english bread v. french bread

[Patf]

I think this subject has been discussed before, and I'm not a lover of french bread which I find dry and tasteless. But this is another view of the subject.

Today a french neighbour and his son came to help cutting down a dead pine tree. I knew they wouldn't accept money so I gave them some of my home-made bread - a wholemeal loaf (Dove Farm) and a brioche loaf. They have had some of my bread before.

As they drove off he called out of his van window "Merci pour le gateau!" [:)]

 I was a bit offended - but realised that in comparison with their bread, ours is more like cake.

What do you think?

[mint]

We have an excellent boulangerie in our village.  The only problem with French bread, as you know, is that you have to eat it straightaway and I found that we were throwing away quite a lot of bread.

I have now been making my own for a while, not like you do, Pat, from scratch.  I do mine in the machine but I am able to freeze half a loaf each time and there is very little waste.

I have some French friends who only like the French bread and one likes it really burnt and crusty but other French friends who love the mie. 

When I have British friends come to eat, they invariably prefer the homebaked bread.

So, for me, it's not the taste, just the waste....[:)]

[idun]

I have had that said too, the brioche thing, as it is a pain de mie and the mie is 'tendre'. So I don't think that you should be offended, maybe they were taquine'ing  you a little bit? My french friends do it to me all the time, no mechancete intended when they do.

 

I like good french bread. I enjoy a good baguette or flute from time to time, eaten as fresh as it can be.

 

 

[pachapapa]

On Wednesday I shall buy 4x400 gramme loaves in HyperU Parthenay.

I will take them home, cut them in half lengthwise and pop them in the freezer compartment of the fridge.

Total cost € 2.

Total waste nil.

Lasts a week.

[idun]

And that is what I used to do when buying french bread, and do when I bake, I cut into usable amounts and freeze it. The problem with french bread was that the crust would often fall off, which I did not like happening.

 

PPP your bread is cheap at your Super U.

[pachapapa]

[quote user="idun"]

And that is what I used to do when buying french bread, and do when I bake, I cut into usable amounts and freeze it. The problem with french bread was that the crust would often fall off, which I did not like happening.

 

PPP your bread is cheap at your Super U.

[/quote]

Leclerc now  53 cents.

HyperU have held that price now for a month. 

[Frenchie]

A baguette in my local intermarché is 41 cts. Very good when eaten on the day you buy it.

At le fournil, in Niort ,excellent bread, more expensive, but still very good the next day and the day after.

It's not that I don't like English bread, but as you said, for me it is pain de mie. No offense intended.

 

[Val_2]

When I go down to Lidl I buy their 2 x baguettes and 4 xrolls ready to bake in the oven for €0,45 pack as against the boulangerie next door selling an ordinary rock hard,99% crust baguette for €0,98 this morning when OH got one for his lunch. The bake your own ones are lovely and solid and you don't need to cremate them either plus at that price you can afford toindulge a bit more. Home made bread in the machine is fine but 3.5hrs each time I do a big loaf is a lot of time when you cannot go out because the units must not be left unattended in case of fire. I have been experimenting too and last week made one with lardons,onions,chees and chopped sun dried tomatoes and it was delicious. The only bread I find that freezes apart from the sliced commercial stuff, is the larger baguettes from Super U but then only for a few days before they start to crumble.

My daughter brought some Kingsmill sliced bread over last time, freshly bought on way to ferry and when we got it, it had no taste and clung to the roof of the mouth, it was horrible.

[pachapapa]

[quote user="Frenchie"]

A baguette in my local intermarché is 41 cts. Very good when eaten on the day you buy it.

At le fournil, in Niort ,excellent bread, more expensive, but still very good the next day and the day after.

It's not that I don't like English bread, but as you said, for me it is pain de mie. No offense intended.

 

[/quote]

Your Niort prices make me smile.[:)]

In May I was visiting England and I was absolutely delighted with the bread from the local bakery.

Indeed the French Bread was better than anything I have ever tried to date in France.

French Breads

As a company we are always looking to give you, the customer, something different. This is especially true when it comes to our range of authentic French breads, and these breads really are as authentic as you can find. The flour we use is imported directly from France from the mills of Grand Moulin De Paris, France's largest millers. The techniques we use are those shown to us by a Parisian baker who works through the technical division of Grands Moulins, entitled Moul-bie, which literally translated means from mill to bakery. The concept entitled Ronde des Pains, is exclusive to only the craft bakery sector. We, at this present moment, are the only bakery in Shropshire, and the surrounding counties, such as Herefordshire and Worcestershire, to bake these French breads under the Artisan Boulanger accreditation. So why not try a taste of France right on your doorstep with the Campaillette range of either Grand Siecle, or Des Champs, the malted brown Campagrain, or the sour dough style Campaillou in either plain or smoked cheese and bacon ... they really are TRÈS BON.

I also adore fresh wholemeal bread and suffice to say that the local products were outstanding.

http://www.swifts.bakery.co.uk/index.php

Have a surf through the website and SALIVATE.[:D]

[Patf]

So I wonder what the difference is between the french bread you bought in England, ppp, and the local french bread? I'm convinced it's the flour - the wheat must vary a lot in different parts of France.

