Name: Egg Bread
Yield: Makes 1 large round loaf
Cuisine: France
Ingredients: 14 fl oz/¾ cups/425 ml milk; confectioners’/icing sugar (for sprinkling); 1 egg, beaten to mix with ½ tsp salt (for glaze); 2 eggs, beaten to mix; 8 oz/1 cup/250 g butter, cut in pieces; 2 tsp salt; 1 oz/30 g compressed yeast, or ½ oz/15 g dry yeast; 1 tsp rosewater; 1½ lb/6 cups/750 g flour, more if needed

Preparation info

Makes
1
large round loaf

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Great Cooks and Their Recipes

By Anne Willan

Published 1977

About

The following recipe comes from The Perfect Cook, a translation of Le Pastissier françois that was published in London in 1656, making it one of the very first French cookbooks to appear in England. The detailed instructions illustrate clearly the difference in style between Le Pastissier and Le Cuisinier françois – such precision was not to be equaled until the time of Carême, 150 years later.

Put into a Bason, or upon a Table, two pints of fine flower,