Faluche Du Nord

Faluche is the traditional bread from Nord - Northern region of France. It is usually flat in shape and soft and slightly dense and mostly had as breakfast with bread and jam. It is also used to make sandwiches. The procedure is quite easy and the recipe is vegan too. Madurai is very cool nowadays which is very nice but as for as bread baking is concerned , it is not that good. When I made the dough, it took nearly 4 hours for the first rise which usually happens in 45 minutes. So if you are baking bread in winter, please be patient and do not blame the yeast. And when I arranged the cut out bread dough in the tray, there was a power shut down and it never came back until 4 pm. I placed the tray in refrigerator until 4 (even though there was no power, it is better to keep it in a cooler place so that it doesn't over rise) Then I placed the tray in a warm oven for 1 hour before baking. So for a simple bread I needed a whole day. The final result was amazing. The bread needs to be white but mine were slightly brown. The crust was crispy and the crumb was so soft and when paired with a chocolate spread, it tasted wonderful. Sruti and myself finished off half the batch when it came out of oven. It was that good!!! For this month's Home Baker's Challenge, our host Priya Suresh gave us three French recipes and this was one among them. I loved  baking these cute little breads and loved eating them too... Linking this to Yeastspotting.

Recipe Source: Priya

Makes 8 small rounds

Ingredients: 

Flour/ Maida - 2 1/4 cups 

Warm Water-1/2 cup

Salt-1/2 tsp

Instant Yeast - 1 tsp

Olive Oil-2 tbs

Flour For Dusting

Oil For Brushing

Procedure:

1. Mix together flour, salt, yeast and oil in a bowl.

2. Add water and make a slightly firm dough. I had to add extra water to make the dough. 

3. Knead the dough for 10 minutes until smooth, soft and elastic.

4. Place in a oiled bowl, apply some oil on top and cover with a cling wrap.

5. Allow it to double in a warm place.

6. Now remove dough and knead it again for half a minute.

7. Roll the dough into a slightly thick large disc.

8. With a circular cutter or a cup, cut out circles out of the dough.

9. Grease a baking tray and place the discs slightly apart.

10. Cover with a towel and allow it to double for another hour.

11. Preheat oven to 175C. brush the discs with oil and dust with flour.

12. Place the tray in middle rack and bake the bread for 10-15 minutes. Try to remove the bread when still white.

13. Enjoy while still hot with butter/ Jam / Chocolate Spread....

Mix together flour, salt, yeast and oil.

Add warm water.

Make a firm dough.

Knead for 10 minutes to make it soft and elastic.

Cover and let it double.

Roll the dough into a slightly thick disc.

Cut out rounds.

Place on baking tray and let it double.

Brush with oil and dust with flour.

Enjoy while hot...