Beautiful Baguette Saturday

Pretty darn pleased with myself for a first attempt at making baguette. And they taste awesome with a little salted butter on them though more like a sour dough, hard crust, air bubbles and a little chewy. Yum! 

For 4 smaller or 2 large baguette:

1/4 tsp dry active Rapid Rise Yeast

(Note: if you want to use a traditional bread technique, add the whole package of dried yeast or 2 1/4 tsp) 

1 1/2 cups water (325 grams)

1 3/4 tsp salt

18 oz by weight all-purpose flour (500 grams), about 4 cups

- Mix dough and let rise 12-14 hours or until doubled

- Punch down and shape loaves, let rise covered with floured plastic 1 to 1 1/2 hr or until almost doubled

- Bake at 550 F. Place a baking tray of water in oven before heating as steam is important for the process 

- Spray baguettes with water before baking, at 5 minutes, and at 10 minutes during cooking time
- Bake about 15 minutes or until well-browned

Bread making has always been my nemesis even though I'm a pretty decent baker. I have a great bread maker and that worked fabulously with malted grain flour that they 'used' to stock in Sultan Centre but they no longer have it. The normal bread flour as a loaf made in my bread maker became a little boring. So I found this recipe it looked pretty easy and although it is a lengthy procedure, it's well worth it. So prep it the night before, it takes 2-3 minutes and in the morning - punch down, shape, reproof, wait, bake and enjoy.