For months we’ve been searching for excellent Euro crusty bread. It seems more and more everything we buy from the supermarket has sugar or high fructose corn syrup and tastes sweet – what’s with that? Last week we were given a loaf of excellent olive bread by our new friends Jeremy and Shirley. The loaf came from a bakery we had not heard of before: Deux located at 824 Reddick, a little side street off of Milpas in Santa Barbara. So yesterday we drove over to check it out. From the photo above you can see they have a delicious-looking array of pastries, which we will definitely sample at a later time. But we were there for the bread.
They make Sourdough, Country French, Deli-Rye, Whole Wheat, Brioche, Rolls, Dinner Rolls, and more, according to their website. We picked up a French baguette and had some last night for dinner. Jim with mortadella and some of his home-made pickled onions, Laura with some ham and some Swiss cheese.
According to the internet the desirable characteristics of a good French bread are: A crust that audibly crackles as it cools out of the oven (musique du pain). Crispy outer crust with a chewy interior. Good interior structure (i.e. lots of large bubbles and hollow chambers inside the bread). Rich, golden brown color.
Don’t know about the crackly part, but our loaf had all the other characteristics in spades. Plus, we were so happy, NO SUGAR!
