traditional baguettes

We start the week with very good news! Since many of you want to learn how to make bread at home, Eva, author of Bake-Street , has agreed to participate in our blog to encourage you to embark on this delicious journey into the world of baking: she brings us a basic recipe for making baguettes at home . I encourage you to read it, to follow the advice it gives us and to savor a delicious homemade bread!

Making bread at home is one of the most grateful and satisfying things I know. Not only is it a process that relaxes us, but it also allows us to enjoy freshly made artisan bread every day.

At the beginning of starting this wonderful adventure in your homes, I recommend that you start with yeast breads or simple poolish or sponge type preferences. Once you are comfortable with this type of bread, you can make way for sourdough breads.

We are going to see how to make traditional baguettes, the simplest in terms of process and use of ingredients.

The baguette is a bread that everyone likes, with a very thin and crunchy crust, with a very characteristic flavor and aroma, as well as a very soft and fluffy crumb. If we add to all this that in a maximum of 5 hours we will be able to enjoy them, I think we can say little more... it is certainly worth it, and a lot!

You will observe that the recipe that I leave you below has a small amount of yeast, do not increase it to be able to finish the process sooner. A bread made with little yeast stays fresh longer than one with a lot of it, as well as making it much healthier and tastier.

The forming process may not be perfect in the first preparation, but remember that bread is practical and the more breads you make, the better they will be.

To bake the baguettes I have used the Emile Henry ceramic oven, it is an oven very similar to a Dutch Oven. In it we can create a perfect environment to obtain baguettes with a soft and fluffy crumb with a very thin and crunchy crust.

Being made of ceramic, during the preheating of the oven, it allows the Emile Henry oven to get very hot - this step is essential to obtain a great expansion of the bread, volume, together with a very thin and crispy crust. In addition, by baking it in a closed container we favor the formation of steam, together with a previous spraying on the bread, which will help us to obtain greater volume and opening of the cuts.

If you make the recipe with this oven, I recommend you follow the steps that I give you in the recipe. It is very important that the Emile Henry oven is preheated beforehand to favor good baking of the baguettes as well as to achieve good expansion of the bread and a thin, crispy crust.

This ceramic kiln has another peculiarity, and that is that when it is very hot it changes color slightly, going from red to a very dark garnet. In this way we will be able to know, when we let it cool, if it is still hot.

The result is baguettes with an extraordinary flavor and texture, you'll tell me! Now we go with the process.

In the photo, ceramic oven for baguettes d'Emile Henry

Ingredients (for 3 baguettes)

300 g of bread flour with a strength W=180-190
50 g loose pastry flour
245g of water
0.8 - 1 g dry yeast or 2.4 - 3 g fresh yeast
6.3g sea salt
1.7 g roasted malt

Elaboration

We prepare the dough for our baguettes:

In a large bowl add the two types of flour and mix with the help of a silicone spatula. Add the water and mix until both ingredients are completely amalgamated, there should be no part of dry flour left.

To mix it we can do it manually or in a mixer and using the hook, we will always mix at the lowest speed for a maximum of 2 minutes.

Cover the dough with a cotton cloth and let it autolyse for 60 minutes.

This step will allow the protein in the flour to hydrate, facilitating subsequent kneading, as well as helping us to obtain a greater volume of our breads.

After this rest time, add the yeast. I recommend using dry baker's yeast, it integrates much better into the dough and it costs less to melt it. We knead well, performing the French kneading, trying to fully integrate it. Then we incorporate the salt and proceed to knead again until it is fully integrated.

How is French knead done?

We place the hands like shovels, with the fingers together, in this way we will avoid leaving holes through which the dough can be strained. We take part of the dough by one of the ends, as if we were going to take a sandwich, and lightly supporting the thumbs on it, we lift the dough upwards and release the dough on the work surface, folding forwards and releasing the end that we had caught. We repeat this process several times.

The kneading between the incorporation of the yeast and the salt should not be extensive, just enough to distribute them in the dough and not scatter them on the work table. To make this bread we must not knead conscientiously, we must perform a short kneading.

Once we have integrated both ingredients into the dough, we make 3-4 more folds with the French knead and introduce the dough into an airtight container or bowl previously greased with olive oil. We cover with its corresponding lid or film, to prevent the dough from crusting, and let it ferment for 3 hours in a block.

During these 3 hours we will have to make folds in the dough for the first hour every 20 minutes. The following 2 hours we will let the dough rise without having to touch it at a maximum of 27-28ºC.

How is a folding done?

After the first 20 minutes, we uncover our recent/bowl and moisten our hands with cold water, in this way we can manipulate the dough without it sticking to us excessively.

With the folds we will form a kind of square with our dough. Let's imagine that our container is square, it is easier to visualize, we take one of the ends of the dough, lift it up slightly and fold it over the dough. Turn the container 180º, take the other end of the dough and fold over itself.
Turn the container 90ºC, take the end of the dough and fold it, letting the dough fall on itself. Finally, we turn the container 180ºC, take the last end of the dough and fold it on itself.

