Things about France that surprised me: the importance of bread

Even though I like to make my own bread, I don&#;t make it daily so I will often buy bread from the bakery. And, let&#;s be honest, there&#;s nothing quite like the smell of freshly baked bread, particulaly that French icon the baguette, still warm from the baker&#;s oven.

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Now, if I happen to bump into one of my neighbours with this fragrant bounty, they&#;ll be sure to ask me where I bought it. They&#;ll nod knowingly, approvingly even, when I tell them from whence it came. This may well be followed by a lively discussion on the merits of our many wonderful local bread (boulangerie) and cake (patisserie) shops. The French love nothing more than chatting about food and its provenance.

Of course, in many people&#;s minds the baguette symbolises France. In his book &#;Anthropologie des mangeurs de pain&#; author Abdu Gnaba says of bread:

It is what defines and characterises the French.

So let&#;s take a closer look at this popular and humble food item. According to a September French decree, le Décret Pain, which basically re-visited laws from , , and , &#;traditional French bread&#; must be made only from good quality water, salt, a rising agent and wheat flour which contains no more than 2.8% (in total weight) of bean, soya or malted wheat flours. That means only four ingredients are allowed. There are no additives and only minimal wheat adulterants are permitted. In addition, the baguette must be entirely made on the bakery premises and not brought in from elsewhere. In order to be called &#;tradition&#; (traditional) it can&#;t be frozen nor contain preservatives and additives.

The quality of a French loaf is increased by some, though not all, reputable artisanal bakeries that employ extended fermentation times. When yeast ferments in order to make bread rise it produces alcohol, which provides flavours and aromas. More fermentation time generally improves the taste of bread.

Aside from fermentation, a great loaf depends on wheat, flour and the baker. The first two elements are controlled by the flour mill. I spoke to a couple of my local bakeries and they confirmed they use flour from 100% French wheat that is certified absent of insecticides and controlled for quality between the fields where it grows and the mill where it is ground. The mills abide by the French Ministry of Agriculture &#;red label&#; standard that indicates superior quality &#; controlled for lacking additives and adulterants (such as the adding of soy or bean flours).

Just as local climate and soils form terroir that impacts the eventual taste of wine, characteristics of bread flour depends on local conditions from where wheat is produced. The range varies throughout France. Flours can be reduced to general types (high, medium, and low protein) but the individual taste often depends on non-quantifiable local conditions. To produce excellent bread, however, it helps to have high-quality fresh flour.

Bread is so much a part of French culture that even the word for &#;friend&#; copain comes from Latin cum pane (with bread) meaning the person with whom you break bread. Bread is so important it has a Patron Saint and every year on the feast day of St Honoré, on the 16th May, processions, tastings and other festivities take place throughout the country. But for me an example of how seriously bread is considered is that there is a Grand Prix de la Baguette. Once a year bakers compete in Paris for the title of best boulanger which comes with a financial reward and the prestigious contract to supply the President of the Republic with daily bread for a year. 

So is there a secret to producing a great baguette? Chatting to a couple of my favourite local bakeries, I discovered they all used red label flour without additives, unprocessed salt, a natural rising agent (yeast), a long kneading time at a slow speed (&#;to maintain beautiful colours and all the flavours&#;), long fermentation/resting time (18 hours), &#;delicate shaping,&#; and baking in a hot oven (260C, 500F, Gas mark 10) to produce a baguette with a thin and crispy crust with good aromas of wheat and hazelnuts.

The French are very loyal to their favourite boulangerie which may not necessarily be the closest, going well out of their way to buy what they consider the best bread. I buy mine from a variety of bakeries based on the type of loaf I&#;m buying. I have a couple of favourites which only sell sourdough bread, another which sells a spelt loaf which I adore, plus one, is both a boulangerie and patisserie, selling a wide range of baked goods, home-made ice cream, chocolates and divine cakes, as well as a wide-range of different breads.

How the French treat their bread

1. Dip it in their tea or coffee

Typically, they&#;ll slather a hunk of baguette (tartine) with butter and jam and then dip it directly into their coffee.

2. Never put it on a side plate

The French never set bread on a side plate, just on the table next to their plate.

3. Clean their plates with it

The bread is used to mop up those delicious sauces and clean the cutlery between courses.

4. Carry it under their armpits

The bakery will typically wrap a baguette in a piece of paper. You need to buy many more to get a large paper bag. Consequently, everyone carries it under their arm. So much easier for 5 below.

4. Put lumps of chocolate in it

For most foreigners chocolate and bread  &#; have they never heard of chocolate bread and butter pudding? &#; just don&#;t go together unless Nutella is involved, but the French take it to a new level. They stick squares of quality chocolate into their baguette, creating a makeshift baguette au chocolate.

