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French Baguette

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Andrei Mudrov
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90 views7 pages

French Baguette

Uploaded by

Andrei Mudrov
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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FRENCH BAGUETTE

DIRECTIONS
WATCH HOW TO MAKE THIS RECIPE.
 Combine the honey, yeast and 1/2
cup warm water. Stir to combine
and let the mixture stand until the
yeast is activated and begins to
foam, 5 minutes.
 Mix the flour and salt in a large
mixing bowl with a dough hook and
slowly add in the yeast mixture.
Gradually add 1 cup warm water
and mix until the dough comes
together into a ball that is not too
wet (you may not need all of the
water). If the dough is sticky, add a
little bit more flour. Turn out the
dough onto a floured surface and
knead until the dough is smooth
and elastic, 2 to 6 minutes. You can
do the thumbprint test: press in the
dough with your thumb and it
should bounce back when it's ready.
 Form the dough into a ball, place it
in a lightly-oiled bowl and cover
with a dishcloth, so it doesn't dry
out. Let rest in a warm environment
until doubled in size, 25 to 30
minutes.
 Punch down the dough and divide it in
half. Shape into 2 baguettes by making a
flat rectangle out of your dough, then
folding the top and bottom towards the
middle, like an envelope, and sealing the
seam with your fingers. Keep repeating
the folding and sealing, stretching the
rectangle lengthwise as you go, until it's
about 12 to 14 inches long and 2 inches
wide. Fold and seal either end to round.
Flip seam-side down and place on a
sheet pan or baguette pan that has been
dusted with cornmeal. Score the tops of
the loaves, making deep diagonal slits
1/2-inch deep, cover with a dishcloth and
let rise in a warm environment until
they have doubled in size, 25 minutes.
 Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F and
position your oven racks with one on the
bottom and the other in the middle.
Place an oven-safe (non-glass) bowl or
pan on the bottom rack.
 When your bread has doubled
for the second time, remove the
towel and quickly and
simultaneously, slide the sheet
tray with the baguettes onto
the middle rack while carefully
throwing the ice cubes into the
bowl on the bottom rack. The
ice will create a burst of steam
that will give you a nice crispy
crust. Quickly shut the oven
door so no steam escapes. Bake
the baguettes until golden
brown, 15 minutes.
 Cook's Note: If you have a glass
window on your oven, place a
towel over it when throwing the
ice in, hot glass can shatter if
ice touches it.
HISTORY

 He word "baguette" was not used to refer


to a type of bread until 1920, but what is
now known as a baguette may have
existed well before that date. The word,
derived from the Italian bacchetta,
simply means "wand", "baton" or "stick",
as in baguette magique (magic wand),
baguettes chinoises (chopsticks), or
baguette de direction (conductor's baton).
 Though the baguette today is often
considered one of the symbols of French
culture viewed from abroad, the
association of France with long loaves
predates any mention of it. Long, if wide,
loaves had been made since the time of
King Louis XIV, long thin ones since the
mid-eighteenth century and by the
nineteenth century some were far longer
than the baguette: "... loaves of bread six
feet long that look like crowbars!" (1862);
"Housemaids were hurrying homewards
with their purchases for various Gallic
breakfasts, and the long sticks of bread,
a yard or two in length, carried under
their arms, made an odd impression
upon me." (1898)
 A less direct link can be made
however with deck ovens, or steam
ovens. Deck/steam ovens are a
combination of a gas-fired
traditional oven and a brick oven, a
thick "deck" of stone or firebrick
heated by natural gas instead of
wood. The first steam oven was
brought (in the early nineteenth
century) to Paris by the Austrian
officer August Zang, who also
introduced Vienna bread (pain
viennois) and the croissant, and
whom some French sources thus
credit with originating the baguette.
 Deck ovens use steam injection,
through various methods, to create
the proper baguette. The oven is
typically heated to well over 200 °C
(390 °F). The steam allows the crust
to expand before setting, thus
creating a lighter, airier loaf. It also
melts the dextrose on the bread's
surface, giving a slightly glazed
effect.
 An unsourced article in The
Economist states that in October
1920 a law prevented bakers from
working before 4 a.m., making it
impossible to make the traditional,
round loaf in time for customers'
breakfasts. The slender baguette, the
article claims, solved the problem,
because it could be prepared and
baked much more rapidly, though
France had already had long thin
breads for over a century at that
point.
 The law in question appears to be
one from March 1919, though some
say it took effect in October 1920:
 It is forbidden to employ workers at
bread and pastry making between
ten in the evening and four in the
morning.
 The rest of the account remains to be
verified, but the use of the word for a
long thin bread does appear to be a
twentieth century innovation.

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