Cover and let rest for another 20 minutes.

Once the block fermentation time has passed, the first fermentation, we will have to preform our baguettes.

We preform and form the baguettes:

Flour the work surface, we must not do it very lightly but neither excessively!, there may be traces of flour between the folds of dough, and we turn the dough over.

Divide into three equal portions, they will be around 200 g each, and preform. To do this we will take each piece, they will be like small rectangles, and we will fold the right end over the dough and then the left end. We must not put too much stress on the pieces because they would degas too much and the work done so far would be wasted.

Cover the pieces with a cotton cloth and let rest for 15-20 minutes.

After this time, we proceed to form our baguettes.

We will have a linen couche prepared or, failing that, a very wide linen or cotton tablecloth, generously floured. We booked.

To form the baguettes it is very important that, first of all, we take into account the length that the Emile Henry oven allows us to give our baguettes, otherwise they would protrude on the outside and we would not be able to bake them properly.

We take one of the pieces, leave the rest covered, and place it in front of us. The mass will be more or less rectangular and the longest part will be horizontal to us.

We must "roll" the dough three times to form the entire baguette. The right hand will serve as a guide and the left hand will seal the dough that we "roll up".

We place our right thumb in the upper left corner of the piece of dough, with the rest of our fingers we will help lift the dough to roll it on itself.

You must keep in mind that we must do this step 3 times, so that you visually calculate how much you must roll.

The left hand will seal, we will help ourselves with the index and middle finger, the dough that is being rolled to favor the shape and exert tension. We will do this step until the entire piece is rolled up for the first time.

Once we have completed this first part, we must repeat the process with a second round and, finally, with a third. At the end of this step we will obtain a cylinder of dough with the fold of the last joint facing us.

Gently slide a scraper over the base of the baguette to separate the dough from the work surface in case it has adhered.

Now we will have to give the baguette some length, remembering not to exceed the length that the oven allows us.

We place both hands on the dough cylinder and, with smooth and rocking movements, we will slide each of the hands towards the ends. We must not insist too much on this step, we could degas the dough and harm the shape.

We take the baguette and place it on the couche. We repeat this step with the other two pieces.

When placing the baguettes on the linen we must create some holes by lifting the couche between baguette and baguette. Sprinkle a little flour on the surface, cover and let rise for about 60-75 minutes.

If we do not have a shovel to transport the baguettes from the couch to the oven, we can do the following. We place a strip of baking paper on the couche and on these we will place the baguette, so that once it has risen it will allow us to move it to the oven without having to manipulate it with our hands, since we run the risk of spoiling it.

We do not have to let the baguettes rise in the baguette oven, as specified in the manual, because we need to preheat it well before using it in order to obtain good results after baking.

When there are 45 minutes left to bake the baguettes, we will preheat the Emile Henry oven: we introduce the ceramic oven, base and lid, on the rack and in the lowest part, preheat to 250ºC.

After the rising time we prepare our baguettes to bake them:

Once we have preheated the oven and we are going to introduce the baguettes, the ideal is to transport them on strips of parchment or parchment paper. It will be very comfortable for us to be able to move them without burning ourselves. In case you have a shovel, you can transport them in it and slide over Emile's oven. In that case, I recommend you lightly grease with olive oil and sprinkle flour over the cavities of the oven, before always heating it! (As you use the oven, the holes will stop adhering to the bars).

Uncover the baguettes and proceed to make the cuts before placing them in the oven. We will do it with a slightly damp blade or lick.

We must do this step just before baking, we cannot weave the baguettes together and leave them like this for a few minutes before putting them in the oven.

The cuts must not be inclined, they are practically straight and we must make 3 to 4 cuts in the baguette. We make the first cut, more or less in the center of the baguette with a quick and safe movement, we must not hesitate or cut again on a cut.
We will have to do the next one from the third part of the first one, we could say that they more or less overlap in height.

In the photo, breads presented in the Kitchen Craft wire basket (left), and knife with a Pallarès boxwood handle .

Once we have threaded the three baguettes, spray them with a little water and place them in the ceramic oven: very carefully remove the lid of the ceramic oven , with oven gloves, and leave it on a surface that cannot damage, the ceramic hob for example. We pass the baguettes, as quickly as possible, to the Emile Henry oven , and leave them on the holes. Cover again with the lid of the ceramic oven, close our oven and bake for 10 minutes at 250ºC.

After this time, we lower the temperature to 240ºC and bake for 10 more minutes. Finally we remove the lid of the ceramic oven , always with the help of gloves, and bake for around 4-5 minutes with air at a temperature of 220ºC.

It is important that these final minutes are air-cooked because it favors the homogeneous browning of the baguettes as well as removing excess moisture, helping to obtain a thin and very crunchy crust.

After the baking time, remove and let cool on a wire rack.

STORAGE : This bread has a short shelf life, the ideal is to eat it the same day it is made or freeze it, very well wrapped in film, once it has completely cooled.