Like Julia Child, Jacques Pépin offers readers delectable French-based recipes while teaching vital, confidence-building techniques. Jacques Pépin Celebrates is another winning signature venture that offers 200 recipes with terrific color-photo-illustrated techniques. Containing largely updated recipes from Pépin's out-of-print Art of Cooking, and the companion to his eponymous public television series, the book provides formulas for a wide range of celebratory
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast, or 1 cake fresh yeast (0.6 ounce)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
4 1/2 cups bread flour (about 1 pound, 8 ounces), plus extra flour for kneading and for sprinkling on top of the loaves
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons cornmeal
Put 1/2 cup of the water, the yeast, and the sugar into the bowl of a large food processor, and process just enough to mix. Set aside to proof for 10 minutes.
Add the flour and the salt to the processor bowl, and begin processing the dough. With the processor running, pour in the remaining 1 1/2 cups water and process for about 30 seconds. At this point, the dough will be very elastic but still soft.
Turn the dough out onto a board with additional flour, as needed, and knead, adding more flour as necessary.
After 2 to 3 minutes of kneading, the dough will have absorbed as much flour as it can. All of the flour may have been used, or some may be left, depending on the humidity. The dough should be very smooth but strong, and it should resist your fingers when you press them into it, and bounce back. Put the dough in a large bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place (about 70 degrees) for about 3 hours.
When risen, the dough should have doubled in volume. Bring the sides of the dough to the center, and knead it again gently in the bowl to deflate it and make it into a ball. If you want to decorate the top of the country loaf by simulating wheat stalks, set aside a small golf-ball-size piece of dough in the refrigerator.
For the country French bread: Roll the dough tightly on itself into a ball, then press and mold it into a large oval-shaped loaf approximately 11 inches long by 6 inches wide with the seam underneath. Line a baking sheet with a reusable nonstick baking mat. Sprinkle the cornmeal on the mat, and place the loaf in the center of the baking sheet.
Prepare a proof box. Insert the baking sheet containing the loaf into the proof box, tie the bag closed with a twister, and let rise at room temperature for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
(Note: If you have a pizza or bread stone in your oven, the crust will be better; alternatively, lining your baking sheet with quarry tiles will give a similar result.) Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. If you reserved a small piece of dough in the refrigerator to decorate the loaf, when the loaf has risen, remove the piece of dough and form it into eight to ten strips, each about 9 inches long, with one end of each strip thicker than the other. Brush the risen loaf with water, and arrange the strips of dough on top, running the length of the loaf, with the thick part of each spread out at one end. With scissors, snip into the thick ends of the dough strips, snipping four or five times close together on either side, to simulate wheat stalks.
Sprinkle the loaf with flour from a sieve, and, using a razor blade, cut in between and around the "wheat stalks," making a few slashes to give texture to the crust and allow it to expand during baking. Carefully slide the baking pad containing the loaf directly onto the hot bread stone, and bake in the center of the 425 degree oven for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes. During the first 10 minutes of baking, create steam, to make the bread develop well, by spraying water into the oven at 3-minute intervals.
When the bread is well browned and hollow sounding when tapped on top with your knuckles (indicating a well-cooked, airy loaf), remove it from the oven, and let cool on a rack for at least 1 hour before slicing.
For the Baguettes:
Divide the dough into three pieces, each approximately 12 ounces. Press and extend each of the pieces of dough into a log about 8 inches long, then pinch the sides together along the entire length of each log to create a seam on one side and make the dough taut and smooth on the other side. Using both hands, roll and extend each dough strip into an 18-inch-long baguette of equal thickness throughout. Transfer the baguettes to a baking sheet lined with a reusable nonstick baking mat coated with the cornmeal. Roll one of the baguettes in the cornmeal, so it is coated on all sides, and arrange it and the other baguettes at equally spaced intervals on the sheet.
Slide the tray containing the baguettes into the proof box, and let rise for 1 hour in a warm kitchen (70 to 75 degrees). Then remove the baguettes from the box, and sprinkle two of the loaves (not the one rolled in cornmeal) with flour from a sieve.
With a razor blade, score the surface of one of the floured loaves with four or five evenly spaced slashes on the diagonal one way. Repeat with the other floured loaf, cutting a second set of lines across the first set, in the opposite direction, to create a crisscross effect. Cut the surface of the baguette coated with cornmeal lengthwise with one long slit.
Slide the baking pad and the baguettes onto the hot stone, and bake the loaves in the center of the 425 degree oven for 30 to 40 minutes, spraying some water in the oven after 1 or 2 minutes to create steam. Repeat this spraying again 3 or 4 minutes later. When cooked, the loaves should be well browned and crusty. Remove, and cool completely on a rack before slicing.
