Cheese baguettes

Of the many (I would even say countless) options for homemade bread in our family, children prefer baguettes. Moreover, it does not matter at all what recipe they are prepared according to and what is in the composition - they probably like the shape of this simple, but very tasty bread. And all my loved ones love cheese, so today we will bake fragrant and ruddy cheese baguettes.

In fact, this is cheese bread, but in the form of long and rather thin flour products. However, in most cases, baguettes differ from a round loaf, plump loaf or standard brick in a more delicate and coarse-porous crumb. This is because baguette dough contains a fairly decent amount of liquid in relation to flour, so it turns out to be very tender, soft and sticky.

This recipe cheese baguettes can be made with any hard or semi-hard cheese of your choice. The main thing is that it melts well, and then browns. From the specified number of products used, I get 4 baguettes weighing 205 grams each.

Ingredients

• Wheat flour (500 grams)
• Water (350 milliliters)
• Russian cheese (150 grams)
• Egg yolk (1 piece)
• Sugar (1 tablespoon)
• Salt (1 teaspoon)
• Fast acting yeast (1 teaspoon)

Directions

1. The recipe for making cheese baguettes includes such ingredients as: wheat flour of the highest or first grade, warm boiled water, salt, sugar, egg yolk (you can not use it if you do not want it - it is needed to grease baguettes for their more ruddy color) and fast-acting yeast (can be replaced with fresh / pressed - 9 grams or dry - also 3 grams, that is, a flat teaspoon).
2. So, sift wheat flour into a suitable dish. It is better to take a larger bowl or saucepan, as the dough will greatly increase in volume during fermentation.
3. Add salt, sugar and fast-acting yeast to the flour. Mix everything very thoroughly.
4. We make a depression in the center and pour lukewarm water there.
5. We knead the dough. When the flour is moistened and absorbs water, add 50 grams of cheese, which we grind on a coarse or medium grater. At first, the dough will be very sticky and resemble a heterogeneous thick porridge, but then during the kneading process it will become more elastic and smooth. It is best to knead the dough using a mixer with a hook attachment, but it will also work out with your hands no worse, but longer.
6. The dough should be very soft, tender and sticky. Do not clog it with flour, since on the basis of a dense and tight dough, airy and fluffy pastries will not work, and baguettes are just that. We round the dough into a ball and put it in a bowl, which we grease with a small amount (literally a teaspoon) of vegetable oil so that it does not stick to the dishes during fermentation. We send the dough to heat for 1 hour, after which we do a light kneading, re-rounding and again in heat for another 1 hour. Where is the best dough to wander and what does a warm place mean? There are several options. First of all, in the oven with the light on (it turns out about 28-30 degrees - the ideal temperature for fermenting yeast dough). Then we tighten the bowl with the dough with cling film or cover it with a towel made of natural fabric (linen is best suited) so that the surface does not wind up and does not become covered with a crust. You can also let the dough ferment in the microwave, in which we first bring a glass of water to a boil. The dough will rise with the door closed, and the glass will stand in the same place. Then the bowl does not need to be closed with anything, since the water will evaporate, thereby maintaining the necessary humidity. Just make sure that no one inadvertently turns on the microwave, otherwise the dough will disappear and there will be no cheese baguettes.
7. After 2 hours of fermentation (time is a relative concept, it may take more or less) the yeast dough for baguettes will rise very well, increase in volume by three times exactly. It is very delicate and fluffy, it remains sticky - it should be so. If the dough rises poorly, then you have come across old yeast - increase the fermentation time.
8. Sprinkle the work surface with wheat flour and carefully dump the dough from the bowl onto it, using a spatula or scraper. I decided to make 4 baguettes, but you can mold more or less. We round off the pieces of dough, giving them the shape of koloboks. Let it sit for 5 minutes to rest the dough.
9. Then we round it off again and proceed to the formation of future cheese baguettes.
10. We take one piece and gently knead it with our palms on a surface dusty with flour. We constantly dust our fingers with flour, as the dough is very tender and sticky. Cover the rest of the dough pieces with a towel or cling film so that they do not dry out or become crusty.
11. Divide the dough into 3 parts visually. We fold one edge to the center, sealing the seam with a short punching with the edge of the palm.
12. We repeat in the same way with the second end of the workpiece.
13. Now fold the dough in half along the seam and seal the seam in the same way.
14. And now we roll the blank on the table with our palms to get such a tourniquet. The thickness is about a couple of centimeters. We do the same with the rest of the dough pieces.
15. Now our blanks for future cheese baguettes need to distance themselves, that is, rest and get up. To do this, take a towel made of natural fabric (choose one and use it always - you don't need to wash it every time, just shake off the excess flour) or a piece of baking paper. Sprinkle it with wheat flour (or rub it into the fabric) so that the dough does not stick. We lay the workpieces at a distance from each other, as in the photo.
16. We make folds between the baguettes so that the blanks do not stick together. Cover the dough with a towel so that it does not get windy and crust over, and leave it for 1 hour. Do not forget to support the structure on both sides so that the dough does not float to the sides, but grows up. I have this rolled up towel and a roll of parchment paper.
17. About 20 minutes before the start of baking, turn on the oven to warm up - 250 degrees. We put a bowl of water on the bottom of the oven - cheese baguettes are baked in a water bath. The workpieces are spaced and rounded - we remove the supports and stretch the paper so that there are no folds.
18. Lubricate the dough with egg yolk (you can skip this, but just sprinkle the surface with water) and sprinkle the blanks with the remaining (100 grams) grated cheese and send the baguettes to bake at 250 degrees for a couple of the first 10 minutes. Then we remove the bowl of water, lower the temperature to 200 degrees and bake the baguettes for about 15 minutes more.
19. It turns out this is such a delicious and ruddy homemade cakes. The melted cheese baked well.
20. Remove the finished cheese baguettes from the baking sheet, cool and enjoy fresh, fragrant, crispy pastries. By the way, they are so good still warm that they hardly have time to cool down completely.
21. This homemade bread has a very interesting taste and amazing aroma. Thin crispy cheese crust and very soft, slightly moist crumb. You should definitely try it, I recommend it!