Loaf 93 – Christmas French Bread
Bread for Christmas dinner in the form of French epi rolls, and an extra loaf for leftovers sandwiches.
This French bread is basically the same as the lean bread recipe, except not as hydrated. The extra stiffness makes it easier to shape for baguettes, or in this case baguettes snipped into epis. I clearly need to practice my epi-snipping form; this batch looks like my prior attempts, but doesn’t look at all like epi rolls should look. (Take a gander at what they’re supposed to look like from a Google image search.) They do work well as tear-apart rolls, though.
The extra batard didn’t form an ear again as it was baking. I’m either over proofing a bit or not angling my lamé properly. These proofed for 2:20 in a moderately warm kitchen and cool oven. (70° in the kitchen, 88° in the oven.)
The biggest issue that I had with this batch is that I should have made more epi rolls. The five of us ate them pretty fast and we would’ve eaten more.
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- Dough divided for batard and two epi loaves.
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- Shaped batard and baguettes for epi loaves.
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- Loaves after proofing.
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- Scored batard and scissored epis.
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- Finished epi loaves.
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- Baked batard, again with no ear.
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- Epis with Christmas dinner.
