TWD/BWJ: Classic French Bread

Tuesdays With Dorie, you are a bad influence!

Good grief, this is either the best bread in the history of mankind, or I haven't had bread in so long it only seems that way.

After a bit of a search, I found fresh yeast. If you're in the Atlanta area, you can get it at the Buford Highway International Farmer's Market - in the refrigerated area of the Eastern European section. Don't know why I've never been there before, but it was a pretty great place to explore. The aisles are marked with different country names, and you can literally walk around the world.

Let's get to some pictures:

Aerating my flour with a whisk.
Learned it in a Montessori classroom.
Recently discovered that Dorie refers to this
in the "flour" section of the book on page 13.
I feel so validated. And so far behind on reading
what's in the book. Really, there's lots more than recipes.

That yeast cake crumbled up nicely.
But it smelled a little... skanky...

Not the best scale for measuring .6 of an ounce

All that kneading caused Katie to throw a screw,
but as usual she performed beautifully, loose screw or not.

Genius suggestion by Sharron to let the shaped dough rise
on parchment paper cradled between rolled up towels.
Baked them right on the paper.
One question: Where can I get a single-edged razor blade?
My knives just aren't cutting it. <groan>

Meanwhile, outside, the feeder is almost empty.
They've sucked down a gallon this year!
Can hummingbirds get fat? My husband thinks so.

See what I mean about being a
BAD INFLUENCE!?!

Check out the links of the other Tuesdays With Dorie participants here. And the original video of Julia with Danielle Forestier (who contributed this recipe) is here.

For your amusement.
This came in my CSA box yesterday.

 Finally, a shoe. This one seems appropriately French. It's not every day that you see an upright high heel in the road!