Perfecting French Bread

Shifting from wildlife to food photography for tonight. I've been working on creating French bread as there is none available on the island. I've gotten the flavor and "look" of it down, but cannot get the crunchy crust I want. This came closest of my attempts this summer.

[PhotoCrazy]

Still looks good, nicely captured!! Hope you figure out the crunchy part!! I was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area which had wonderful sourdough bread!

[Marnie]

That looks absolutely delicious Taffy, great job. Knowing you, you'll work out the how-to for a crunchy crust.

[Jane Pittenger]

Paint cold water on it before cooking? Looks yummy

[eDorre]

Beautiful loaf!

[Diana]

It looks delicious and has a great reflection too.

[Pam Knowler]

How adventurous of you Taffy! Looks delicious! Good luck with the crispy top!

[Annie D]

Looks really good - as an image and to eat 👌

[Dione Giorgio]

That looks very delicious to me. Well done - shot and bread.

[KoalaGardens🐨]

well it does look right - two out of three ain't bad I've been told ;)

[Babs]

It looks delicious, I bet it smells delicious too.

[Beryl Lloyd]

Looks good to me ! Lovely shot and reflection !

[Joan Robillard]

I had to check out my memory - you use steam when you bake and no softners - see here https://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2015/08/09/make-crusty-bread

[Issi Bannerman]

Looks really good. I find it very difficult to get bread to turn out as you want it. I think you've done a pretty good job here.

[Casablanca]

Looks great! I use an egg wash when I want crunchy crust. Have you tried that?

[Gosia]

Like the reflection

[Lou Ann]

My sister took a bread baking class 20 years ago and talked about putting a cookie sheet with ice cubes on it on the rack below the bread. That was supposed to make the crust crispy. It sounded like a joke to me.

[gloria jones]

Looks delicious...Nice shot and reflection

[bkb in the city]

Looks good

[mittens (Marilyn)]

Great shot and it looks delicious to me. :)

[carol white]

It looks delicious 😋

[Walks @ 7]

Crunchy or no, it looks so yummy! Needs lots and lots ob butter....

[Angela]

Looking great! Yum!

[Henk-Jan]

I like the attempt! Never made one myself.

[Steve Pooley]

So tasty

[haskar]

Perfect shot.

[Angelika van Rooyen]

Looks like a french bread, I spray it twice with one of this fine spray bottles during the baking time, that normally dives you a nice crust.

[Tunia McClure]

Your house must smell so good.

[Ann H. LeFevre]

Looks pretty good to me! Jeff and I used to bake bread together as a date! We'd make one loaf for us and give the other to my family. But we never tried French bread- go figure that with a name like LeFevre!

[Richard Hickey]

Cool picture.

[Rob Z]

It looks just perfect here. I guess there must be some trick to getting it crusty - I hope it's not too guarded. :)

[Elizabeth]

Good-looking loaf! Bet it was yummy. I’ve always wanted to learn to bake bread.

[sarah]

I love baking bread — have you tried a clay cloche?

[Taffy]

@samae Thanks for the lead. I've not ever used one -- just googled to see what they are and how they work, very cool!

[sarah]

@taffy I am kind of obsesssed —I have my granny’s Romertoff clay baker which is probably over 70 yrs old that I use for chicken and fish and more —- bought newer versions just for bread...

[Taffy]

@samae What surprised me was the cost for the clay ones. But they do look interesting to use in baking.

[Rosie Kerr]

Looks beautiful! My youngest has been making bread recently too. It makes the house smell so great.

[sarah]

@taffy oops guess my granny's Romertoff is probably older than that - she was near 90 when she passed...so it's held up well. check out the website called breadtopia. ... that's is where I have bought my newer cloches but a good old cast iron dutch oven does the same idea.