Baguettes tradition.
Q. Are there rules about what bakers can and can't make and sell?
A. Yes, for example if they make something called a baguette tradition it has to be baked on the floor of the oven and made from a certain grade of flour, with no additives. Frozen bread dough is not allowed for traditions, although it would be allowed for viennoiseries (pastries) if the baker wanted to do it. Also, if the bakery is organic, the flour must be certified organic of course.
Q. Are there rules about when bakeries can open?
A. Most village bakeries are obliged to close at least one day a week so that all staff get a day off. Very few have enough staff to roster staff on for that seventh day.
Ciabatta and einkorn loaves.
Q. What help do bakers get when setting up a bakery? For example, state grants, financial or practical help from family and friends...
A. There isn't much state financial assistance available, but young bakers or female bakers may benefit from gender or age specific state aid programmes. A village baker may also receive assistance from local government if they are coming in after a bakery has closed for a period and there is no other bakery in the commune. It is tricky to have friends and family come in and help due to French labour laws. They must be paid and all the tax regulations adhered to, so you might as well employ someone in the normal way. Most bakers prefer to work in a small team who know what they are doing, with maybe one apprentice. Working in the bakery requires a certain knowhow, and small skilled teams are easier to manage, so everything is timed and set out in a way that has a rhythm.
Pains au chocolat, croissants, apple turnovers, goat cheese pastries
and brioches in the front counter, breads behind.
Q. What are the steps to making a loaf of French bread?
A. That depends on whether the baker is making a sourdough or not. If it is sourdough the starter (Fr. levain) needs to be taken out of the fridge two hours before the baker feeds it with more flour and water, then they will make the dough after another hour. Most often they make a poolish though. That means they mix flour, water and a very small quantity of bakers yeast (Fr. levure) which sits in the fridge, usually overnight. A poolish pre-ferment takes about 6 hours, or even up to 12 hours. Once the pre-ferment is done more flour and water is added to make the dough proper and it is kneaded (Fr. pétrie), often by hand, for about 15 minutes. Then it goes into a proving chamber (Fr. chambre de pouce) to prove (Fr. pointage) at 8°C for 2-3 hours. It may be knocked down (Fr. rabattre) a couple of times then it is hand formed (Fr. façonnage) into whatever shape the baker is making. If it is baguettes they will go on to a linen sheet (Fr. toile de couche) to prove for the final time (Fr. apprêt).
Q. How long is the dough left to rise? Is it done at a cool temperature?
A. If it is sourdough the less time in the proving chamber the better. It can become very acidic tasting, too acidic. At ambient temperature it will take about an hour and a half to two hours. If at a cool temperature, more than three hours, up to 12 hours. A poolish could take 24 hours.
Q. How does the oven work?
A. There are three styles of French bakers oven. The first has the wood underneath and the flame rises through a slot to swirl around the oven chamber and heat the brick. They have to be lit about three hours before baking, and then you close off the flame. This style is often converted to gas these days, with many shelves. The old style wood oven where the fire is in the baking chamber is not allowed for new bakeries due to hygiene regulations and concern about cinders getting stuck to the bottom of loaves. The most popular type is one that uses indirect heat. The fire is underneath and heats brick and sand. The base of the oven rotates, making it easy to put dough in and take out cooked loaves in small batches [ie. you don't have to fill or empty the oven all at once].
Nettle bread.
Q. When does the baker's working day begin and end?
A. It depends what they are making but usually they start about 4.30 am and finish about 10.30 pm. They might take a siesta in the middle of the day, but small village bakers usually work about 15 hours a day. They make everything themself and nothing is frozen.
Q. Is there a demand for gluten free products?
A. There is a bit of demand, but not much. Lots of bakers experiment with making some gluten free (Fr. sans gluten) stuff, but they are rarely happy with the results. In France though, buckwheat (Fr. sarrasin), maize (Fr. maïs) and chestnut (Fr. châtaigne) flours are all commonplace and widely used in traditional baking, so bakers are open minded about gluten free. However, loaves made with these flours cannot be labelled as gluten free in a regular bakery because of the possibility (probability...) of cross-contamination.
2 comments:
As far as I can remember, there were two kinds of commonly used breads in France before WWII, pain boulot a.k.a. gros pain and a pain that was about twice as thick as the baguette, but about as long, and was called pain de fantaisie, somewhat reminiscent of bâtard, but about twice as long.
chm: yes, lots of people have told me that gros pain was the regular bread in the mid-20C when they were kids. It's made a comeback in the last couple of years I've noticed. Certainly when we first moved here I couldn't buy it, but now I can on a daily basis. Pain de fantaisie I've heard of, but don't know anything about really.
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