French Bread

ALTHOUGH I DO NOT consider myself a bread baker, never having formally studied the subject nor worked in a bakery, I do pride myself on the recipe and techniques I’ve put together for teaching French bread making to American home cooks. By following the suggestions in the recipe, your first loaf of bread will be a certain success.

The first step in bread making is combining the flour, water, and yeast to form a dough. Mixing these basic ingredients by hand can be a difficult and mes