The Holy Baguette

Bread is a serious matter in France. A common subject for discussion is deciding which bakery makes the best baguette. Everybody will have a well defined opinion and set down their arguments without hesitation. When I came here I found this a bit funny. Bread is bred, what is the big deal?

Then I married a Frenchman who is, like all of them, crazy about bread. He will not only go and buy his fresh bread every morning, he will be annoyed when his favourite baker is closed. We live in a village with 2000 inhabitants and there are THREE bakeries to chose from . They take turns to close, so there is always at least one of them open on any day of the week.

Now I realise I am getting a bit French. All bread is not equal. I have my preferences and I might even be willing to make an extra turn to get to my favourite baker...

Still it seems a very simple matter. Any recipe for baguette will contain flour, salt, yeast and water. That`s it. Nothing fancy. But what kind of flour? How do you knead the dough? How long time you leave the pate to rise? All these small details that in the end will give you a great bread or just a good one.... just add some real butter, salted to my preference, and there you are with one of these true luxuries of simple pleasure.