Four-Hour Baguette
Traditional baguettes are 24 to 30 inches long and are baked in ovens that produce steam, which delays crust formation so the loaves can fully rise. This recipe reduces the length to fit in home ovens and calls for adding ice cubes to a hot cast–iron skillet to create steam. This recipe first appeared in our May 2012 issue along with William Alexander's story American Bread.
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Credit: Todd Coleman
INGREDIENTS
1 ½ cups (12 oz.) tap water, heated to 115°1 tsp. (⅛ oz.) active dry yeast
3 ¼ cups (14 ⅔ oz.) allpurpose flour
1 ½ tsp. (⅜ oz.) kosher salt
Canola oil, for greasing bowl
½ cup ice cubes
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Whisk together water and yeast in a large bowl; let sit until yeast is foamy, about 10 minutes. Add flour, and stir with a fork until dough forms and all flour is absorbed; let dough sit to allow flour to hydrate, about 20 minutes. Add salt ( Figure A); transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface, and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Transfer dough ball to a lightly greased bowl; cover bowl with plastic wrap, and place bowl in a cold oven. Let dough rest until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.
3. Remove bowl with dough from oven, and place a castiron skillet on the bottom rack of oven; position another rack above skillet, and place a baking stone on it.
4. Heat oven to 475°. Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface, and cut into three equal pieces; shape each piece into a 14″ rope ( Figure C). Flour a sheet of parchment paper on a rimless baking sheet; place ropes, evenly spaced, on paper. Lift paper between ropes to form pleats; place two tightly rolled kitchen towels under long edges of paper, creating supports for the loaves. Cover loosely with plastic wrap; let sit until it doubles in size, about 50 minutes.
5. Uncover; remove towels, and flatten paper to space out loaves. Using a sharp razor or paring knife, slash the top of each baguette at a 30degree angle in four spots ( Figure D); each slash should be about 4″ long. Using the corner of the parchment paper as a guide, slide the loaves, still on the parchment paper, onto the baking stone. Place ice cubes in skillet (this produces steam that lets the loaves rise fully before a crust forms). Bake the baguettes until darkly browned and crisp, about 30 minutes; cool before serving.
I made these, just cooked them on a regular oiled sheet with no parchment, worked great! You could divide the final dough into 2 instead of 3 loaves if you wanted a more substantial loaf. Really great crust! Make sure your dough is pretty wet before the first rise so the crumb is nice and open.
I used the ultra grain brand flour found at Costco. It's an all-purpose.
1. Use flour with at least 14% of protein ( 14 grs. per each kg.).
2. Use a preferment like polish (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poolish) or better levain.
3. There is no real difference with what kind of water you use, but if your water contains too much clorine it will kill the yeasts (living organisms) and the fermentation will be two slow.
4. Donīt use sugar because the bread will no longer be called baguette, instead use malt syrup. This is the best food for the yeast and will help you to obtain a golden crust (mallard reaction).
5. Mix well until your really develop the gluten network but donīt over mix.
6. When you form the pieces, tight very well the dough so the baguette will have a good structure to make a vertical rise.
7. When cutting on top, do it parallel to the loaf and be sure that the cut is horizontal to the base of the dough.
8. In you use a home oven be sure to really preheat as much as you can and use a baking stone.
9. Use the ice cubes and spray water, the first 10 minutes of baking are essential to achive the oven spring.
Hope it will help! and if you like it this is my blog: http://fooditsnotjustaboutfood.com/
Cheers!
There are better versions of this recipe on the internet. You may want to see the instructions provided on farmgirlfare.com.
When it comes time to knead, my dough is so sticky that I end up adding almost a cup more flour just to keep the ball from sticking to my hands and the butcher block I'm kneading on! This results in a stiff, really dense ball of dough that certainly doesn't resemble those beautifully smooth, elastic balls you see in "how to knead" videos on youtube. (I'm a novice.)
I typically use 2 cups all-purpose or bread flour and whole wheat or white whole wheat for the remaining 1 1/4 cup. Could that be messing with my proportions somehow? I'd love to hear your advice, Master Bakers, if you have any!
* And by the way, pjlemly, I think you're supposed to leave the salt out at first so it doesn't interfere with your yeast activating. If you forget to add it (oops), the bread still tastes good dipped in some salty olive oil! Call it Tuscan. :)
Should I have put the loaves right on the stone?
How come the bread was'n baked at 200 degrees>
For now, this was a disaster!! Throwing the loaves out!
(the amount of flour i had to use changed. i'm guessing it had something to do with humidity)
so far, the results have been great.
@JOHNEVANS1
re: parchment paper
I don't think the loaves are meant to be baked with the parchment paper attached to the bottom. the parchment paper is only meant to be used in lieu of a peel to gently slide the loaves onto your baking stone.
re: temperature
the recipe calls for the oven to be heated to 475 degrees, not 200 degrees. if you are using celsius, 250 degrees would be more like it.