Being a lover of ALL types of breads, I really have become quite fascinated with making my own. This week I went rather hardcore and decided to tackle the french baguette. Some say that the french baguette is a true test of a bakers skill. I could not help but think that I have bitten off more than I could chew!
Fortunately for me, there are plenty of great resources to find on the internet to hone my baking skills. I have found the one-stop-shopping place for all great artisan breads. Artisan Bread Baking. The site is a tremendous resource for beginner to intermediate at home bakers. So a special thanks to Barry Harmon for doing all the hard work and making this “easy” for the novice baker!
All measurements here are in metric. I found it much easier for weights and measures to do it is metric vs. standard. I lose patience with the fractions. You will need a food scale for this recipe also!
So I started bright and early on Saturday morning (using this recipe and method it requires a bit more than 7 hours start to finish!) with making my pre-ferment, which is called a poolish. The purpose of using a poolish,or a pre-ferment, is to have a portion of the bread dough that has already undergone some of the fermentation.
Poolish
Ingredients
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285 g Bread Flour
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285 g warm water
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1 g dry yeast
Method
1. Mix up all ingredients into a loose slurry and then let it sit, covered, on the counter for 2 or 3 hours before you use it.
- My Poolish after about 1 hour of fermentation
Ingredients
(updated 12/28/2011 – corrected amounts based on full poolish)
-
565 g organic bread flour (I use King Arthur)
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225 g water (again use pure spring water)
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22 g kosher salt
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2 teaspoons (6 g) of dry yeast
Method
- Add yeast and water to the mixing bowl. Mix up for a minute or two, then add salt, your poolish (pre-ferment) and flour. Mix for two minutes, then let rest for 20 minutes.
- Knead using dough hook for 7 minutes ( I use speed 2 on mixer). The result should be a firm, slightly sticky dough.
After the First Kneading
- Remove the dough hook and cover. Let it rise for 45 minutes.
After the first fermentation
- Perform a fold of the dough using the dough hook. This is simply letting the dough hook fall into the dough to de-gas it, then turning on the mixer on low speed and giving it about 4 revolutions. Remove the dough hook and turn the dough over and perform the same manuever again.
- Remove the dough hook, cover and let rise for 45 minutes.
- Repeat the dough hook fold once again. Place the dough back in the bowl, cover and let rise another 30 minutes.
After the final fermentation
- Remove from the bowl, repeat the fold again and place the dough on the counter and let it rest for 10 minutes under a towel (do not flour!).
- Divide the dough into 4 separate 400 g portions, then let the dough rest for 10 minutes under a moist towel.
- Shape into baguettes (Learn how to shape here!)
- I placed my formed baguettes on the countertop on lightly greased baking sheets and let them rise for 45 minutes covered with a moist towel.
My Shaped Baguettes!
- Heat oven to 440F. (The original recipe calls to use baking stones, since I do not have any, I did not do this step, they turned out just fine without them!)
- Provide steam in the oven by placing a pan of water on the bottom of the oven (this will give it the nice crunchy crust!).
- Bake for 15 minutes, rotate the loaves to equalize baking.
- Bake until done about 32 minutes total time, since all ovens are different, recommended internal temperature is 195-200F.
- Turn the oven off and let the loaves sit in the cooling oven for 5 minutes.
- Remove the loaves from the oven!
Fresh from the oven!
The DelGrosso Food Blog 