Baguettes the easy way!

Here are some tricks I have developed to make it all work. Important notes are in bold. Good luck!

Things to know:

• This dough doesn't want to be handled too much, so you won't be doing any more kneading than it has had already in the bread machine (Lucky you!).
  
• Be gentle with it when handling.
  Make sure the yeast is still good (must be fresh, not too close to the expiry date!)
  
• Use bread flour. It is a harder flour than all-purpose flour, and contains more gluten for bread making. This will give the bread a nice texture after baking.
  

Use the bread machine to do the hard work of mixing, and the first rise.

Here are the ingredients applicable to the size of my bread machine which has a capacity of approximately three quarts:

 (Makes 3-4 baguettes)

1 3/4 cup tepid water
4 ½ cups bread flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons dry bread machine yeast

It is important to put the ingredients into the bread machine following the order listed in your bread machine's recipe book. 

Use the dough setting on your bread machine. This will mix the dough and perform the first rise (TIME: 1:30) 

Optional step: Spray a medium to large sized glass bowl with olive oil. After the first rise in the machine is complete, "pour" the dough out of the bread machine and into the bowl.

Cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap. Let it rise in a warm place until about double in size. Remove the plastic wrap and punch down dough. (TIME: 1:30) 

Spray two large (17.25 x 11.5") cookie sheets with olive oil, or line with parchment paper.  Note: You can reuse parchment paper, and it's recyclable! I just leave it on the baking sheet for the next day, shaking off any crumbs.

Forming

Gently form the dough into a big ball by grabbing one section of the dough from underneath and pulling it up over to its opposite side, gently tuck it underneath. Turn the dough a quarter turn and repeat once or twice more to form a nice ball.

With a large butcher's knife, cut it into three or four equal parts.

On a non-floured surface, slightly flatten one of the balls. Bring the left side into the centre and pat down briefly, repeat with the right side.

With the edge of your hand, form a slight crevice down the centre of the dough, parallel to the counter edge. (pictured above right)

Now fold the bottom half of the dough up toward the centre crevice, and then the top half of the dough down to the centre crevice. 

With both hands, gently start to roll back and forth to form a cylinder, taking steps to form nice smooth ends as well. Do not force the dough into the shape. If it starts resisting, let it rest and move on to the next piece of dough. Rotate through all three or four dough pieces, taking turns with each until they are all about 15” long.

If, while rolling the baguette into shape, you can feel an air pocket, pinch or squeeze the air out and reshape that area to return it to the nice cylindrical shape.

Keep in mind that you want to complete these steps as quickly as possible, with as little handling as possible. The more you handle it, the denser you will make your bread. (TIME: 00:08)

Efficient handling is one key to success.

Now that they're shaped

Gently place on cookie sheets, leaving room to grow between them.

With a very sharp knife, cut four or five diagonal slices into the baguettes.

Lightly support the dough with the fingertips of one hand while slicing with the other hand, about 1/8" - 1/4" deep.
Preparing for the final rise

Whatever you use to cover the baguettes during the final rise risks sticking to the dough and deflating the baguettes when you remove it.

Every time I've ever used damp tea towels, dry tea towels, or plastic wrap to cover the baguettes, the dough sticks when you try to remove it. Once they deflate, there is no turning back. (and I don't care what your Mom says, try it and see!)

As long as it is warm enough, the bread will be fine to rise without being covered.

Alternatively, my favourite method, is to take a couple of clean linen tea towels, lightly dust them with flour. This will prevent them from sticking to the dough. When you are finished letting them rise, carefully fold up the tea towels and place them in a sealed freezer bag for next time.

My house is cold, so here is what I do:

Set the toaster oven to about 150F on bake, put a couple of tea towels or an oven mitt on top of it. Place one of the cookie sheets on top of the oven mitt so it is trapped in the smaller warm space between the top of the toaster oven and the bottom of the cupboards. The other cookie sheet gets put on top of the coffee machine which is beside my toaster oven.

That confined space with the heat of the toaster oven helps keep it nice and warm. Optimally, the dough needs a temperature of 70F to rise.

Now let your nicely formed baguettes rise in a warm, draft-free spot. (TIME: 2 hrs)

Time to bake 

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Optional: 

Beat an egg yolk with 2 tablespoons of water. VERY CAREFULLY, and lightly, brush the egg wash over the baguettes. You do not want to disturb or deflate your nicely risen bread at this point!

Optional:

Put a small pan of water on the very bottom rack of the oven. Try not to have it directly oven a large portion of the element. This helps to add humidity for a nice crisp crust.

Bake the bread for 20-25 minutes, until it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Immediately remove from the pans to cool on wire racks.

Still having trouble?

1. If your breads are still having trouble rising nicely, make sure your yeast isn't stored in a place that is too warm. You could store it in the fridge, and then take it out about an hour before preparing the bread to let it come to room temperature.
2. Remember: efficient handling is key
3. Always use the same everything: same measuring cups, same methods. Eventually you will learn to make your own adjustments to find what YOU have to do to get consistent results.
   

For instance, my measurements, in reality, are really 4 ½ cups of flour, plus a smidgen. The water is 1 ¾ of a cup, minus a smidgen.

IF I use a different measuring cup for the water, minus my smidgen, that smidgen won't work with the new measuring cup, resulting in a dough that is too wet. Then if you try to knead in more flour to compensate, the baguettes will shrink and the dough will be dense!

It sounds silly, but believe me, once you find a rhythm with one method, don't change anything!

You will notice that on certain days, even though you've done the correct smidgen adjustments, they still fall a little flat. In cases like that, take notice of the weather for the day. I find that in higher humidity in the summer, I'm actually doing 5 cups of flour PLUS the smidgen!

You have to do what works, but hopefully this will give you a head start and show you how easy it is to make bread!

Timing it for a work day

Essentially, you could start the bread machine as soon as you get up, then 1 1/2 hrs later when it's ready, it takes only 5-8 minutes to form it and set it aside to rise while you're at work.

When you get home, preheat the oven and pop them in, then you've got fresh baked bread for dinner!

Anything I don't think we'll get through that evening for dinner, the next morning for breakfast, or the next morning while making lunches, I freeze for days I can't, or don't want to make bread. I keep extra traditional bread bags around, double bag them for the freezer and single bag the baguettes being left out for evening/morning/lunch.

If you don't bag it for the overnight period, they will be too hard to eat the next day.

Happy Baking!