JUST NOT THE CAKES: baguettes

Sunday, January 19, 2014

French Baguette

Baguette - Bakers dream bread . I am pretty sure anyone who loves baking , baguettes are in the to - do list .

I had this in my to-do list for along time . I tried making baguettes with sour dough , believe me i was ashamed to call me as a baker for some time. They turned out so bad . I really don't know where it went wrong . Then i kept postponing it .

Finally i made baguette for the Home bakers Challenge. The recipe was suggested by +Priya Suresh . It turned out to be fantastic . The bread had nice golden crust . It was perfect for the Garlic Cheese toast i made that evening ( Recipe to be posted ) .

This recipe was quite simple using yeast . The sour dough recipe i made , actually took three days to make sour dough and finally it gave me disappointment . One good thing in that was , i used only 1 Cup of flour . So i didn't lose that much of ingredients :P .

Ingredients :

All Purpose Flour - 2 Cups

Sugar - 1 TSP

Warm Water - Approximately 3/4 cup + ( might need another 1 TBLS )

Salt - 1 TSP

Yeast - 1 TSP

Instructions:

In a bowl add sugar and yeast to the warm water and mix it well . ( Make sure the water is warm , not hot . If its hot it will kill the yeast ).

Keep the yeast mixture covered . Allow it to sit for couple of minutes till it turns frothy / Bubbly ( It means the yeast is active).

In another bowl add flour and salt . Pour the yeast mixture and mix it initially then knead it using hands / stand mixture / beater with dough hook for approximately 10 minutes.

Once you see the gluten forming in the dough cling wrap the dough in a greased pan ,allow it to proof for an hour / till it doubles in size. ( When you stretch a piece of dough , you can see a elastic sort of a thing , that's how gluten forms ) Check this site .

Depending on the size of the bread you knead , divide the dough.

Dust some flour before working on the dough .( helps not to stick to the counter )

Take the portion of the dough and roll it to the shape of rectangle.

Roll , opposite sides towards the middle of the dough.

Flatten it and roll one side of the dough again towards you and press the edges well with your figures.

Roll the dough to form baguettes .
Place the baguettes over the flour dusted cloth . Cover the Baguettes with a wet muslin cloth and keep it in a warm place . Allow it to raise for another hour .
Once it is raised , Preheat the oven at 400F.
Brush the baguettes with water and make slashes , dust some flour over it .
Keep a bowl of water in a corner of the oven and bake the baguettes at 420F for 25 minutes. ( Baguettes are ready if you hear a hollow sound when they are tapped )
cool them completely .