If there’s a loaf that definitely needs to be eaten on the day that it’s cooked it’s the baguette! If you’ve ever eaten a home-made baguette fresh from the oven you’ll never buy shop bought again. a) It’s the most tasty, warm, crisp delicious bread you’ll ever eat and b) It’s so easy to make! It’s great with a ploughman’s lunch, a bowl of soup or on its own slathered with good quality butter.

The recipe I use is from a book we’ve reviewed in the past, Emmanuel Hadjiandreou’s How to Make Bread. There are full-colour photographic step by step instructions so you can’t go wrong!

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Baguettes made with a poolish

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Ingredients

  

• 2 g fresh yeast or 1g/¼ teaspoon active dry yeast
• 125 g/125ml/½ cup warm water
• 125 g/1 cup white/unbleached plain/all-purpose flour or French T55 flour
• 300 g/2½ cups white/unbleached plain/all-purpose flour or French T55 flour
• 5 g/1tsp salt
• 2 g fresh yeast or 1g/¼ teaspoon active dry yeast
• 140 g/140ml/½ cup plus 1tbs warm water

Instructions

 

• In a (larger) mixing bowl, weigh out the 2g fresh yeast or equivalent. Add the 125g/125ml/½ cup water and stir until the yeast has dissolved. Add the 125g/1 cup flour and mix with a wooden spoon until a spoon paste forms. Cover the bowl and let ferment overnight at room temperature. This is the poolish (Rather than do this stage I used 250g of my white starter)
• The next day, in a (smaller) mixing bowl, mix the 300g/2½ cups flour and the salt together and set aside. This is the dry mixture
• In another (smaller) mixing bowl, weigh out the remaining 2g fresh yeast or equivalent. Add the 140g/140ml/½ cup plus 1tbs water and stir until the yeast has dissolved
• Mix the yeast solution into the poolish, then add the dry mixture too and mix with your hands until it comes together
• Cover and let stand for 10 minutes
• After 10 minutes knead as instructed in photos I, J & K in the illustrated page below
• Cover the bowl again and let stand for 10 minutes
• Repeat steps 6 & 7 twice, then step 6 again
• Cover the bowl again and let rise for 1 hour
• Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour. Punch down the dough and transfer to the floured surface. Divide into 3 equal portions – weigh each piece and add or subtract dough until they all weight the same
• Gently flatten each ball of dough into an oval. Pull both ends of the oval out, then fold them over into the middle. You will now have a roughly rectangular shape
• Pull and fold the top of the rectangle one third of the way toward the middle, pressing into the dough. Swivel it 180° and repeat. Repeat until you have a neat, long loaf shape
• Repeat with the remaining portions of dough. Cover the loaves (seam-side down) and let rest for 15 minutes
• Turn one loaf over and flatten slightly . Fold the top right of the rectangle one third of the way toward the middle, pressing it into the dough. Repeat with the top left and repeat until rolled up
• Roll the dough between your hands until you get a baguette about the length of your baking shape or the desired length. Repeat with the remaining dough
• Dust the proofing linen/tea towel with flour and lay it on the baking sheet. Arrange the baguettes on the cloth, seam-side up, pulling a bit of excess cloth between each baguette to separate them
• Cover with the cloth and let rise until double the size – about an hour
• About 20 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 240°C/475°F/Gas 9. Place a roasting pan at the bottom of the oven to preheat. Fill a cup of water and set aside
• When the dough has finished rising, turn the baguettes over with a peel, if using, onto a paper-lined baking sheet. Dust them with flour and slash along their lengths using a lamé or serrated knife
• Put in the preheated oven and pour the reserved cupful of water onto the hot roasting pan
• Bake for about 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. To check if baked through, tip one upside down and tap the bottom – it should sound hollow. If ready, set the loaves on a wire rack to cool

Tools: 3 graduated mixing bowls (I like to use clear glass bowls so I can keep an eye on where the rise is at)
proofing linen or clean tea/kitchen towel
baking sheet (we bought this one as it’s the exact depth of our oven so fits baguettes perfectly. It’s made of good quality, heavy gauge metal)
floured long baguette bread peel (optional)
parchment paper

_{(click on the image for an expanded view)}

Leaving the dough in the bowl, pull a portion of the dough up from the sides and press into the middle. Turn the bowl slightly and repeat this process with another portion of the dough. Repeat another 8 times. The whole process should only take about 10 seconds and the dough should start to resist.