I've tried farine complète from two local mills, and the results were both poor compared to Allison's, or Dove Farm, or even Hovis.

Val - if you make bread "by hand" it doesn't take long, you can use 2kilos of flour at a time and make 4 or 5 good sized loaves, then put in the freezer.

And Idun, yes I think he was teasing (typical rural french humour.)

[pachapapa]

Both the local Gourgé Bakeries have closed and only a "Point Pain" remains at the Vival Boutique.

The last surviving bakery,this year, stopped when flour prices started to escalate.

But the problem with the bread in these local french " ARTISAN BAKERIES"[:D][:D][:D] is that all they do is bake the bread in electric automated ovens using pre-cooled and leavened bread.

The local bakery used to get deliveries of this gunge from a delivery lorry attached to a delivery hose for storage in a refrigerated receptacle until required for baking.

Oh this artisan quality was three times the price of the local grande surface.

Worth looking around to see if one of your local grandes surfaces runs a "Pain Chaude" earlier morning service before the main shop opens.

Effectively in Parthenay, the local Casino Geant runs a Pain Chaude so freshly baked bread is available.

 Point Chaud is open at 07:30.

Often a point chaud will, open for a couple of hours even on a national holiday.

[Pierre ZFP]

[quote user="Val_2"]........you cannot go out because the units must not be left unattended in case of fire........ .[/quote]

Really?  It never crossed my mind.  I often set a loaf off when I leave for work or overnight [:'(]

 

[Val_2]

It does tell you in the instruction booklet never to leave a breadmaker unit switched on and leave unattended. Anything can happen from a power cut which could acually start the timer again so the partly cooked loaf would be burned to a crisp. The machine heating elements are like a kettle or a portable plug in electric bar fire, they get very very hot. I would never go to bed and leave one cooking as we tend to get many power surges here during the night and as there is so much timber in this old house, its not worth the fire risk.

[Fridgeman]

Errrrr Val

Your emersion heater has an element as does your washing machine and dish-washer, electric wall heaters as well, any decent breadmaker when turned off from the mains as in a power cut will revert back to stand by, your only problem should be an un cooked mess!!

[Fridgeman]

Back to Bread,

We are very lucky our village baker is superb, cooks loafs from light bake through to almost burnt, he makes his dough from a starter (polish) like sourdough and is full of taste, I could eat a whole pain for breakfast but I hold back, it's then popped into a plastic bag is fine for lunch and dinner, I also bake my own bread using my bread maker to make the dough and then cook it in the oven, white, wholemeal, Grainery, Olive, sundried tomato, lardon etc. I've tried super market bread here in France I find lacks taste at best to not very nice, but each to their own we've all got different tastes, and as much as we live on a tight budget, bread and coffee we do not scrimp on.

[Alan Zoff]

The little boulangerie on the Moulins road in Lurcy-Levis makes dangerously good bread. No waste here - but lots of waist.

It's 5 cents more than a loaf from the supermarket just up the road but far superior. (And that is much better than the under-cooked stuff they have the nerve to call "crusty" in Tescos in England.)

[Dog]

Our local boulangerie is very good, mills his own flour and his pain de compagne is suberb.

Only problem as I have described previously is when you enter the shop of a morning it is self servive so the locals get the bread from the bins then kiss everyone in the queue until they get to the till and pay.

Well we don't know the villagers so don't kiss the way to the front and end up at the end of a very long queue.

The boulangerie are very public spirited and run the biggest Fete in Dordogne.

We still prefer to bake our own in a wood oven and it saves the 8k to the boulangerie.

Got herb and garlic bread tonight!

[Frenchie]

[quote user="pachapapa"][quote user="Frenchie"]

A baguette in my local intermarché is 41 cts. Very good when eaten on the day you buy it.

At le fournil, in Niort ,excellent bread, more expensive, but still very good the next day and the day after.

It's not that I don't like English bread, but as you said, for me it is pain de mie. No offense intended.

 

[/quote]

Your Niort prices make me smile.[:)]

In May I was visiting England and I was absolutely delighted with the bread from the local bakery.

Indeed the French Bread was better than anything I have ever tried to date in France.

French Breads

As a company we are always looking to give you, the customer, something different. This is especially true when it comes to our range of authentic French breads, and these breads really are as authentic as you can find. The flour we use is imported directly from France from the mills of Grand Moulin De Paris, France's largest millers. The techniques we use are those shown to us by a Parisian baker who works through the technical division of Grands Moulins, entitled Moul-bie, which literally translated means from mill to bakery. The concept entitled Ronde des Pains, is exclusive to only the craft bakery sector. We, at this present moment, are the only bakery in Shropshire, and the surrounding counties, such as Herefordshire and Worcestershire, to bake these French breads under the Artisan Boulanger accreditation. So why not try a taste of France right on your doorstep with the Campaillette range of either Grand Siecle, or Des Champs, the malted brown Campagrain, or the sour dough style Campaillou in either plain or smoked cheese and bacon ... they really are TRÈS BON.

I also adore fresh wholemeal bread and suffice to say that the local products were outstanding.

http://www.swifts.bakery.co.uk/index.php

Have a surf through the website and SALIVATE.[:D]

[/quote]

I don't need to go as far as England to salivate, [:D] , we got enough excellent bread round here !