5. Nibble the end of it on the street

The French are typically scandalised by the idea of eating while walking, but for their beloved baguette, they make an exception. It&#;s apparently impossible for them to resist breaking off one of the tips and gnawing on the end of that warm, fresh baguette on the way home.  You&#;ll often see Mums nibbling on one end while their children nibble on the other.

6. Eat it with absolutely everything

Would you like some bread with your bread? In France, the answer is always oui. Even if you order a bread-based dish like a croque monsieur, you&#;ll get a little basket of sliced baguette to accompany it.

7. Sell them in vending machines

For those emergency situations when you&#;ve lost your mind completely and forgotten to stop by the bakery before it closes. The baguettes are slightly undercooked before being put in the machine, then the machine finishes them off and pops them out them crisp and warm. Genius or sacrilege?

8. Eat it with cheese

Isn&#;t it common knowledge that cheese is meant to be eaten with crackers? Well okay, maybe the French can have this one. There really is nothing better than some creamy camembert paired with a perfect crunchy-on-the-outside, fluffy-on-the-inside baguette. Best keep your crackers to yourself if you don&#;t want to commit another almighty dough pas.

9. Make the world&#;s longest one

Leave it to the French to break the Guinness World Record for longest baguette, at a whopping 120 meters. Actually, they had some help from the Italians too. And, of course, the massive baguette was promptly slathered with Nutella. 

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The quintessential French baguette speaks of time, care and
craftsmanship. It&#;s caramel-coloured, crumbly crust and fluffy middle
rippled with airy holes is a testament to skilled bakers who spend years
honing their ability to shape, fold and score the dough to perfect
proportions.

The quintessential French baguette speaks of time, care and craftsmanship. It&#;s caramel-coloured, crumbly crust and fluffy middle rippled with airy holes is a testament to skilled bakers who spend years honing their ability to shape, fold and score the dough to perfect proportions. Despite the simplicity of its four ingredients &#; flour, water, salt and yeast &#; the fermentation and baking process is complex, requiring the baker to take into account the weather outside, the temperature within the bakery and the feeling of the dough.

Cliff Leir of Fol Epi bakery with some fresh baguettes. All photos courtesy of Fol Epi bakery

Once an unstoppable staple in France, the baguette has taken a hit in recent years with the average French person eating only half a baguette a day compared with nearly a whole baguette in (and more than three a century ago). Despite dipping sales in its homeland, the baguette&#;s versatility has made it a fan favourite around the world. Whether it&#;s served as an accompaniment to soups and salads, paired with fine cheeses, or used as the foundation for deserving sandwiches, the baguette is beloved by consumers and has earned its place on bakery shelves.

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IT&#;S ABOUT TIME
The most important component in achieving the perfect French baguette is time. For the past 18 years Louis Andre Joyal has been crafting noteworthy baguettes at La Petite Boulangerie, a Montreal bakery that he co-owns with wife Sylvie Boissonneault. The bakery makes between 1,500 and 1,700 baguettes per week.

Preparing the dough.

&#;I make the dough the day before I&#;m using it for cooking,&#; says Joyal. &#;This way is better because I&#;m using less yeast and longer fermentation time. The baguettes stay in the fridge at eight degrees Celsius for 16 to 18 hours and that&#;s what gives more flavour.&#;

Cliff Leir, proprietor of the popular Fol Epi bakery in Victoria, B.C., agrees that time is crucial when it comes to baguettes. &#;We have a 15-hour fermentation time,&#; says Leir. &#;This allows for enzyme development which breaks down starch structure. In that breaking down there are various labour components &#; wild yeast, lactic acid production &#; so, in short, it&#;s flavour and texture development.&#;

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If one is tempted to rush the process, be warned, the result will be a dense baguette that&#;s seriously lacking in flavour. Bonjour Brioche in Toronto, Ont., has been serving up mouth-watering French baguettes for 17 years. Henri Feasson co-owns the bakery-restaurant with his wife Lori and they sell about 240 baguettes on an average Saturday.

&#;The inside of the baguette should be fluffy with some holes and when you taste it you should taste the flavour and the time,&#; explains Feasson. &#;You can see the bread has been rested. If you see holes in the dough when you cut it then you&#;ve done a good job. If it&#;s too dense then it hasn&#;t been proofed enough and had the time to relax. It&#;s basically all about time.&#;

TAKING SHAPE
Gluten is an important component in a great baguette and is also the reason why baguettes must be shaped twice.

