Getting Started with Bread: Easy Bread Recipes

The French brand De Buyer has released some sets ideal both for gifting and surprising and for equipping yourself with some basics. For example there's the Set Brunch Time -perfect for treating yourself- or the Set Steak Lovers, for lovers of natural cooking that includes some timeless basics.

Along the same lines they've released the Set HomeMadeBread ("homemade bread"), which includes a basic and essential Set, perfect for getting started in the world of bread and discovering if doughs are your thing, at a very reasonable price.

The Set includes two molds, one perforated for baguettes and another rectangular, for making sandwich loaves, rectangular loaves... or that you'll also use for cakes and loaf cakes. In addition, the Set includes a lame for scoring the bread before putting it in the oven and a dough scraper.

The packs include two recipes in French, and those are the ones we bring you today. They are not just any recipes: they are perfect recipes for getting started in the world of bread, basic and uncomplicated, created by Benoît Castel, a pastry and bakery artisan for whom responsibility and durability are fundamental values, a passionate maker who doesn't cut corners with products or flavor: he has given his heart to the world of pastry and has been constantly reinventing tradition with seasonal creations based on the best raw materials of each season.

Thus, the two recipes Benoît brings us, in collaboration with De Buyer, are simple recipes that will give you very good results. We hope you enjoy them!

Bread recipes

HomeMadeBread De Buyer set

Traditional Baguettes

INGREDIENTS

• 160 g strong flour (T65)
• 125 g water
• 3 g baker's yeast
• 3 g salt

PREPARATION

1. Put all the ingredients in the KitchenAid mixer at speed 3, with the hook attachment, for 10 minutes. Make sure to scrape down the sides with a spatula during mixing to ensure a complete blend and that the water is well absorbed. Then knead for 2 to 3 minutes at higher speed to smooth the dough. If doing it by hand, the idea is the same — knead until you get a smooth surface.
2. Let rest for 30 to 40 minutes in an oiled bowl covered with cling film (the dough should double in volume).
3. After that time and once doubled in volume, degas the dough by pressing with your knuckles.
4. Divide the dough in half (approximately 2 pieces of 150 g).
5. Shape the dough into two baguettes, and place them in the De Buyer perforated baguette tray.
6. Let rest for 45 minutes to 1 hour for the second rise.
7. Preheat the oven to 240 °C).
8. Score the baguettes, two or three cuts, with the help of the blade included in the Set.
9. Put the baguettes in the oven for 10 minutes at 240 °C.
10. Then continue baking for another 10 minutes at 220 °C.

NOTE: It is useful to place a glass, ramekin or mini cocotte (ovenproof) with water in the oven while it heats up, and open the oven as little as possible to put the bread in when you need to, so that the moisture doesn't escape. The humidity generated by evaporation from the oven's heat helps good oven spring and you'll get a better-baked loaf inside and out.

Buckwheat bread (gluten-free)

INGREDIENTS

• 570 g organic buckwheat flour
• 750 g water at 35 °C
• 10 g salt
• 15 g baker's yeast (dry yeast)

PREPARATION

1. Mix all the ingredients with a KitchenAid mixer with the paddle attachment or in a bowl by hand, until well combined.
2. Pour into the rectangular mold from the Set HomeMadeBread De Buyer mold, previously greased with butter.
3. Let rest for 1 hour, covered with cling film in a draft-free place.
4. Bake at 180 °C for 45 minutes, then unmold and return the bread directly to the oven for 25 minutes (you can do this on a baking sheet -the De Buyer perforated one is great for this) or on the oven rack) to finish baking through.