Zoe Francois

Hi. I too find the making as satisfying as the eating! Good luck with the fridge! Zoë

Hi Donna, Your loaves look incredible. I think you will be even happier with it as the dough ages. Just handle it gently as to not knock the air out of it. You can also try the cold rise that we've been talking about. That seems to work so beautifully to get nice hole structure. Thanks for trying the bread!!! Zoë

Hi, The bread looks fantastic! I wonder if you baked it just a little bit longer if you would get a crisper crust? When you cut into the bread was it still warm at all? The crust will come out of the oven crispy and perfect, then as it is cooling steam escapies from the loaf and it softens the crust, finally all the steam escapes and the crisp crust should come back. If you cut into it in that middle stage you will have a softer crust. It may just be a matter of slightly underbaking it? Let me know how the next one comes out. Zoë

Hi. Great idea! If you parbake the crust with no toppings, make sure to dock the dough or it will puff up like a giant pita! I think this is the way I would go. Then the toppings aren't all wilted when she wants to eat. Let us know how it comes out. Zoë

Can't wait to see the pictures, I'll check in to see them tomorrow! Did you go to my website and print out the errata sheet? You might want to before you get to deep into the book! www.zoebakes.com Thansk, Zoë

Hi Henri, Good to hear the bowl was successful! This is the way I'm going these days too. Thanks, enjoy the pizza! Zoë

Hi tsquare, I'm so glad you enjoyed the bread! If you follow the instructions in the book, you will end up with a pretty low small loaf. I tend to over fill the pan (about 3/4 full)and just let it rise longer. I like a big loaf! Do play with the amount of salt to suit your palate. Thanks, I look forward to hearing about the next try! Zoë

Melissa, I found my loaf (just like all my pizzas) came out with a nice, dark bottom. However, I pre-heat the stone in a 500 degree oven for a good hour before putting anything on it. Only when I put the bread onto the stone did I turn down the heat to 450. I didn't pull the parchment away until the loaf had baked - under a cloche heated for the same time at the same temp - for twenty minutes. At that point, the parchment was pretty scorched. What kind of pizza stone do you have? Is it a nice thick one? Have you had good luck getting good, dark browning on the bottom of pizza crusts directly on your stone within, say, a 10 to 15 minute cooking time? Have you tried checking your oven temperature with an oven thermometer? There, those are all the diagnostic hints I can come up with; hope that's some help! - Laura ← Hi Melissa, I agree with Laura on the stone issues. If your loaf still isn't browning on the bottom, you may want to peel the paper off and turn the loaf upside down for the last 5-10 minutes of baking. I haven't ever tried the screen. Let me know what you think if you do. I usually don't check the internal temperature, I go by the color of the crust. If the crust is a really deep brown then it is done. Not very scientific, but it works for me! If you do use a thermometer about 200 degrees should be right. Thanks, Zoë

Hi. Yes, you can add the rosemary and still keep the dough for 2 weeks, although I rarely can keep a batch for 2 weeks before baking it all. The only time you can't keep it for that long is when the dough in enriched with milk, eggs or cheese. When you use your cloche to bake you won't need the additional steam. It gets the moisture from the dough itself to produce steam in the cloche. I'll leave the matter of clear flour and hydration up to Marc. I've not done it yet and he has, so what say you Marc? Thanks, Zoë

Hi. Great question! It is true, there will be some deflating when you reach into the tub. The trick is to get it down to a minimum. Like Tino and Anna have suggested you will figure out the way that works best for you. I just sprinkle flour over the surface and stretch a piece of dough out to cut with a knife. I think the gloves, spraying the bucket and using scissors may work really well too. Have you seen the videos that I have posted on my website? It may help to see it being done. I think the one we did for the Chicago Tribune is the clearest. www.zoebakes.com Thanks for trying the recipe. Zoe

Hi Marc, This is so exciting! I can't wait to try it with the clear flour. Thanks! Zoe

Hi, The sandwiches look great! I think it probably shrunk because it was slightly under baked and hadn't fully set! Because it was such a large loaf, it may have needed even more time in the oven. Having said that the crumb still looked really good. Let me know how the next batch comes out. Thanks, Zoe

Hi Henri, Welcome. Thanks for trying the bread! It looks gorgeous. The crust is a great color. Next time, as Anna said, you'll want to try to slash right before baking. Let me know what you think in a couple of days after the dough has some time to age. I'm assuming you baked this right after the initial rise. When you bake the bread from cold dough you may want to let it rise for the same amount of time as this one to get that lovely crumb! ...and hold the baby every time you mix up the dough, maybe that was the secret to your success! Thanks, Zoe

Hahaha! I will heed your advice! Thanks. It is the sign of a true chef that can turn that situation around and have something to eat at the end that you didn't have to call in! Thanks, Zoë

Hi Pat, I bake my brioche in a loaf pan sometimes and it works really well. It should rise quite a bit and depending on the size of your loaf should sit out about 2 hours before baking. If you are working from the book, there is a shot of the brioche in the colored pictures in the center of the book. I'm so glad you don't buy bread in the grocery anymore! That is very high praise indeed!!! Thanks, Zoe

