[Closed] Proper French bread - lack of

Because all the supermarkets are out of the town centre/aren’t on every street corner like the boulangeries en France so going to one every morning is a pain in the arse (pun intended) hence folk buy stuff that lasts a week

They don't make it properly and it still sells?

It's a bit of work but you can do your own and freeze the mix a bit early in the process to make batching it easier.

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120580907&t=1540039732993

Have you tried Lidl's baguettes OP?

Way better than the other supermarkets.

Lidl comes close but its mainly due to the type of flour used. I think proper baguettes use much finer flour (presumably also more consistent due to more favourable climate). Its widely available in France but a premium product over here.

It seems that the flour, a wet dough and a long ferment is the key. The supermarkets all use the Chorleywood method to make bread - it rises in no time so cheap to make.

I might try to find some French flour. Apparently doesn’t last as long as our supermarket flour - fewer preservatives in it.

Its hardly warmer in brittany than here on the south coast so it can’t be the climate.

Recipe above, good bread flour is fine, it's the time that is key. Are lidl baking in store? Freshness is also the issue, so if it's travelling maybe not so good.

Surprised to see Lidl get a mention; our local store offers nothing better than any of the other supermarket chains aside being cheaper.

Only baguettes i like outside of France are from a local bakery, Westcott Bakery...light & quite salty.

Isn't the issue that they require specific ovens that inject steam into the hot oven at a point in the baking cycle, whereas  a UK mas baker is simply using a different machine/tin to create an approximation of the baguette shape before it goes into a standard oven that is also baking tin loaves.

As well as a bit more care and love in the proving process, from a small baker that a factory cannot give.

Baguette dough is made about 24 hours before it's baked - supermarkets all (mostly) sell frozen product that's baked off on site, Lidl included (even here in France!)

Marie Curie was Polish born, but French bred.

There's very few countries in Europe that would consider selling yesterdays bread, yet it's considered normal in UK supermarkets. We've very little appreciation of good bread in the UK, not enough people demand it for supermarkets to improve. Fortunately I have a French bakery nearby that makes spot on baguettes, but pretty much everywhere else is a baguette shaped white tin loaf.

I thought the idea was for bread to be made in a factory in France, shipped out frozen and then baked - meaning warmed up - any time in the subsequent two years. A million Pret customers can't be wrong.

Yes the french let it prove for longer aswwll as making it fresh everyday. I still think you can get 'good' bread in the UK, but its always artisan stuff that's £3/loaf not 1.50eur. Lidl also use steam ovens in store which is probably why their fresh bread is a fair effort. Don't forget a baguette in France is cultural significant like an orderly queue in the UK.

Most supermarkets in the UK bake in store - that's all the partially wrapped own brand stuff, donuts, flapjack, rolls, muffins etc. Morrison's and tesco also do their own mixing&proving.

Is the flour not different?  different type of wheat with different characteristics?

Plenty of variability in bread quality in France too. High performing bakeries often have sizable queues. We go to one we like, buy 12 baguettes and freeze.

We’ve very little appreciation of good bread in the UK,

I totally disagree with that statement but yes like most things supermarkets are not that great on the whole. Local bakeries and the artisan bread scene produce a fantastic range of all bread types from bog standard farmhouse to French boule, sourdough, ryes and high quality flours are easy to purchase if you wish to make your own.

My experience of bread in France is that you can get a couple of types pretty much just crusty white which I get bored off and feel is pretty unhealthy and makes crap toast. Much easier to purchase a range of lovely and healthier breads in the UK imo.

Real French Bread is an awesome thing.

Real English Bread is an Awesome thing.

Real German Bread is an Awesome thing.

Crap bread anywhere is pointless.

You can get crap bread in France, go to any small supermarket in Bordeaux and it's just the same generic doughy mixture as you get here in Waitrose. Head round the corner and find a bakery and it's totally different.

One main reason I think the English don't make "French" Bread is because it's crust is too hard and crunchy... English teeth can't cope.

Just move to Malvern, apart from the great riding here we have a French baker who runs a deli.

Perfect baguettes and all sorts of specialist bread daily 🥖

Magnifique! 🇫🇷

Isn’t the issue that they require specific ovens that inject steam into the hot oven at a point in the baking cycle

this is right, I did deliveries for a local bakery in my youth and they used large floor to ceilng  ovens with a stone floor that they rolled huge baking racks into.

They would open the door at a certain point in the bake and tip a bucket of water into the stone floor to create the steam and approximate the “French steam oven” whatever it’s called.

Most bakeries wouldn’t have this sort of oven with a massively hot stone floor, so can’t do the same thing with the steam.

I think it was a chain, but Wolves used to have a baker called "Delifrance" which did awesome baguettes and croissants. I liked the French (well, Parisienne) way of just munching a baguette that was still warm and crunchy while wandering down the street. No butter or filling, just lovely crispy bread. Mmmm. Perhaps with some tasty pate too. nom, nom.... nom.

“French steam oven” whatever it’s called.

My Google-fu is weak this morning but essentially the humble baguette we know and love isn't really French bread, it's Veinnoise. The ovens are based on Zang's steam oven which comes originally from the Austrians cleaning the oven during cooking and is introduced to France in the mid 19th century. Veinnoiserie(s) are the pastries we think of as French too, so croissants etc.

Essentially the major difference between French bread and other bread originally was the push to produce cheaper and faster, so the use of mechanical kneading instead of by hand, flours which need less work and longer proving periods allowing the bread to be prepped the day before.

I might try to find some French flour. Apparently doesn’t last as long as our supermarket flour – fewer preservatives in it.

I've used this with good results - French White Flour - Type 55

https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/16998040.kemp-town-brighton-bakers-win-national-ward/

I guess we're spoiled down here!

'getting your daily bread'

Who would have thunk it was a reference to quality fresh bread.

Urgh, white bread is horrible! Cranks’ organic wholemeal is the best.

some white bread is horrible, some is great. some wholemeal is rubbish, some is amazing.

bread, a metaphor for life...

Enjoying the local bread on your travels, is well one of the joys of travel. How about if we bemoan the lack of proper British bread in France ??

Living in central Europe i initially loved the idea of eating fresh bread every day, but it is a pain in the ass because you literally do have to buy it every day as after 24 hours it turns to rock. Fine if are on holiday but not when you have a busy work life.

Things are definately changing as over the years ive noticed the supermarkets range of ‘american bread’ as they call it growing to the point now it can regularly sell out.

Sad but true..

Bemoan the lack of proper british bread in the UK?

Many years ago Ihad a local bakery who made "real£ british bread.  ie not chorleywood process bread.  sold as sliced or unsliced loafs.  So much nicer that chorleywood process bread.

Nowadays I cannot find a real loaf anywhere near to where I live.  Not  a real british loaf, Italian loaf or french loaf

Nowadays I cannot find a real loaf anywhere near to where I live.  Not  a real british loaf, Italian loaf or french loaf

Thats a tough one. Luckily there's some good independent Artisan bakeries near me, but if I fancy a traditional "British" loaf I make my own.