Sourdough French Bread

Donna, this is a wonderful recipe. Thank you for sharing it. I made mine into two long loaves in a french bread form. Although i sprayed them with water when they went into the oven, I find that a pan of ice cubes works nicely. Plus, you don't have to mess with it once the bread is in the oven. Thanks again.

5 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

Superb! Light and a nice thick crust. Hope you don't mind DonnaM I was concerned there was no sugar so I added 1Tblsp sugar as well as 1 tsp Vital Gluten. I read that it helps with sourdough. I will be making this one again and again!

5 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

Nice, light loaf with good texture and flavor. I had one cup of sourdough starter in my freezer, so I thawed and proofed it as directed in step 15. Then I followed the mixing and kneading directions. I put all the dough in one large loaf pan. After making slit in top of loaf, I spritzed the top of loaf with water. I put sauce pan of water and the loaf of dough in a COLD oven and turned temp. to 375 degrees and baked the required time - about 40 minutes. The bread turned out very light and high, as it rose even more while the oven was heating. I will be making this bread weekly for sandwiches. Thanks Donna for a very good recipe!

1 person found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

This is a great recipe. I am still trying to perfect my loaves but the taste is great. I spray my loaves instead of putting a pan of water in the oven.

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

Excellent bread with just the perfect crust on the outside and tender on the inside. I took the advice of several others and used a pan of ice cubes - worked wonderfully. It wasn't as sour as I would like, but I've only had my starter going for a few weeks and only proofed it about 9 hours. Next time I hope to get a more sour flavor!

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

Another 10 star recipe! Used the Red Sea starter and it the results were magnificient. I used the dough cycle on my bread machine and removed after mixing . . . the bread machine does not allow for a long enough rising time for sourdough! Definitely will making this one again! Thanks Donna for the starter and the recipe!
UPDATE: 07/30/10 Made today using Peter Reinhart's firm starter method -- Added two cups of flour to the two cups of starter and kneaded into a small ball until incorporated. Allowed to rise for 4 hours, then refrigerated overnight. Next day removed the dough and cut into small pieces, added to balance of the flour, salt (increased to 2 teaspoons) and water. From here used your recipe. The flavor was spectacular!

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

I used my sourdough starter (Unknownchef86's Sourdough Starter), but since I've misplaced my recipe for Sourdough French, I came looking on Zaar...yours was the closest to what I remembered. I made a triple batch, which I divided into 4 bread-pan size loaves. I stirred 1/3 of the flour into the (pre-measured) starter a few hours before I made the bread, to give it and added boost and time to proof. I also let it raise a couple of times to improve flavor and rise. I used kosher salt and have to admit that next time, I'll increase the salt. I added about a cup of grated Cheddar cheese, some Italian Seasoning and granulated garlic to one of the loaves before I formed it. I didn't use the cornmeal, but that's because I baked it off in bread pans. I set a pie-pan full of water in the oven before preheating it, so the steam would help give the sourdough a boost, along with helping the crust. All the bread was a huge hit! Thanks for your help, Donna!

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

This bread was lovely, but very dense and somewhat lacking in salt. I think that, sliced thinly, it will make excellent toast. I'll try it again, but will likely add a bit of yeast in hopes of getting a higher rise and less dense texture.

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

Perfect combination to our spaghetti dinner! I cut the loaf in half horizontally and slathered with butter and then sprinkled garlic on top and covered with the top of the bread, put in aluminum foil and put it in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes. Slightly crunchy and full of garlicy goodness. Yum!

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

I made this today, and it turned out OK but not great. The taste itself is fine, but the size was lacking. I used a sourdough starter that I've had going for quite a long time now, but the yeast in the starter was definitely not enough to make it rise to the size pictured here. The bread was also pretty dense - more like a baguette in size and texture. It's VERY tasty, but I was expecting something much different. In the future, I'll add yeast.

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

I made this with my KA mixer and let it raise overnight. I used Sourdough Natural Grape Starter and Sourdough Biscuits to make the starter two weeks ago and it was time to put it into action! The bread turned out lovely, sour, and crunchy! Thanks, I think I'm finally getting a handle on this sourdough thing. I like that there's no commercial yeast in this, I think that's cheating, I might as well not make sourdough at all!

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

I made this with the part of the starter i otherwised wuld had thrown away on day 4 of making my sourdough starter. I made it in my bread machine and it did raise beatifully, i even used whole wheat flour. I only wanted to give 4 out of 5 as i had to keep on baking the bread after the machine had finished, well, it is not the fault of the recipe but i wanted to state it anyways. I will use a program which bakes the bread longer next, so that is what i wanted to tell. Thank you fr sharing a great recipe!

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

Wow, Donna, is this ever a gorgeous loaf!!! It's so easy to make, and it comes out so absolutely stunning. I wish I had time to take a picture, but we're off to Dad's (with the loaf of fresh bread!) for Father's Day. I'm sure this will be a huge hit - and I will definately make this regularly.

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

Donna, you've done it again! Another stellar recipe! I would love to have your whole sourdough collection for my own. Maybe I'll just do that. this bread turned out great. Thanks again....off to find a good cinnamon sourdough roll.

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

Really good-Thanks

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

Excellent recipe and easy too, using the bread machine. No more kneading - Yeah! Made to have with Linda's American Chop Suey. I followed Normaone's suggestion and they came out perfect. It was a meal to remember! This is also awesome toasted with your favorite jam or jelly or peanut butter on it for breakfast. Yum!

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

Absolutely delicious! If you are thinking about making this, go for it. You will not be disappointed.

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

great bread!!

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

How could I possibly give anything less than 5 stars. This was soooo good. I don't have a bread machine so mixed it in my Kitchen Aid and then shaped by hand. My only mistake that I can think of is I didn't make the slashes quite deep enough. I wasn't sure how deep to go. Spraying with water was new to me, but when all was done it had a wonderful crust and soft inside with just a mild sour dough taste. YUM!! This is on my list to repeat many times to come. Thanks again Donna for another great recipe. Bonnie G PS: Just made this for the second time and it came out even better than the first. LOVE IT

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

This turned out to be an amazing bread, despite all my mistakes! I was eager to use some of my sourdough starter for the first time, and had promised a friend some sourdough bread at their visit. I foolishly neglected to read the part about proofing the starter, and I was running out of time when started gathering the ingredients- whoops! So I added in the flour and water to proof, then continued the process without waiting. I used my KitchenAid stand mixer, had to put in an additional 1 1/2 cups flour to get it to the right consistency. I let the mixer do the kneading, let it rise 1 hour, thend divided the dough and continued. This batch of bread is definitely missing that wonderful tang charicteristic of a really great sourdough (you get a hint of it). Next time (tomorrow? LOL) I will be sure too prof the starter well in advance! It is still a very tasty recipe, and the bread turned out beautifully. I used BeachGirl's suggestion of turning the oven on cold with the pan of water in place- that worked perfectly and I didn't have to remember to spritz. I can't wait to try this again! Thanks so much for posting!

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account