Those are beautiful, Anna! Was your loaf pan nonstick? Any particular brand? I only have the standard pyrex glass ones at the moment, so I guess I'm going to have to invest in some new ones. Although I wonder if using a parchment paper liner would do the trick? Thanks. - Laura ← Hi Laura, The pictures of your loaves are great. The color on your crust is gorgeous!!! The parchment liner is a perfect way to go with your loaf pan. As for hte size of the loaf pans, it wasn't exactly a mistake, but it was a source of great argument between Jeff and myself! We have all different size pans and couldn't agree on the standard. Sorry for the confusion! Because we found that everyone has slightly different pan sizes it may leave some with a tiny extra "tete" for your loaf! You can also use that extra bit to start your next batch! I always load my pan much fuller than we say in the book and then let it rise longer before baking. I just like a bigger loaf. Zoe

Yes, I do sleep, not well and not often! It's a habit I acquired when I had 3 little ones and had to study for my university degree and I have never been able to change it! I am stuck trying to keep dough in a 'fridge that is already too small for my needs. I would love to be able to have a selection of doughs in there but am going to have to look at doing 1/2 recipes and finding more suitable containers! ← Hi Anna, your loaves do look wonderful! My son happened to be looking over my shoulder and asked me to make the white sandwhich loaf! I know what we'll be doing tonight! I ended up getting a dorm fridge in the basement for all my buckets. They do have a way of taking over! Thanks, Zoe

Hi Laura, I'm so glad this method got you such great results. When the Lahey article first came out we were almost done writing our book. I of course immediately tried his method with our dough and realized it too would work beautifully. For those of you who don't have a cloche, I've had really nice results baking it under a s/s bowl. The bowl traps the steam and you get a similar result! ...and I agree that this is a great discussion, I too have learned so much! Thanks for your feedback!! Zoë

Hi Pam, I ended up keeping my very old dough (stored for 13 days) in the loaf pan for about 26 hours. I fear it was over-proofed and the crumb was like a wet sponge, the kind you clean the kitchen sink with. Not at all to my liking. I'm going to start the experiment again, because I think the dough that I was using was really heavy and wet to begin with. I'd made the dough with a cup of cooked brown rice and I think it is just a very dense bread to begin with. Although when I baked it with a shorter rise I loved the crumb and the taste. So my first attempt at allowing the dough to rise for more than 14 hours was a bust, but I'm going back in to try it again. The difference between 20 and 26 hours may be the difference as well??? I'll let you know when I bake off the next loaf! Thanks, Zoe

I just noticed Anna's excellent response while writing this post, so I'll just add the results of researching some of my bread books. In Jeffrey Hamelman's book, Bread, A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes, "crumb" is defined simply as: To that definition, I say: Peter Reinhardt, in The Bread Baker's Apprentice goes into some detail about "crumb" in a discussion of the fermentation (proofing) process: So if you said a loaf has good crumb, it would mean it has the structure of holes you are looking for in the particular type of bread you've baked. In an earlier post about underproved (proofed?) bread, the holes were larger in the center of the slice but got squished together near the crust, an indication that the dough was underproofed (but I bet it still tasted good.) ← Thank you Anna and Beanie! Great descriptions of crumb! Zoe

Hi. Let me know if you were looking for a more academic answer??? Zoë

Hi. Yeah, that would be a helpful place to start!!!! I'm referring to the texture of the inside of the bread. Different bread has vastly different crumb, so there isn't one right way, and it will somewhat depend on your taste. Helpful? Thanks, Zoë

Hi Pam, I've never left it to rise more than 14 hours? I'll wait and bake this one off tomorrow night so I can see if it will last that long. I'll let you know tomorrow! Yes, frozen pizza is a thing of the past around here! Thanks, Zoe

Hi, It will somewhat depend on the size of your loaf pan. In the book we say to fill the pan about 1/2 way full. BUT, I tend to like a more bodacious loaf so I fill mine more like 3/4 full. I let it rise nearly an 1 1/2 hours because my pan is rather big. I happen to have a pan filled at the moment that I've got rising in the refrigerator and will bake off in the morning. I've come to do a refrigerated rise (thanks to Marc!) with everything. It just produces a great crumb and it seems to fit my schedule better! The loaf I have going now is 12 days old and nearly two pounds of dough so I'll let you know how it comes out in the morning! Thanks, Zoe

Weights.... yes, that starts to make sense. :the light dawns: Water weighs 1 gm per mL, and one cup is ~ 245 mL Flour weighs considerably less per vol. Ok, it makes sense to me if hydration is w/w and not v/v. Thank you! Perhaps I "need" that slick shiny scale for Valentines day. ← Hi. Yes, we wrote the book using volume measures because most home bakers still don't scale their recipes. But, it soon became clear that many experienced bakers only use a scale so we came up with the weights. When we talk about hydration levels it is only in relation to the weighed flour. Yes, a shiny new scale sounds like a great present. Mine is ancient history!!! Thanks, Zoë