Anyone have a french bread recipe

[gerri]

I am looking for a French bread recipe - using no sugar - no sugar substitute - no natural sugars.  

Thanks for any help you can offer.  

Gerri

[ukbill]

I do not think you will have much joy there, all commercial yeasts need a bit of sugar to get the yeast growing so it can then start on the cabs in the flour.
If you use Dextrose or Glucose (the only safe use for these sugars in my own opinion besides brewing) to start the yeast you should be fine with the resulting bread about 1/2 a teaspoon should be enough although the bread might take a bit longer in its rising.

The absolute no sugar version is to use a sourdough type recipe and these from experience can be very variable in the outcome. Sometimes you will get a good well risen bread other times end up with a solid brick.

Hope this helps?

Just use a normal recipe but use Glucose or Dextrose as a yeast starter (do not add any to the four) and you should be fine.

Good luck

[colormist]

I just looked at my Italian bread (store bought from Giant Eagle) and the yeast is activated with salt (no sugars listed at all in the ingredients)--so you shouldn't need to use any sugars in your recipe.

Ah! Just did a quick search online and found this sugar-free french bread recipe: allrecipes.com/recipe/6882/french-bread/
Looks like you might need to follow the instructions in the comments (not the "add sugar" comment, but the other ones about yeast vs. flour ratio) to get a good loaf!

Good luck!

[tummyache]

Here is my all-time favorite wheat bread (although I must take Kirkman's "Carb Digest with Isogest" enzymes when I eat it, as am very wheat sensitive):

LAHEY NO KNEAD BREAD
cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11376-no-knead-bread

Here is one of the most popular recipes The Times has ever published, courtesy of Jim Lahey, owner of Sullivan Street Bakery. It requires no kneading. It uses no special ingredients, equipment or techniques. And it takes very little effort — only time. You will need 24 hours to create the bread, but much of this is unattended waiting, a slow fermentation of the dough that results in a perfect loaf.
MAKES: One 1 1/2-pound loaf
• 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
• ¼ teaspoon instant yeast
• 1 ¼ teaspoons salt
• Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed
1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.
2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.
3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.
4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

[ukbill]

Yeast is killed by salt!

Unless they are using some sort of "salt" that is mostly dextrose of glucose?

Yeast will work on bread flour without sugar yes if you have the hours it takes to start working reliably??

So long as the amount of sugar used is tiny the yeast should eat all of the Fructose long before cooking begins so it should be safe.. no more than 1 level teaspoonful / 5g sucrose per 1.5Lb flour I think is safe or use Glucose. Baking or brewing is the only safe use of Glucose to my thinking.

Keep smiling

[tummyache]

Try this recipe if you like crunchy, hard-crusted, rustic, country type bread - just as the recipe states: flour, yeast, salt, plus water, and nothing else. It is fabulous! It will make a believer out of you UKBILL.

[rachael]

I recently made a similar no knead bread for my son and he loved it! www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/no-knead-crusty-white-bread-recipe It wasn't crunchy for us, but I used bread flour because it was what we had on hand, we live at high altitude (5600ft) and I think I used too much water. But it worked out great because I wanted to use it for sandwiches anyway. And I liked that the recipe is enough for 4 loaves; just leave the dough in the fridge and take some out when you are ready to make the next loaf.

[antonia]

I have successfully made both wheat and gluten free breads without sugar. Here is a recipe for pizza dough I used to make (before discovering my daughter was allergic to wheat). I often made bread sticks with it. No sugar here at all and super easy to make if you have a standing mixer:
www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/basic-pepperoni-pizza-and-four-cheese-pizza.html

I don't think you need sugar to activate the yeast but just adjust quantity of yeast and/or rise time accordingly. Correct temperature also becomes ultra important if you've no sugar to help the yeast along (not too cold and not too warm, temp over 105 Fahrenheit will kill the yeast too). I have also heard of using warm milk to proof yeast but have never tried it. Also thought that if you used lactose free milk the yeast might activate faster since the lactose has already been cleaved into single, more readily available sugars by enzymes. Just a thought, never tried it.

And, yes, concentrated salt will kill the yeast! Always mix it into the flour to dilute it before adding your yeast.