Epi bread (baguette ear)

Another recipe for simple and delicious pastries - let's make Epi bread from France. There, these original baguettes in the shape of a spike can be found in almost any bakery. Due to the fact that most of the surface of the bread is open, there is more in baguettes and everyone's favorite crisp. Usually it is customary to put Epi bread in the middle of the table - so each guest can break off an appetizing grain for himself.

In general, the original recipe for this simple bread contains only 4 ingredients (flour, water, salt and yeast), but I additionally use very little sugar and butter. Thanks to them, spikelet baguettes are even more aromatic, ruddy and tasty. We like them very much, be sure to try them too!

Ingredients

• Wheat flour (500 grams)
• Water (300 milliliters)
• Olive oil (1 tablespoon)
• Sugar (1 tablespoon)
• Salt (1 teaspoon)
• Fast acting yeast (1 teaspoon)

Directions

1. To make these simple and delicious baguettes, let's take wheat flour (I have the highest grade), water, salt, sugar, olive oil and fast-acting yeast. Olive oil can be replaced with any other vegetable oil, but I used it for flavor (it was left after sun-dried tomatoes, therefore with a reddish tint). It is not necessary to take fast-acting yeast - just dry (also 3 grams - this is a teaspoon without a slide) or pressed (you need 3 times more, that is, 9 grams) are perfect. Such yeast is not immediately mixed with flour, but pre-activated in a warm sweetish liquid for 10-15 minutes. In our case, you can slightly warm up half a glass of milk with a tablespoon of sugar and dissolve the yeast in it.
2. Sift (preferably twice) the rest of the wheat flour into a bowl. Due to this, the flour will not only be loosened and saturated with oxygen, but possible debris will also go away.
3. Add fast-acting yeast, granulated sugar and salt to the flour. Mix everything thoroughly with a fork or whisk.
4. We make a hole in flour and pour lukewarm drinking water into it.
5. First, you can stir the ingredients with a spoon or fork so that the flour is moistened by absorbing the liquid. If you want, you can immediately knead the dough with your hands. If you have a kneader or bread maker, be sure to use their help - it's easier and faster. Then add vegetable oil and knead the dough.
6. You need to knead the dough for this bread for a rather long time (at least 10, and preferably 15 minutes) and intensively. As a result, it will become smooth, homogeneous, very soft (like an earlobe) and tender, while a little sticky. We round the dough into a ball and put it in a bowl, which we grease with a tablespoon 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 baguettes.
7. This is what yeast dough looks like after 1 hour of fermentation. It has doubled exactly.
8. We knead it, folding it 4 times, and again in the heat for another 1 hour. The folding of the dough is very simple, but helps the dough to become saturated with air. To do this, run both palms under the dough from the far edge, pull it back and fold it over the main piece. So we repeat 3 more times on each side.
9. The dough will grow in volume three times, it will become very tender, right through and through with air bubbles.
10. We divide it into 2-3 parts - depending on the desired number of baguettes. I usually do two.
11. If desired, dust the table a little with flour and roll one piece of dough into a thin rectangle. Undoubtedly, you can simply stretch the dough with your hands, but using a rolling pin is faster and easier.
12. We twist the layer of dough into a tight roll.
13. We pinch the seam very carefully so that the dough does not break up during baking, and the baguettes do not deform.
14. Similarly, we shape the second piece of dough and roll the blanks with our hands so that they are the width of the baking sheet.
15. Cover the baking sheet with baking paper and sprinkle a little with flour. We shift the blanks onto it and also sprinkle the surface with flour a little.
16. Now we will make cuts with kitchen scissors at an angle of 45 degrees to 3/4 of the height of the dough, that is, slightly not cutting to the bottom.
17. We form the blanks like a spikelet - we simply shift the cut parts of the dough in different directions, that is, to the right and to the left. Cover the future baguettes with a towel or cling film and let the dough stay warm for 35-40 minutes.
18. 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 - spikelet baguettes are baked in a water bath.
19. We send the blanks 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. The bread turns out to be ruddy and very appetizing.
20. Remove it from the baking sheet and let the baguettes cool.
21. This homemade bread has a very delicate taste and amazing aroma. Thin, unusually crispy crust (many, many crust!) And fluffy crumb. You should definitely try it, I recommend it!