    Isn't that funny?

    I love that your kids have latitude and baking experience with mom! That's cool. My boys all went off to college knowing how to cook.

    This does not mean they did it, but they all still cook now, so that's a mark in the plus column!

    And of course the NYC boys are really health-conscious about what they make/eat/order, they're part of the reason Trader Joe's and Whole Foods stay in business... the suburban CPA is great on the grill and with a roaster.... and the country boy teacher loves his breads, pizzas and pastas and remains in shape, probably because he's busy with his dad on the farm when he's not in school. It's fun to see how differently they all attack the process of being independent foodies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think people who make independent decisions for their body type/ metabolism do the best, health-wise. It's when people force a diet on the general population or say "carbs are bad for everyone", things start to go wrong. I can't eat as much pasta and bread as I get older, but I'd never tell my active teens to lay off the bread. It IS healthy... because they balance it all out with lots of activity and fruits and vegetables.
      And boys who cook can impress those future wives. :)

      Delete
    2. P.S. I totally understand the soft palate. I'm a nibbler with the crust, or if there's a sauce to soak up. Otherwise, I'm afraid of hurting my mouth. My kids just chomp down on it without a care!

      Delete
  6. Eli was craving banana bread today, so I made a couple of loaves between writing sprints and a baby shower brunch. He will come to Grammy's house and know that I love him THAT MUCH. And his little kindergarten heart will be happy. And that's the best thing I know about baking... Making those tender hearts happy.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This looks FABULOUS! I love the way you made your little foil oven - a great way to keep the heat and humidity just right for the crusty loaves!

    I'm trying this soon!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That was my friend's trick. The original recipe uses a dutch oven lid that's removed half way through the recipe, but she found the foil "oven" that's removed half way through the cooking worked even better with our weather and modern ovens.

      Delete