Baguettes

Hello again everyone.  It seems to have been a while since the last blog post!  Well, I have a Saturday afternoon to kill (while my regular bread rises), so here goes.

This week, I took on the french baguette.  It was a recipe out of Paul Hollywood's "100 great breads", and it turned out cracking.  Here's a mid-bake photo (annoyingly, the only one I took):

Ok, so they haven't got the perfectly cylindrical form you see in those posh shop-bought baguettes, because I don't have a long, round tin.  Who does?!  But the taste is incredible, very definitely a baguette flavour, and rewarding because this recipe meant trying something a bit different.

You need to start this recipe the night before you want to bake the baguettes.  First job is to make a 'sponge'.  This is a sort of pre-dough that you allow to ferment away overnight to build up a strong flavour, before adding the rest of the ingredients and carrying on like normal bread.

Ingredients:
- 500g strong white flour
- 10g dried (not fast-acting) yeast
- warm water to mix
- 50g softened butter (or I used Stork)
- 1tsp salt

Mix the yeast in half a mug of warm water, giving it a good beat with a fork to get the lumps out.  Add this to 200g of the flour, with enough additional water to make a really thick gloopy batter.  This is your sponge, which after 30 minutes will be bubbling away like crazy.

If you have time to bake in the morning/daytime the next day, then leave it out in the kitchen overnight.  If, like me, you have to go to work and won't have time to bake until the following evening, pop it in the fridge when you go to bed and fetch it out again before you go to work next day.  I don't know if this is strictly necessary, but my guess is that it just stops the yeast going too crazy and making a sour (almost alcoholic taste).

When it comes to making your dough, add the remaining 300g of flour, salt and butter, and use your hands to work it into a dough.  Add enough water as you go along to make it soft and pliable (but not wet).  Add a bit of water and keep mixing/kneading with your hands until it's absorbed before you think about adding any more.

Knead for 15 minutes (or until it's mega stretchy), then pop it in a bowl and cover with cling film.  Rise for 1 hour, then squeeze all the air out.  If you don't have an enormous oven, you'll knead to split the dough into 2 halves at this point.  Roll each piece into a long sausage and place on a lined baking tray.  Cover with cling film and rise until doubled in size.  Make sure your cling film is lightly oiled (cake release spray or Fry Lite work really well) to stop it sticking to the baguettes.

Once they've risen, make shallow cuts all the way along to allow them to expand in the oven, and put them in a preheated oven at 220 degrees (C).  For the first 10 minutes, leave a roasting tin in the bottom with some boiling water in to generate steam.  This allows the baguette to develop a nice crust.  After 10 minutes, remove the roasting tin, leave the oven door open for a few seconds to clear the steam, then shut the door and ignore for a further 20 minutes.

Remove the baguettes, tap the bottom to make sure they sound hollow all the way along the length, and if they're done, put them on a wire rack to cool... or if you're really naughty, cut the end off, smother it in butter and eat it hot.

I can't describe the difference in flavour you get compared to normal white bread (essentially the same ingredients in the same proportions), and I think it's all down to using the sponge.  If you haven't done it before, *definitely* give it a go.  And make sure you've got some brie to eat it with.

Bye for now,
Bob x