French Baguette is just a dream come true for me. I have been meaning to make this for ages. You see the problem when you get freshly baked bread for less than £1, you sometimes end up just buying them. I then try breads that are not commonly available or breads baked as part of our baking group - We Knead to Bake. But the dream of just baking my own baguette just got better of me.
Did I tell you Fridays have become my bread making day. After dropping off the little one at school, I start my bread. By pickup time my bread is all baked, photos taken, blog post written. Day well spent, don't you think? And What goes with bread than a warm bowl of soup!
Adapted from here
Ingredients
Starter
Cool Water 1/2 cup
Instant Yeast 1/16 tsp
Bread Flour (or All Purpose Flour, Maida) 1 cup
Dough
Instant Yeast 1 tsp
Lukewarm Water 1 1/4 Cup (use as needed, you may need just 1 Cup)
Starter
Bread Flour (or All Purpose Flour, Maida) 3 1/2 cups
Salt 1.5 tsp (or taste)
Method of Preparation
1. Make the starter the day before. Mix everything together to form a dough. Let it rest for 12 hours or overnight.
2. Mix the flour, yeast, water, salt and the starter together in a stand mixer with dough hook or by hand.
3. Knead till it is a soft pliable dough.
4. Place in a greased bowl and cover. Let it rise for 3 hours - After the first hour, deflate and let it rise for another 2 hours.
5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly greased work surface. Divide it into three equal pieces. (or 6 pieces if you want smaller size Baguette).
6. Shape each piece into a rough, slightly flattened oval, cover with greased plastic wrap, and let them rest for 15 minutes.
7. Working with one piece of dough at a time, fold the dough in half lengthwise, and seal the edges with the heel of your hand. Flatten it slightly, and fold and seal again.
8. With the seam-side down, cup your fingers and gently roll the dough into a 15" log (8" for a small one). Place the logs seam-side down into the wells of a baguette pan; or onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
9. Cover them with a cover or lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow the loaves to rise till they've become very puffy, about 1 1/2 hours.
10. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat your oven to 230 C.
11. Using a very sharp knife held at about a 45° angle, make three vertical slashes in each baguette.
12. Bake the baguettes until they're a very deep golden brown. Mine baked in 17 minutes. Remove them from the oven and cool on a rack.
Looking for another option to use these baguettes.. why not make this Awesome Eggplant Sub?
Perfectly baked home-made bread...hmm anytime!! I have a question though.. did the bread stay crunchy even after hours or days? Also, fix the link to "Eggplant Sub", doesn't seem to work.
ReplyDeleteSasi, this was gone in a few hours. so have not tested it out for days :-). For Baguettes I have read the best way to revive old bread is to quickly run it under tap water. Don't soak, just wet. The stick it into the oven till warmed thru. I have not tried it, but mean to do it when I have some old bread :-). have corrected the link, thanks for letting me know
Deletethey are looking so perfect
ReplyDelete