Thursday, July 19, 2012

Rosie Bakes Artisan Loaf #2 - The Baguette.


Recently, Rosie made her first attempt
at artisan breads when she made filone.
Today, I'm making a second recipe -
described as four-hour baguettes.
Here's the recipe from Saveur magazine.
  And here's what I'm aiming for:
 Photo credit:  Todd Coleman

And here's what I got:
 
I forgot to slash the dough before baking.

The other day when I made the filone,
I used the cups and teaspoon measurements,
even though the recipe provided amounts by weight.
I didn't even notice the weights;
however, I did today
and decided to go by weight.
I ended up using a lot less flour than I would have
had I measured out by cups.
It's always a good idea when baking
to measure by weight.
The weight of flour can vary a great deal,
depending on humidity.


Step 1:  Mixing the dough.
1 1/2 cups (12 oz.) water, heated to 115 degrees
1 tsp (1/8 oz.) active dry yeast
3 1/4 cups (14 2/3 oz.) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. (3/8 oz.) kosher salt

Mix water and yeast in a large bowl.
Let sit until yeast is foamy, about 10 minutes.

Add flour and stir with a fork until ...

... dough forms and all flour is absorbed.
Let dough sit about 20 minutes
to allow the flour to hydrate.
Autolysis!
A new concept to me.

Add salt to dough.

Turn dough onto lightly floured surface
and knead until smooth and elastic. 
Add a sprinkling of flour as needed.


About 10 minutes of kneading.

Transfer dough ball to greased bowl.
Cover with plastic wrap 
and place in warm oven to rise.
Let double in size - about an hour.


Step 2:  Shaping the dough.
After the dough doubles in size,
turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.


Shape into a 6 by 8 inch rectangle.

I'm working on it.

Fold the 8" sides toward the middle.

Then fold the shorter sides toward the center.

Return dough, seam side down, to bowl.
Cover with plastic and return to cold oven
until doubled in size - about an hour.

Step 3:  Forming the loaves.
After the dough doubles,
remove it from the oven.
On lower oven rack,
place an iron skillet.
Place a rack above skillet
and place a baking stone on it.
Heat oven to 475 degrees.

Transfer dough onto lightly floured surface.

Cut into three equal pieces.


Form into 14-inch logs.
Cover loosely with plastic wrap
and let sit until doubled in size - about an hour.



When my loaves had doubled,
I placed them carefully on my baking stone,
added a cup of ice to my iron skillet,
and baked the baguettes until golden and crisp,
about 30 minutes.


I was supposed to slash these before baking
but forgot.

I don't think anybody noticed or cared.


I feel so ...  artisanal.

Heh.
Art is anal.
Twelve.


I'm so glad I bought that Saveur magazine
in Red Lodge, Montana.


Love the texture.
Rosie is a happy breadmaker.

Two loaves were gone in no time.
I made the boys leave me one loaf.
I have something in mind - bruschetta.

Stay tuned for bruschetta tomorrow.

6 comments:

Lea said...

I'm sending Colin on down. He could live on crusty bread. And jelly. You can do that, right???

Rosie Hawthorne said...

I can do that Lea!

Anonymous said...

I love to bake bread, too, Rosie. I have made baguettes before with some success, but I can't wait to try autolysis. I have read about it before, but I like your review and the pictures show your success. I actually have a baguette mold with holes in it that I use and I dust it with cornmeal. Some of the cornmeal sifts onto the baking stone, but that's OK. The bread is always crunchy and full of those great holes.

Rosie Hawthorne said...

NMOAC, that Saveur issue has a few more recipes I'm going to try. Had to find spelt flour which is expensive stuff. More bread recipes to come!

tortietat said...

The crust is my favorite part of any homemade bread, and these did not disappoint! .

Rosie Hawthorne said...

I loved the crust on these baguettes, Tortietat. Crunchy and chewy at the same time.