I had time during the week-end to make the French Bread - Baguettes for the Bread Baker Apprentice Challenge. These baguettes are made of a pâte fermentée (which improves flavor and structure) that sits in the fridge overnight. The next day your mix your pâte fermentée with flour, salt, yeast and water and after a two hours rest you shape your baguettes. Shaping baguettes was really easy and I enjoyed this process. For my couche I did not have a canvas cloth so I used parchment. After shaping you let them proof at your temperature for another 75 min. Them you bake them in a very hot oven over a baking stone for best results.
These baguettes went well with the Penne Alla Vodka that I made for Dinner last night. They are lacking salt and I did not get any big holes but the crust was crusty and tasty. I will continue to experiment with different recipes for baguettes. Maybe I'll try Julia's Child baguettes next time.
I am enjoying baking from Peter Reinhart's book. The recipes are easy to follow, great explanations. I did get great results so far. I am improving my bread baking techniques and learning so much.
Baker's Couche: is a canvas cloth used to proof (ferment) the dough. The surface absorbs the extra moisture in the dough giving the bread a thick crispy crust which is a characteristic of French bread. This is best if you want to perfect your bread like the French do and get a nice thick crust.
Slashing: Since some people are asking about my slashing I did use a really sharp small blade, did slash my baguettes about 3/4 inch deep, just before baking. I did 4 long slashes per baguette.
60 comments:
Well done Helene! You beat me here, I am still afraid of making baguette. Yours look marvelous.
Oh, couldn't agree more on P. Reinhart's book. I have 2 of his.
Helene - I'm impressed! You did a wonderful job, and the scoring is excellent, too! Gorgeous!
Wow looks so good! Perfect! I have never tried making these! Seeing yours tempts me :)
Those baguettes are incredibly professional looking. I am so impressed! Clearly, I need to work on my bread baking skills.
I am glad to hear the parchment works well, because I had read the recipe and wondered about the bag part.
These look like a professional made them. My compliments on a job well done.
The baguettes look parfait. Crusty bread is hard to resist.
wow, like everybody else commenting, I am very impressed!
What truly beautiful bread and pictures. I have to say, I've been dreading the baguette week because I'm convinced I'll botch it up somehow. But yours look amazing -- I second what Mary said. They look like a professional baker made them!
Oh now...holy cow. That is so professional looking! Oh man...and look at the dough rising...those are perfectly shaped. And please give your secret for nice slash marks...mine never come out that nice. Great job!
Wow...absolutely fabulous looking, I would say you have this one down with no problem. Very beautiful.
Bravo !!! :-)
Très réussies tes baguettes!
Félicitations!
Excellent travail! Tes baguettes semblent succulentes! I would love to do not be scared of making bread....
Great, shots, Helene. Very impressive baguettes, too. Whenever I've tried to make French bread I have had poor results. I think it's time to give it another try,
Just gorgeous! I'm impressed that they lasted long enough for you to take pictures. 8-D
Helene, these are so beautiful (I love the presentation, too!) I think one of the reasons I wanted to immerse myself in bread baking again was so that I could make baguettes. There's a bakery in my town that makes incredible ones, so I'm satisfied for now, but then again, now that I've seen these... you did a wonderful job!
Beautiful baguettes! I have no proper bread baking equipment, but the more I bake the more I want to get it.
Ah! les belles baguettes, elles semblent délicieuses!
J'adore les baguettes françaises:)
My word! These are absolutely amazing! Every time I try to make a baguette it utterly fails. Your post has given me hope!
Now I can't wait to get to this one on the BBA challenge!
Those are beautiful baguettes, Helene and they photos is stunning and rustic!!! You did a great job!!!
Elles sont magnifiques! Si parfaites et appétissantes, mmmhhh! Je dois absolument me procurer ce livre...
Bises,
Rosa
elles sont très réussies ,bravo !!
Oh no, they look as good or better than Peter's. :)
Terrific.
Susie
Elles sont parfaite tes baguettes, bravo!
Oh, VERY well done. Those are some beautiful slashes. Maybe as long as you're doing the BBA challenge you should get some canvas already!
These are perfect baguettes!!
you’ve created some picture-perfect baguettes, helene—they look infinitely more appealing than what i usually see at the bakery. excellent work!
They look amazing! I have been dying to make them and I may just have to skip ahead and do just that.
Nice adjustment with the couche. I ended up buying the couche material from KA just because well why not.
I love baguettes, the flavour and texture is just amazing. Yours look so good!!
These are beautiful! I am somewhat intimidated but looking forward to making mine!
That bread looks fantastic! Beautiful pictures as always.
Helene..I always admire the blooming of the slashes on the bread...I haven't achieved that yet...they rise and crack...but don't bloom well...am I slashing my bread incorrectly????
Adore your baguettes.
wow, as a complete baking idiot, this just seems incredible to me. I just love the photos, the bag's look just perfect.
These are gorgeous, Helene! You did a great job on them!
Wow your baguettes look amazing! They look like they came from a bakery. Nice Job!!
Beautiful! Can't wait to make mine for the BBA!
Helene,
I'm impressed. What wonderful looking baguettes! I'm way too scared to try something like that. Maybe I'll try it one day and really challenge myself.
Those are beautiful! If you ever decide to rty making gluten free baguettes I will happily apply as taste tester!
What a great job , Helene, the baguette looks very French,And you blog have e new, fresh and beautiful good looking. I love it !!!
These look like they are straight out of a French boulangerie. Gorgeous.
Sam
Elles sont magnifiques tes baguettes, absolument parfaites!
C'est joli chez toi, je viens de découvrir pleins de belles recettes! Merci beaucoup de ta visite sur mon blog:)
Bonne journée!
i'm afraid of baking breads but you make it seem so easy. these baguettes are beautiful! x
Wow Helene what gorgeous baguettes!! I want to bake my way through Peter Reinhart's book but have only made one thing so far (and it was delicious). I love the new layout of your blog! In particular I love the header - the font is so beautiful.
I am very very impressed!!! Bravo!
the baguettes will go really, really nice with a bowl of spicy chicken curry. we had a stall in my ex-company where we sold baguettes and chicken curry for an X'mas charity fund-raising bazaar and it was a sold out hit amongst many Western expats in the company.
Oh Helene that bread is to die for!! Wow, I'm so impressed!!!!
And I love your new layout!!
What beautiful bread! It looks like it's ready to be smothered with butter, delicious!
Great looking baguettes...I can eat it just like that...yummie!
They look great! Your scoring is perfect.
great job, lady! they're beautiful! I need to pick up a good bread book! This Reinhart seems like a good star! And of course Julia Childs' recipe is a good one, too. Have you ever tried Cuban bread? Made very similar. I should share that on the site...
the baguettes look great and so does your blog...nice pictures!!!
Your baguettes look perfect, I'm completely impressed!
What an inspiration! This looks wonderful -- keep up the good work :)
Yum! That picture looks awesome!! I love french bread..especially for french toast! MMmmmm..
What's left to be said after the other 55 comments? I'll just add my "Wow, beautiful baguettes" to the rest of the comments. Your slashing technique is beyond perfection. That's the part I'm most excited/nervous about. I love your improvised couche. Great idea. How was the crumb on your bread? Did you get the much hoped for "Holes"?
very good baguettes, congrats. I would love to see the crumb.
I am sorry to say that I was disappointed due to no recipe. I loved the baguettes so much so that I wanted to make it right away.
Where can I find the recipe?
Your baguettes love lovely!!!!
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