I have joined a group called Daring Bakers. Once a month, they secretly convene on a secret blog and tell us a secret baking challenge that we must do, document, and post on our blogs. I'm a sucker for secrets - and I thought it would be fun to do something once a month that takes me out of my comfort zone.

This is the day to post on my blog my experience with my first challenge - French Bread! Specifically, Julia Child's french bread. It took forever (about 8 hours total), but it was worth it in the end.

The recipe itself is rather easy - water, yeast, flour, salt - but the process was a little arduous. Thank goodness for my Kitchen Aid and it's strong kneading ability. I think I would have given up if it weren't for that.

It was very flavorful - but my favorite part was the actual baking. I put it on my pampered chef stones and sprayed it with water every three minutes or so for the first 15 minutes of cooking.

The results: gorgeous chewy insides, dense and crispity outsides.

Will I do it again? Maybe if I need a big favor from John - he was pretty impressed with it.


I liked this picture - it gives proper homage to my Kitchen Aid.












Here's where the bulk of the "work" came in. It took three hours for the first rise and a good 2.5 hours for the second.














It was all worth it in the end though. . . It was the day before Valentine's Day - I thought Heart shaped bread would speak for itself.












These next two pictures are because my mother would kill me if I put up pictures of bread and none of her amazing grandchild.