It’s time to post the February Daring Bakers Challenge! This month Breadchick Mary of The Sour Dough and Sara of I Like to Cook teamed up to share Julia Child’s French bread recipe with us. The original recipe can be found in Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol. 2 by Julia Child and Simone Beck.

Rather than posting the recipe here (It’s very lengthy and includes lots of variables, but don’t be intimidated. It’s actually quite easy to make and results in a wonderful, artisan-style French bread!) Breadchick Mary has kindly posted the original recipe here.

I ended up making this recipe twice. The first time I wasn’t happy with the way my photos came out. It turns out my camera was on the wrong setting. Besides, the first batch was eaten up so quickly I needed more! At my husband’s request, I made a slight change the second time around. While shaping one of the three batards, I sprinkled in some Carrabba’s Style Herb Mix. I used just a touch, but it added a wonderful flavor!

While you can simply place the dough on a baking sheet and toss it into your pre-heated oven, you’ll get better results by placing a large baking stone or several quarry tiles on your oven rack and baking directly on those tiles. I purchased several unglazed quarry tiles at Home Depot for $0.33 each.

You’ll also need a way to produce steam during the first few minutes of baking. I placed a 2-inch deep baking pan filled with 1 inch of water on the bottom rack. I heated a spare quarry tile on the stovetop (It cracked, but at $0.33 per tile I wasn’t concerned.) and used tongs to transfer it to the pan of water just as I placed the bread in the oven.

A high-powered mixer with the dough hook attached makes short work of kneading.

Ready for the first rise.

Shaped batards on the floured canvas.

About to go in the oven.

Fin.

Visit the Daring Bakers Blogroll to see how everyone else did with this month’s challenge.