This gorgeous bread is soft, light as air crumb and the crust is thin and delicate, reminiscent of ciabatta.
By Amy TA
Richard Bertinet’s book, Dough is a fabulous book for novice bread makers like myself. The book concentrates on technique and timing. There are some great informative step-by-step pictures and includes an in-depth 30 minute DVD. The book uses fresh yeast, I was unlucky on my last visit to the local deli, they had run out of fresh yeast and were not getting a delivery until the following week. With some advice from a friend on twitter I substituted it with instant dried yeast. 
The result was glorious. This gorgeous bread was made with only 4 basic ingredients. It created a wonderfully chewy, soft, light as air crumb and the crust is thin and delicate, reminiscent of ciabatta. The whole process didn’t take more than 2 hours. All of the hard work was in the first 30 minutes and the rest of the time the dough was rising in my microwave.
The unusual thing about this bread is its shape. The slit in the middle is deliberate and makes for a very sexy roll of bread.
Pain Façon Beaucaire
- Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
Description
a very sexy bread made with only 4 basic ingredients
Ingredients
- 500g (17.63oz) unbleached bread flour
- 350ml (350g or 12.34oz) water at room temperature
- 1½ teaspoons (4g or 0.14oz) instant dried yeast
- 1½ teaspoons (8g or 0.28oz) fine sea salt
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and the yeast. Add the salt and water. With a wooden spoon combine ingredients until it just comes together. Scrape the mixture onto a lightly floured board and knead the dough until the gluten is fully developed (approx 20 minutes – try not to add more flour). Place the dough into a lightly oiled mixing bowl and allow to rise for an hour in a warm, draft-free place.
- Preheat the oven to 230°C (450°F).
- When the dough has risen to double its size gently push it out to a 6×12 inch rectangle. Brush the top of the dough with some water and dust with some flour. Fold the dough over to make 6×5 inch rectangle leaving 2 inches. Brush the 2 inches with water and fold it back over the dough and seal. Layout a clean tea towl and dust it generously with flour. Lay the dough – seam side down – on the tea towel. Loosely wrap the dough with the tea towel and leave to rise for 30 mintues.
- Unwrap the dough and with a sharp knife divide the dough into approx 6 pieces. Lay the pieces back onto the tea towel, wrap it back up and allow to rise again for another 30 minutes.
- Bake the bread for 12-15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 15 mins
This bread looks great! I love the fact that it only takes about 2 hours to make!!
Homemade bread, still warm out of the oven, is one of the best things in the world! Thank you for sharing this great book and recipe. The bread looks so good.
nothing like a good home made bread. Great recipe! The bread looks perfect
This bread looks delicious! Do you think there is any way to freeze the unbaked dough? Or would it be smarted to fully bake the bread and then freeze? I’m only feeding two of us, so 6 piece of bread…dangerous! :-) Thanks!
I’ve always been wary of making bread and working with yeast but this was a great recipe and a lovely bread to make even for the novice. Many thanks for posting and I plan on making lots more bread!
how much flour and how much water in cups
this bread sounds wonderful
This is just the recipe I need! My sons love bread such as this, and I can’t wait to surprise them after school tomorrow with a loaf right out of the oven! Thanks!
I’m wondering how you shaped the bread exactly…The photo of the three loaves after shaping/before baked, you can see the “line/flour seam” down the middle of the bread. I believe this is from flouring the rectangle and then folding the dough after the bulk fermentation. I baked this bread yesterday, and I guessed that after dividing the dough into 6, you must have turned the loaves onto their side..? in order to see that nice flour seam down the middle. However I think your dough must have been more slack than mine because it stayed pretty upright, whereas yours are more ciabatta looking.
thanks.