Miniflute Bread: Men do not live by bread alone Part 1

Bread with rock salt, sesame, cumin and pavot seeds

If rice is to Asian, bread is to French.

Before being married to my french hubby, I have always believed this to be true. I remember that the first thing that strucked me visiting France for the first time was seeing them precipitating in boulangeries to buy their baguette for the day. Some would come out with one, others with two, or interestingly some were already consuming what they bought when they just been out of the boulangerie. You wouldn't imagine too how easy it is to find a boulangerie, for you will surely see on in every block.

French people love affair with bread dates back in history when majority of France were peasants and that eating soup and bread was the only means of survival. To note in their history was an interesting anecdote when people were rallying against scarcity of bread to eat against the monarchy and Marie Antoinette's naive reply was, "why they don't just eat cake.." This relationship is also something they take very seriously. French laws are very much strict in preserving their bread and the artisans behind them. Baguette for example should only contain water, flour, yeast, and common salt The addition of any other ingredient to the basic recipe requires the baker to use a different name for the final product.

This weekend, I had a wonderful experience to have a chat with a grandmother living in Alps making her own home-made bread. When we went back home, I didn't wasted time in baking this magnificent and equally delicious bread adopted from Sandra Avital's Mini-flute bread. In the original recipe there was water included but I took it off I was too scared my dough will be too sticky. I was quite satisfied with my version despite it's the first time I baked a bread. I advise you go and check her site for it's a very good source for all those wonderful baking goodies. Well explained and wonderful photos. :-)

(I'm sending over this photo too for Click's february theme: flour)
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Mini-flutes Bread with rock salt, sesame, pavot and cumin seeds

500 g of flour
10 g of dry yeast
125ml of milk
20 g of butter
egg yolk wash
rock salt, cumin seeds, sesame seeds and pavot seeds

In a bowl, mix the flour with the dry yeast and salt. Add the warm milk and mix .Transfer immediately in your working table lightly floured. Knead the dough for about 15 minutes until it becomes elastic and non sticky (you can always add a little bit of flour to facilitate this task). Let this dough rest for about ten minutes covered by a towel to avoid drying. Continue again kneading the dough until it becomes really non sticky. Form a round shape and leave the dough in a bowl lightly oiled and cover. Let the dough rise for 1 hr. Cut about 12 to 14 triangles of about .5cm thick. Roll them from the largest side towards the smallest side. Brush with egg yolk and powder with rock salt and seeds. Cook for about 15 minutes at 200°celsius. Put a ramekin with water inside the oven while baking to add humidity.

Bread, alone........