Pain au chocolat - delicious flaky croissants filled with melted chocolate! Ph: Brighteyedbaker.com
A recent New York Times article brought to light very distressing news to us. Forget the economy, global warming, and politics, the world is facing a...French bread CRISIS! The article stated that, "the average Frenchman these days eats only half a baguette a day compared with almost a whole baguette in 1970 and more than three in 1900."
Mon dieu!
Take heart, baguette lovers, help is on the way! To counteract this unacceptable situation, the Observatoire du Pain, a lobby for bakers and millers, has started a campaign to promote the consumption of one of France's most iconic food staples, French bread.
And because there's nothing that we love more than a good food cause, we're joining the cause, and giving French bread some love and attention. Here's our list of Five Favorite French Breads plus, a delicious Pain Au Chocolat recipe to try your bread-baking hand at home.
Tackling the French bread crisis, one baguette at a time!
OUR FAVORITE TYPES OF FRENCH BREAD
-
The Baguette: the ultimate classic, this flute of crusty bread should practically be stamped on your passport when you enter the country. A traditional baguette or "baguette de tradition" must, by French law, have the following ingredients: wheat flour, water, salt and yeast. Perfect in it's simplicity! Don't feel like baking? Try our frozen, ready-for-the-oven artisan baguettes by Bridor!
- The Brioche: a mixture between bread a pastry, brioche is made with a super buttery dough, braided into the classic shape. But it's the addition of sugar and eggs which makes this a sweet treat as well, perfect to make French toast (see below), or to eat with a cup of tea or coffee. Oh la la!
- Le Pain Perdu: Also known as the world-famous, USA-favorite, French toast! The name, pain perdu, means "lost bread", so named (some say) because it was made using leftover, stale bread. Well, if stale bread dipped in eggs and fried turned into French toast, then not all is lost!
- Beignets: Probably just as much a tradition in New Orleans as in Paris, this doughnut is actually a deep-fried bread dough. There are several variations of this, but the most well-known, at least in America, is the one popularized by New Orlean's famed restaurant, Café du Monde. Theirs is fried in cottonseed oil and then liberally covered in delicious powdered sugar.
- Pain au Chocolat: last, but absolutely not all least, our favorite (and featured) type of French bread! The French call it "pain" (bread), but Pain a Chocolat is really a buttery and flaky croissant, filled with gooey melted luscious chocolate. Oh, oui! We found the greatest recipe for a homemade Pain au Chocolat, by our featured blogger, Alexandra from Confessions of a Bright-Eyed Baker. It might take a few tries to get it right, but the results are completely worth it, we swear! For those looking for an easier solution, try our frozen, ready for the oven line of croissants and pain au chocolat, made in france and imported in specially for our customers!