February challenge- French Bread

This month the wonderful Mary (Breadchick) and Sara choose a recipe for French Bread or Pain Francais From Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Volume Two by Julia Child and Simone Beck. I am sorry to be a little late in posting- i've had a hectic weekend so far with baby showers and various other things to cook for. I made beautiful fruit tarts actually- they were just exquisite and i am so cross i didn't take photos to post on my blog. Next time maybe. i also must apologise for not posting anything since last challenge- i was away for a few weeks, but i still should have posted. Anyway, back to the french bread. I really liked this recipe. It did take an awfully long time, but it was mostly just waiting time, so if it is a rainy day and you've no where to go, i would definetely make this again.

I kneaded the dough by hand, which wasn't at all painful and i find it a much more rewarding experience than machine kneading. Apart from that, if you are devoting a whole day toward making bread, you may as well spend a few minutes longer kneading it by hand- a totally self gratifying process. I couldn't find the camera until the bread just came out of the oven, hence there are no photos of the kneading and rising and baking etc. I do however, hope that you enjoy these few photos that i took of the final result. A must try recipe for the baking enthusiast. Thanks Mary and Sara