NOLA-Style French Bread Rolls (2024)

FAQs

Why is New Orleans French bread different? ›

Two aspects of New Orleans French bread are distinctive. The first is its lightness. The interior often has large gaps and bubbles, and the crumb in general is quite airy. The other hallmark is the thinness and brittleness of the crust.

Leidenheimer bread has been voted the best French bread in New Orleans by readers of Gambit Magazine and continues to be the largest supplier of French bread for the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Unless you're lucky enough to get po'boy bread from New Orleans, the best bread to use should be light and fluffy inside with a thin, crispy crust on the outside—a French baguette, French bread rolls, or hoagies rolls are common swaps.

So, let's start with a traditional po-boy. The key to getting it right is the bread. The ingredients between the bread can vary widely: shrimp, roast beef, fried green tomatoes- you've got to get the bread right. For the traditional po'boy we use what New Orleanians call “French bread”.

This thin-crusted variety of French Bread—more commonly known as the Baguette, Po' Boy Loaf or Sunday Cap Bread—is fundamental to the New Orleans gastronomy. Each version of the French bread is slightly different. The baguette is the traditional 18-inch loaf that is served in many New Orleans restaurants.

Iceland. Iceland is considered one of the countries with the best bread in the world, much of which can be attributed to the unique methods it employs for its bread-making. The Icelandic rye bread is high in sugar and is baked underground using bubbling lava sand as the heat source.

In Louisiana, two of the most popular types of bread are Evangeline Maid and Bunny Bread.

What is a po-boy sandwich? Piled with lettuce, tomato and pickles and filled with roast beef, fried shrimp, oysters–or whatever you choose–po-boys are stuffed and slathered with sauce or mayonnaise, and then served between two long pieces of French bread.

Baguette – a long, thin type of bread of French origin. The "baguette de tradition française" is made from wheat flour, water, yeast, and common salt. It may contain up to 2% broad bean flour, up to 0.5% soya flour, and up to 0.3% wheat malt flour.

What are New Orleans sandwiches called? ›

A muffuletta is one of the three iconic sandwiches in New Orleans, a proud trio that also includes po' boys, of course, and the Vietnamese version, the banh mi. Like most traditional bites, a muffuletta isn't just a sandwich, it's a history lesson.

Our Famous New Orleans Pecan Pie recipe will leave your guests full and satisfied.

If you don't have access to New Orleans French bread, you can substitute Italian or hoagie rolls for a similarly hearty sandwich.

In France, bakers pay careful attention to where their flour is made and which grains are used in the milling process. The result is usually softer, heartier, and tastier bread than can be found in other parts of the world. French flour tends to be made with a lower ash content than the flour from other countries.

"French influence in New Orleans is traceable to the spring of 1682, when the French-Canadian explorer Robert La Salle first passed the future site of the city and claimed the entire Mississippi Valley for France," explained Richard Campanella, an author and geographer with New Orleans' Tulane University.

Besides the obvious fact that French bread is typically longer and thinner than regular loaves, it tends to be less sweet and has a crispier crust. French bread is usually also made with very simple ingredients instead of sandwich bread, which can have many different additives.

There are few American cities with culinary traditions as distinct as New Orleans. The mix of Cajun and Creole cultures in and around the unique Southern city has produced such famous dishes as gumbo, jambalaya, po'boys, and crawfish etouffee. It's made restaurants such as Commander's Palace and Emeril's world famous.