French Bread

Ingredients

• three quarts of warm water
• twelve to twenty-four quarts of water
• a piece of dough, about three or four pounds
• the usual amount of salt
• more flour

Method

1. 1

   Take a piece of dough left from the day before, thin it with warm water to make a soft sponge.

2. 2

   After two hours, add more water and flour to create a second sponge.

3. 3

   Once ripe, mix in the usual amount of salt and more flour to form a smooth dough.

4. 4

   Set aside one-third for the next batch.

5. 5

   Scale and mold the remaining dough into loaves, place in cloth-lined baskets, and allow to proof.

6. 6

   Bake in a preheated oven until brown.

Nutrition per serving

Estimated from matched ingredients across 24 servings.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Paul Richards' book of breads, cakes, pastries, ices and sweetmeats (1907) by Paul Richards, page 122. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

French bread is an all-water bread. The bread is not as white as the Amer- ican breads — more of a yellowish color. The body of the bread is light and moist, and of a slight sourish taste, but good to eat. This bread is raised with" leaven. The leaven con- sists of a piece of dough, about three or four pounds, left from the day before; this is thinned up with three quarts of warm water and made into a soft sponge with more flour. This sponge is ready to drop in about two hours ; with six more quarts of water this is made into the second sponge. When this is ripe, from twelve to twenty-four quarts of water is added, with the usuai amount of salt

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.