When I became a single parent all those years ago, one of the things I started doing was baking bread. For an old rock'n'roller like me to start realizing that the high point of my day was when the dogs and I would go to the bus stop down the lane and welcome the three kids home from their day at school, and then watch the look on their faces when they walked in the door and smelled freshly baked bread was something. It was something so wonderful and pure that it easily displaced cheering crowds, bulging bank balances, and everything else of my life before.
A lot of folks are intimidated by the process of making bread. Please, relax. It's way easier than you think. There are a few things that make it easier, like a heavy duty stand mixer and a dough hook, but none of that is mandatory.
We'll start with French Baguettes. The ingredient list is short and simple.
INGREDIENTS
1 1/4 cup water, warm (110 degrees maximum) 2 teaspoons yeast 2 tablespoons sugar 2 teaspoons salt (I use Kosher or Sea Salt) 3 1/2 cups bread flour (for the higher gluten content)
I'm just going to give the instructions for the stand mixer, because that's what I'm using here. A big mixing bowl will do just fine if you don't have a heavy duty KitchenAid. The warm water, the yeast, and the sugar are put together in the bowl and stirred just enough to get the sugar partly dissolved and the yeast moistened. Leave that for five or so minutes. Until the yeast starts to get frothy and enter into an active state. This is called "proofing," and it is done to make sure that the yeast is alive and ready to go to work for us.
Add in the salt and flour and mix until the dough comes together in a big ball. If you see the dough sticking to the bottom and sides of the bowl, add in a small bit of flour until it cleans the sides of the bowl. If it doesn't form a nice, supple ball, add in a splash or two of water. With the mixer on medium low, allow it to knead for 10 minutes. If you aren't using a mixer, turn it out onto a very lightly floured surface and knead it for 10 minutes.
That's a great picture of the state of the dough that we want to acheive. Coherent, elastic, and supple. That gets formed into a ball, and placed in a lightly oiled bowl. Turn the dough around a few times to give it a light coating of oil, cover with a towel, and put it in a warm place to rise for an hour and a half, or until it has doubled in size.
Going in to rise.
Coming out after 90 minutes.
Punch down the dough, and knead again, just enough to squash any air pockets. Shape it back into a ball and turn out onto a smooth surface. If the dough sticks to your hands or the working surface, add a little bit of flour, a little bit at a time, until you get an easy working dough.
Divide the dough into three roughly equal portions.
By rolling on the surface and between your hands stretch the dough portions into long, skinny loaves. Place those into a baguette pan.
Give the loaves a light spritz of olive oil (I use an aerosol that I buy at the local restaurant supply), cover them with a towel and allow them to rise again for 20 minutes to a half an hour, or until they have doubled in size.
Take one egg white and two tablespoons of water and mix that with a fork until it is well mixed and frothy.
Using a sharp, preferably serrated knife, score each of the risen loaves three times.
Brush the loaves liberally (if you brush them conservatively why the fuck bother at all?) with the egg white wash. Bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes.
Take the bread out of the oven, and brush them with the rest of the egg white wash. Return to the oven and bake for ten more minutes.
Be sure and breathe deep, and savor the wonderful aroma as you take your perfect baguettes out of the oven and put them on the rack to cool. As soon as you can handle them without raising blisters (and if you're a strings player that will be pretty damned quick) they are ready to eat. Some folks prefer butter, but with these I prefer to have a small saucer of olive oil with a bit of wine or balsamic vinegar for dipping.
