So, I’ve always had a hankering to learn how to make a good crusty French bread. For about 10 years or so, I’ve looked at recipes and even tried a couple, and either ran away in fear, or failed miserably. Then everything changed. I found a video on wimp.com by an entertaining French baker named Vincent Talleu. In 8 minutes and 45 seconds, he edu-tains how to make a simple loaf of french bread. So I watched it and I thought “That doesn’t look too scary – I can do THAT.”

Here’s the video – in case you’re interested…

So, this past Friday night I made the dough – almost exactly the way he shows (I cheated and used dough hooks in a hand mixer – sue me…). Saturday morning I baked the bread in a 5 litre stainless steel pot.

The result looked like this…

which, I have to say, made me insufferably pleased with myself.

It tasted great – and I wasn’t the only one who thought so. My wife said so, and, just for proof – the kids said it’s the best bread they’ve ever tasted – and they hate EVERYTHING!

So, I sent an email tanking Vincent – and got a nice email back.

Next step: Croissants!

Here endeth the weekend.