by Franky Vivid

For Miss L’amour, the answer is, “oui.”

j’aime le Michelle L’amour et sa baguette

Michelle made a commitment this Spring – no more store-bought bread.  As part of our philosophy to get in touch with our food, she decided to master the art of bread making (hell, she already brings home the bacon – youknowwaddamean?).

If Obama ran for President of France

Being in the burlesquommunity brings with it the obligatory love of all things French, so naturally a nice baguette must be on the menu.  This is an amazing loaf, kids.  Effing sexy in every way.  And you should see her make it!  It’s exactly as you’d imagine.

What’s not to like about France? This is how they go to the mall for crissakes:

French Bread

size matters

3-3.5 cups of bread flour
1 tblsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup of very warm water
2 tblsp of veg oil
cormeal
1 egg white
1 tblsp cold water

Mix 2 cups of the flour, sugar, salt and yeast. Add warm water and oil. Beat with mixer on low speed for 1 min, beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Stir in enough remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, to make dough easy to handle.

Knead dough for 5 minutes on a lightly floured surface. Grease a large bowl with shortening and place dough in bowl and grease on all sides. Cover and let rise in warm place for an hour and a half to 2 hours.

Grease a large cookie sheet and sprinkle with cornmeal. Push fist in dough and divide in half. Roll each half into a 15×8 rectangle on a lightly floured surface. Roll up dough tightly starting at the 15” side. Pinch edges of dough to seal. Place both loaves on cookie sheet.

Cut slashes across the tops of loaves at 2 inch intervals. Brush loaves with cold water. Let rise UNCOVERED for an hour.

Mix egg white and 1 tblsp of cold water. Brush over loaves. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes. Cool on wire rack.