No, we cannot live on bread alone, but it sure is a very good place to start! Make your very own French baguettes easily. There is nothing like sinking your teeth into these soft and chewy French bread baguettes!
Yes, warm crusty French bread from your very own oven! With this easy French Baguettes recipe , it only takes some extra time, not extra effort. Besides, what else have you to do today? So even if you are working from home due to Covid 19, you can still make fresh French bread baguettes to have with your dinner tonight. This technique only requires a little attention now and then, the most effort comes when you have to shape the loaves. So if you start the process early, during your coffee or lunch break you can shape the dough into four baguettes and bake them for dinner tonight!
This bread recipe makes 4 large crusty French baguettes.
Ingredients:
- 5 cups bread flour
- ½ teaspoon instant yeast
- 1½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 ⅓ cups of cool tap water
Need high quality bread flour? Click here.
Need a bread couche? Click here
Helpful Tools:
- spray bottle of water for creating extra steam in your oven
- sharp knife or bread scorer. ( I used a stainless steal straight razor)
- clean cotton tea towel or couche
Easy from Start to Finish:
- whisk together flour, salt, and yeast
- add water and mix until all the flour is moistened
- cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rest for 45 minutes
- after resting period, scrape dough onto a clean surface.
- using wet fingers, fold the dough over itself and give the dough a ¼ turn and repeat this step six times. TIP: avoid adding more flour even if the dough is sticky, as you want to keep the high water/flour ratio.
- return the bread dough to the bowl and cover again with plastic wrap
- allow the dough to rest for 45 minutes.
*at this time the dough is visibly smooth and more supple
- after resting repeat the folding process and resting process for a total of four times over three hours.
- following the last resting period, scrape dough onto a floured surface and cut the dough into four equal parts
Shaping the Loaves
- shape each piece of dough and shape them into an oval loaves
- cover them with plastic and let rest for 15 minutes
- place a well-floured couche or well-floured clean tea towel on a flat baking sheet
- sprinkle some flour on your work area and place one piece of dough and flatten with your fingertips
- roll the top ⅓ of the dough toward the middle and using the heel of your hand tap down the edge of the dough and roll down again and tap down again with the heel of your hand
- using both hands, roll the dough out into baguette sized lengths
- place the baguettes one at a time onto the couche or tea towel
- cover with another towel and let rest for 30 minutes
- preheat oven to 400℉ TIP: put a baking pan in the bottom of the oven and pour some boiling water in the hot pan right before you place the loaves in the oven. The steam will help with a fuller rise of your bread.
Scoring the Baguettes
- remove top towel and roll the baguettes carefully onto another large baking sheet
- lightly spray the tops of the baguettes with water and score each loaf with four cuts in a diagonal pattern with a sharp knife, bread scorer, or razor
- place loaves on the center rack of the oven. Spray some water onto the sides of the oven to add steam before you closes the oven door
- bake loaves for 20 minutes, or until golden.
- allow the loaves to cool completely before slicing
Enjoy!
