Baguette Recipe

 

Baguette Recipe, freshly baked and so crunchy is the best breakfast bread you can imagine!

 

The idea of posting how to make French baguette started with the dish I bought, specially designed to make three wands or batons which is the translation of the word „baguette“ in French.

This is not a sponsored post; I really find Emile Henry dishes irresistible for baking.

 

Once the package arrived, I was over the moon to find a booklet of bread recipes with detailed instructions. It served as the base for this one.

Original French baguette is made with four ingredients only but don’t let it fool you. As every foodie knows, simple IS the best but not the easiest to do.

So, you need flour, water, yeast and salt. Also, proportions are to be respected.

For the best results, use stone ground flour. All purpose, store bought was the one I used since stone ground flour is not always available at our farmer’s market.

If you use any other kind, you must adopt the ratio or maybe you are experienced enough to recognize the softness of the dough, once you start the process. This is the photo of the dough after the first kneading, before I left it to rest:

Once you get soft dough, it needs to rest at room temperature, covered with damp tea towel that lets the air in. Avoid draft and leave the yeast to do it’s work for 40 minutes.

 

Now, when first of two necessary rises is done, knead the dough to release the CO2 gas. Now, it’s time to cut your dough into three equal parts and sprinkle them with a pinch of flour:

Now, generously dust the cavities in your baguette mold:

 

Roll all three rolls to fit into cavities and leave to rest again. This time, it takes 20  minutes:

 

Hard work is done. You just preheat the oven while the dough rests for second time.

Before you place your baguettes to the oven, brush them with water and cut the surface of each by smooth, rapid cuts to allow them to rise. If you avoid this detail, the crust makes it difficult to cut and eat says EH recipe booklet:

 

Cover the mold with lid:

 

And bake for 25 minutes. This lid makes the steam falls back on the baguettes. This is why you do not need any extra pot with water in the oven to support baking.

After 25 minutes I took the lid away ( be very careful because it’s extremely hot) and left it uncovered to bake for extra 5 minutes to have golden brown baguettes to enjoy.