French baguette

I cannot but share with you, my dears, another recipe for bread at home. This time I suggest cooking a French baguette in the oven. Amazing baked goods - crispy crust and the most delicate, simply weightless crumb. With a cup of coffee and butter it's just unrealistically delicious ...

Undoubtedly, like any other homemade bread recipe, this one requires a little attention and a bit of diligence. But in general, I can't say that making a homemade French baguette is something extremely difficult. No more difficult than baking the same Italian Ciabatta bread!

I will tell and show you all the subtleties and nuances of cooking a French baguette in the oven. I am sure that you will succeed perfectly well, and you will be 100% satisfied with the result!

Ingredients

• Wheat flour (500 grams)
• Water (325 milliliters)
• Salt (1.5 teaspoon)
• Fast acting yeast (0.25 teaspoon)

Directions

1. The recipe for a French baguette in the oven contains simple and readily available ingredients: wheat flour, water, salt, and fast-acting yeast. The latter differ from just dry yeast in that they are added directly to the flour.
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 and dry fast-acting yeast to the flour. Mix everything very thoroughly.
4. We make a recess in the center and pour drinking water there at room temperature.
5. Knead the dough. At first, it will be very sticky and resemble a heterogeneous thick porridge, but 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 with your hands it will also turn out no worse, but longer. My mixer kneaded the dough for about 10-12 minutes. The finished French baguette dough is not very sticky to your fingers. We tighten the dishes with cling film, make punctures in it with a toothpick and leave at room temperature for 10-12 hours. It is best to make the dough in the evening so you can bake your baguettes in the morning.
6. Overnight the dough will grow very much - in consistency and structure, it is very similar to the dough for Ciabatta (the same moist and shapeless).
7. 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.
8. Divide the dough into the required number of parts. We take one piece, knead it into a rectangle with our palms. We constantly sprinkle flour on our fingers, as the dough is very tender and sticky. We fold the dough in length or roll it into a roll - whichever is more convenient for you. We pinch the seams.
9. 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 test.
10. Now our blanks for future French baguettes need to distance ourselves, that is, rest and get up. To do this, we take a towel made of natural fabric (choose one and use it all - you do not need to wash it every time, just shake off the excess flour). Sprinkle wheat flour on a towel and rub it into the fabric to prevent the dough from sticking. We lay the blanks, as in the photo. 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.
11. About 20 minutes before the start of baking, turn on the oven to warm up - 250 degrees. We put a bowl of water at the bottom of the oven - the baguettes are baked in a water bath. The workpieces were spaced and rounded.
12. Cover the baking sheet with baking paper and transfer the baguettes to it.
13. We make cuts on the blanks with a knife or blade and spray with water.
14. Cooking French baguettes in the oven on a steam bath (with water) for the first 15-20 minutes at 250 degrees. Then we remove the bowl of water, lower the temperature to 200 degrees and bake the homemade bread for another 10 minutes.
15. Remove the finished French baguettes from the baking sheet, cool and enjoy fresh, fragrant, crispy pastries.
16. You can hardly resist and not eat the whole baguette at a time ... By the way, if this recipe for homemade bread seemed too long and complicated to you, you can still see how to make quick baguettes at home.