Rolling

&#;You can&#;t just shape it because the gluten will shrink back like an elastic band, so you have to shape it twice and then put it on the trays,&#; says Feasson. &#;The flour has to be a strong wheat flour that&#;s rich in glutens. That&#;s what makes your baguette beautiful. Technically, I don&#;t think anybody can make a baguette or French bread without gluten. It wouldn&#;t rise; it would only be flat bread.&#;

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Leir uses Red Fife wheat, a type of wheat that set the standard for Canadian wheat cultivation back in the mid-s. Sourced from a farmer in Saskatchewan, Leir mills the wheat at his bakery, which is indicative of his &#;slow food&#; beliefs and only adds to the flavour of a great product.

&#;Baguettes are one of the harder breads to learn to fold,&#; Leir explains. &#;It always takes a couple months of doing baguettes every day for people to get the right technique. Mixing it to just the right point, having the right kind of flour. While the dough is fermenting we fold it and dump it in one large piece instead of stretching and mutilating it. It needs to be in an oblong shape without breaks so there&#;s no break in the gluten structure.&#;

TAKING SHAPE
Shaping the dough into its characteristic oblong shape requires time, patience and practice. Each baguette should measure 350 grams before baking, which will fall to roughly 300 grams after baking. Joyal&#;s step-by-step process for achieving one of the top-rated artisanal baguettes in Montreal (as determined by the Montreal Gazette) is this: &#;When we arrive at 12 a.m. we put the dough out for one hour. Then we cut it into a rectangular shape just a little bit. We take the top of the rectangle and put it at the bottom just to make a nice tube and then we let it rest for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes we continue to make the shape of the baguette. The rectangle is folded in one, and the second time we put it in two and make it a bit longer. At that point we let it rest for 45 minutes or until it&#;s ready, depending on the temperature of the bakery and if it&#;s winter or summer. It&#;s not us who decides when the baguette should be cooked; it&#;s the baguette that decides.&#;

 The proofing stage

Slashing the baguettes

Before going into the oven, the baguette must be adorned with its signature scoring marks. It is here that bakers can express their style.

&#;The cuts are the signature of the baker,&#; says Joyal. &#;Some make three, some make five or even seven cuts, but for me, to have a nice development of the baguette, three to five cuts are good.&#;

Leir explains that proper scoring adds a depth of flavour, making the baguette crunchy and delicious: &#;It&#;s a technique with a curved razor that runs parallel under the surface of the baguette. It&#;s shallow and there are usually five cuts and each slash should overlap the other one by a third.&#;

With the lengthy process nearing completion, the baguette is ready for baking. Depending on the oven, baking temperatures range from 240 to 260 degrees Celsius for approximately 20 minutes. During the first five minutes of cooking time, the bread must be steamed in order to get a delightfully crunchy crust.

&#;For the first five minutes of cooking we put humidity inside to allow the baguette to expand,&#; says Joyal. &#;The humidity wets the dough to make the baguette expand and then the water with the dough will make the caramel colour. Then we open the door of the oven to let the humidity out and make it dry so the crust will finish.&#;

FEELING YOUR WAY
For many bakers, the process of creating baguettes has as much to do with &#;feeling&#; as with following a series of steps. Each day may call for a slight alteration to the process. For Joyal, even emotions can have an effect on the final product.

The finished product: crumb and crust details

&#;It&#;s a question of feeling: feeling the dough, feeling the temperature, how you are feeling when you&#;re making it. When we&#;re baking, the end product is an extension of our mind,&#; he explains.

Even for an experienced baker like Joyal, things can sometimes go awry. &#;It&#;s a surprise every day when we make bread. It&#;s not because we don&#;t know what we&#;re doing. It&#;s because a baker needs to be on his toes every day. When we open the fridge to pull out the dough, it&#;s a surprise. When we put the bread in the oven, it&#;s still a surprise. After 18 years, it&#;s still a surprise. I don&#;t know any baker who says, &#;My bread will be perfect when I cook it.&#; We have to be on our toes.&#;

Feasson agrees that baguettes can sometimes have a mind of their own. &#;You&#;re going to make a lot of bad baguettes before you make good ones,&#; he says. &#;Even us now, we have days where things go wrong and you have to go back and figure out what happened. The problem with the baguette is that you don&#;t know until it&#;s baked. If I had one word it would be &#;time,&#;&#; says Feasson.

Perhaps that&#;s the allure of the baguette. The crunchy, crumbly crust and cream-coloured centre rife with airy hollows can sometimes elude even the most skilled baker. It&#;s a daily challenge that, when done right, can have the most scrumptious results. 

Julie Fitz-Gerald is a freelance writer based in Uxbridge, Ont., and a regular contributor to Bakers Journal.

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