La Couronne Lyonaise

This Couronne Lyonaise is a French bread that originated in Lyon, France. This one includes both a sourdough starter along with a little bit of yeast. 

This bread is shaped like a crown - thus the name "couronne." My shaping method is a work in progress, but the bread itself is amazingly flavorful. 

Classic French Bread for a French-Style Picnic

This Classic French bread takes a little bit of practice to make, and the results often depend on a lot of factors, including the weather, but it's so worth the effort! 

Other factors include gluten development, dough temperature, shaping technique, timing, and the right tool and technique for scoring right before baking. 

Pain Fendu (French Split Bread)

Pain Fendu is a French bread that is shaped by splitting the bread down the middle with a dowel to create a "split" in the loaf. 







This sourdough-based recipe for pain fendu is also spiked with a little instant yeast. It is super crusty with a flavorful crumb and is super easy to make. 

Auvergne Crown | Couronne Auvergnate

The Auvergne Crown, or Couronne Auvergnate, is a classic bread from France. You can find these couronnes in boulangeries (bread bakeries) throughout most of the country. The loaves are deeply browned and crusty, and the crumb is exceptionally flavorful with lots of uneven holes.

There are actually bannetons (rising baskets) made expressly for theses loaves. While I love collecting bread baking toys, I do not have one of these, so I rigged up a large round deep dish pizza pan with a small inverted bowl in the center, and I lined the contraption with floured tea towels.

Petit Pains - Julia Child's French Bread Rolls - Happy birthday Julia!

These Petit Pains, inspired by Julia Child, are wonderfully crusty and flavorful.

These Petit Pains take about 7 hours to make. That does not mean you are active the whole time. It just means that the dough gets lots of extra time to develop flavor. In fact, the dough for these rolls requires very little attention from you. If you need even more time, you can actually slow down the rising time by placing the dough in the refrigerator for each rise. The longer the dough takes to rise, the more developed the flavor.