For the second time, French Bread Day in La Laguna was celebrated. For the past year, French Bread Day has been considered a culinary and cultural heritage of the Laguna identity of Coahuila and Durango.
This October 16th, International Bread Day, Coahuila authorities established this regional festival with the goal of continuing to strengthen the identity and tourism of the Laguna region, which has been in existence for more than a century.
Its origin is uncertain, but it is believed to date back to the arrival of the French community in La Laguna.
“One of them is that here in Torreón, there was a person from France who lived here in the city and made the traditional French bread, the baguette type. And people would say, ‘Oh, let’s go with French bread. Let’s go for French bread.’ And the nickname stuck,” Eduardo García Ávila, owner of the La Cipreses bakery, with more than 30 years of tradition in the region, told La Jornada.
Unlike other breads like bolillo or telera, the Lagunera French bread has a semi-hard crust, with a filling full of soft crumbs and a salty flavor, but some varieties have a sweet touch.
That’s why replicating this type of bread in other parts of the country is very complicated, since this artisanal process has not been fully industrialized, and yet its preparation requires a minimum of three hours, from the time the ingredients are mixed, the fermentation time, as well as the time and type of baking.
“Here it comes from the way the ingredients are stirred in the mixer; you start to give it time until it ferments, the dough, everything is done by hand, and until it is baked in a very traditional oven,” said García Ávila.
According to the baker, he inherited the trade from his grandfather 50 years ago, a period of time during which he has perfected the recipe for French bread, a product that sells at least 5,000 pieces daily in his bakery.
“It’s a process, a product that is made with great dedication and love so that it reaches your homes,” he noted.
Since last year, the Torreón Municipal Tourism Office and the National Chamber of the Baking Industry (Canainpa) have designated French bread as part of the cultural and gastronomic heritage of the Comarca Lagunera region.
In other parts of the country, French bread can be found in supermarkets as “Pan Torreón,” “Pan Francés Lagunero,” or “Pan Laguna.” However, its production is not the same as that of the region, so its flavor may vary.
Source: jornada
