Baguette Murder: Book 3 (A Patisserie Mystery with Recipes) (12 page)

Place the loaves in the oven. Bake until golden brown, until 25 to 30 minutes. Cool loaves on wire racks.

RECIPE #3: Pain Complet

This recipe for
Pain Complet
(Whole Wheat French Bread) makes one large, country style round loaf. You can cut the dough to make smaller loaves, or smooth the dough out into elongated shapes to make baguettes.
 

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 3 cups all purpose white flour
  • 2 cups water, lukewarm
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tbsp dry active yeast
  • 2 tsp. salt

Sift the two flours into a large bowl. Add salt and sugar. Create a large hole in the middle of the mixture to pour in the yeast. Pour 2 cups of lukewarm water over the yeast. Sprinkle a tsp. of flour on top. Wait around 10 minutes for bubbles to appear in the yeast (if the yeast doesn’t bubble, it’s no longer active or you didn’t use lukewarm water. If that’s the case, you’ll have to start over). Once they do, mix together all the ingredients by hand to form dough. The easiest way is to gradually incorporate the flour at the sides of the bowl, bit by bit. At the end, it should be a round, firm ball of dough. If it’s too sticky, add a bit more flour.

Remove the dough from the bowl and place it on a lightly floured surface. Knead by pushing your palms into and then turning it one quarter. Keep kneading and doing quarter turns for 5 to 10 minutes or until bread is supple and non-sticky.

Place the bread in a lightly floured bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Let rise for 2 hours at room temperature until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Re-sprinkle work surface with flour. Prepare a baking pan by lightly oiling and flouring it, or line with parchment paper. With hands, remove bread and place on surface. Punch down once, hard, with palm. Re-shape into a ball. Put the ball on the baking pan. Use a sharp knife to cut diagonal lines across the top of the bread.
 

Whisk egg and brush it on top of the bread. Put in oven and bake for about 30 minutes. Survey baking times for different sizes.
 

RECIPE #4: Pain de Seigle

Pain de Seigle
(Rye Bread) is normally about 70% rye flour mixed with white flour. This rustic French rye bread recipe mixes wheat rye and barley flours flavored with a
pain de champagne
starter to make a hearty loaf with a chewy crust. It’s artisan bread at its best, and it’s easy.

Ingredients:

For the starter:

  • 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup rye flour
  • 1/4 cup barley flour
  • 1/2 tsp. sourdough or pain de champagne starter
  • 1 1/4 cups water

For the dough:

  • 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup rye flour
  • 2 tsp. instant yeast
  • 1 1/2 tsp. salt
  • Whole starter
  • 2/3 cup water

Stir all the starter ingredients and store, loosely covered, in a warm place (80 degrees F) for 18 to 24 hours.

Stir remaining dry ingredients into the starter and 2/3 cup water. Knead dough for 5 minutes until smooth and elastic. Let rise in a warm, draft-free place for 1.5 hours.

Line a large baking sheet with non-stick foil and turn the dough out onto it. Shape the dough into a large round or oval. Loosely cover and let rise until it has nearly doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Spray surface of bread with water. Make 3 diagonal slashes on top of bread and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped.

Cool rye bread on a wire rack.

RECIPE #5: Pâté aux Pommes de Terre

Here is a fairly simple recipe for the
Pâté aux Pommes de Terre,
which is like a potato pie and can be served either as a main dish or a side dish. It can also be made with leftover bread dough instead of the puff pastry.

Ingredients:

  • 2 puff pastry sheets
  • 3 1/2 pounds potatoes
  • 1/2 ounce crème fraîche
     
  • 1 large onion
  • Salt and pepper
  • Egg yolk

Peel and wash the potatoes. Cut into thin strips. Peel and chop the onion. Mix potatoes, salt and pepper.

Put one of the two puff pastries in the bottom of the pie plate. Fill with potatoes and onion mixture. Add half of the crème fraîche. Cover with the second puff pastry sheet, wielding to the first one. Brush the top with egg yolk. Bake at 400 degrees F for about 1 hour. Serve with rest of the crème fraîche.
 

About the Author

Harper Lin lives in Toronto, Canada with her husband, daughter and Pomeranian puppy.
The Patisserie Mysteries
draws from Harper’s own experiences of living in Paris in her twenties. She’s currently working on more Clémence Damour and Emma Wild mysteries.

Follow Harper on
Goodreads.com
. Email Harper at
[email protected]
. She would love to hear from you!

If you’ve enjoyed this book, please leave a book review or recommend it to friends to support the author.

All books by Harper Lin:

The Patisserie Mysteries

Macaron Murder: Book 1

Éclair Murder: Book 2

Baguette Murder: Book 3
 

Crème brûlée Murder: Book 4 (Available May 2014)

The Emma Wild 4-book Holiday Series

Killer Christmas: Book 1

New Year’s Slay: Book 2

Death of a Snowman: Book 3

Valentine’s Victim: Book 4

Save over 35% and buy
The Complete 4-Book Holiday Mystery Box Set
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