French Breads

Christy, our Bakery writer, wasn't able to get to the newsletter this week, so you'll have to deal with my writing. I definitely don't have Christy's expertise and great writing style, so I hope you can bear with me. That being said...

Let's start with Croissants. The Croissant's versatility and distinctive shape has made it the best-known type of French pastry in much of the world.

A croissant is a buttery, flaky bread or pastry named for its distinctive crescent shape. Croissants are made of a leavened variant of puff pastry. The yeast dough is layered with butter, rolled and folded several times in succession, then rolled into a sheet, a technique called laminating. We make small and large croissants, 1 ounce and 2 3/4 ounce. You should smell them coming out of the oven; you can probably imagine.

Moving on, we have two different kinds of French breads that we make from scratch.

The first is commonly known as a French baguette and is distinguishable by its length, crisp crust, and slits that enable the proper expansion of gases. This bread is light and airy, and great made into croutons to toast for your French onion soup. We make two sizes of our made-from-scratch French baguette; 2" and 4" diameter. This bread is sold in a paper bag.

The other French bread we make (sold in a plastic bag) is a softer bread with a crunchy crust; more of a white bread. This is the bread I use at home to serve with dinner, make French toast or just regular toast. It is so good toasted and spread with a good, European butter.

All the breads freeze beautifully, so don't be afraid to purchase more than you need. Just let us know if you need another bag so you can double bag the loaf prior to freezing.