I have been reluctant to attempt making baguettes. Mainly this is because baguettes need to be eaten within hours of baking or they lose the characteristics that make a baguette special, at least for us Americans. It wasn’t until I discovered I could get French flour that I even considered attempting them. Even then I thought long and hard about whether I even wanted to try. In the end I am so glad I did.
In France, everything to do with baguettes is regulated by the French government. From the ingredients to the fact that a baguette must have five overlapping slashes running the length of the baguette. The only flexibility a baker has is in his process. Most make a straight dough using yeast. Some use a levain like I have chosen to do. Others save some of the dough from the previous day and incorporate it into the current days dough. There are even vending machines that will dispense freshly made baguettes.
My first attempt was not a huge success. They certainly were not worthy of documenting. I discovered French flour behaves differently than domestic flour. I am used routinely to making breads with a hydration level of 75% or more. The base recipe I was following for the baguettes had a hydration level of 62% and the dough was a sticky, gloppy mess that was difficult to handle all the way through the process. To compound things I made them too long and they hung off the parchment and the cookie sheet I use to transfer them to the baking stone. They turned out downright ugly! But oh the flavor. I have never made a bread that tasted so good. The crust wasn’t crispy, the crumb was chewy but did they ever taste good. That made it worth continuing.
To solve my main issue I reduced the hydration level to 55%. That’s the lowest hydration level I’ve ever used for a bread dough. In the past I have tried a number of different methods to get steam around the loaf. Most successful for me has always been the dutch oven. Obviously, that wouldn’t work for baguettes. I’ve tried using a cast iron pan underneath the baking stone but never really got a crust I was satisfied with. This was what I did for the first round of baguettes. So I decided to take a chance and bought a perforated baguette pan the would let the steam from the pan below directly surround the loaves by coming up through the perforations in the pan. This was an unqualified success. My second batch of baguettes had a shatteringly crispy thin crust with a soft, tender crumb. The flavor was even better than the first time. If I was only allowed to eat one type of bread for the rest of my life, this would be it. Thankfully, that is not the case and I can continue to experiment with other bread types and document them in this blog.
The flour used was Francine Bio T55 Farine an organic all purpose flour. The salt used in this recipe was Gros Sel de Guerande. Both items were purchased from Yummy Bazaar www.yummybazaar.com.
Some item that I consider necessary to make successful baguettes at home include a linen couche, a baguette flipping board, a lame and a baguette pan. I have shown the ones I use in the photo below. In my next post I will cover why I think they are important.
The Formula
| Ingredient | Amount | Bakers % |
| Levain | ||
| Starter | 17 g | 14% |
| Water | 110 g | 88% |
| T55 Flour | 125 g | 100% |
| Dough | ||
| Levain | 242 g | 81% |
| Water | 125 g | 42% |
| T55 Flour | 300 g | 100% |
| Sea Salt | 5 g | 1.7% |
| Yeast | 1 g (1/4 t) | 0.3% |
My Process
- Day 1 evening, weigh levain ingredients.
- Mix the starter into the water and stir to dissolve.
- Add the flour and stir until incorporated.
- Cover bowl and let stand on the counter for 12 hours.
- Day 2 morning, weigh all dough ingredients.
- In a mixing bowl, add the levain to the water and stir to dissolve.
- Add the salt and yeast to the flour making sure to keep them separate, stir to incorporate.
- Slowly add the flour mixture to the water/levain mixture using a dough whisk. Continue until all the dry flour mixture is incorporated into the dough.
- Transfer the dough to a dough rising container and cover. Let rest 10 minutes.
- Stretch and fold the dough the dough 4 or 5 times on 10 minute intervals until a smooth dough is achieved, covering in between.
- Let the dough rise for an hour to and hour and fifteen minutes (I let it go an hour and a half and it was slightly over proofed).
- Punch down the dough, form a rough ball, lightly flour the dough, and divide into 3 equal pieces. Use a scale!
- Shape each dough piece into a log.
- Cover with damp towel and let rest 15 minutes.
- Shape baguettes. I strongly recommend watching the video on Breadtopia http://www.breadtopia.com to learn how to do this. There is a technique to this and I had to watch numerous times to semi-master it. I still need more practice.
- Transfer formed dough to a well floured linen couche or linen towel. Let rise 1 hour or until doubled in size.
- Preheat oven to 445F convection. Place a cast iron skillet directly beneath where the baguettes will bake. The baguette pan I bought is non-stick and has a maximum temperature of 450F. The recipe for baguettes calls for baking at 475F, too high for the pan. Our oven uses a temperature offset of 25F when set to “auto convection” so I actually set to 470F auto convection to get to the 440F setting.
- Use a baguette flipping board to transfer the formed dough to baguette baking pan.
- After all 3 loaves are transferred to the pan, slash the loaves. Remember, 5 overlapping slashes.
- Place pan in the oven. Add 1/2 cup boiling water to the cast iron pan and quickly close the oven door. Be careful! Steam can cause serious burns.
- After 8 minutes remove the cast iron pan from the oven. Total baking time 15 to 17 minutes.
- Remove baguettes from the oven to a cooling rack. Let cool 45 minutes before eating.
As soon as these were cool enough we sliced the first one and ate with a cave-ripened Brie from Wegmans. We also ate plain, with butter, and with strawberry jam. All were awesome!
For dinner, we cut one baguette in half, split it and had with a grilled Gianelli Italian Sausage, peppers and onions. Also delicious. The sandwich was devoured and savored in lieu of taking a picture.
The third baguette was used the next morning for French toast. Again, very, very good. Just shows the versatility of the seemingly simple baguette.
I will continue to work baguettes into my weekly bread making. I also want to try using the French flour in some of the other breads I bake. It has the best flavor and aroma of any flour I have used to date.
Disclaimer: I have no affiliation of any kind with Breadtopia, Yummy Bazaar, Wegmans or Gianelli Sausage.