French baguettes

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 6 baguettes, you will need:

• 1 1 kg plain white flour (French Type 65)
• 2 550 ml water
• 3 18 g salt
• 4 250 g leaven
• 5 7 g yeast
• Total weight: 1,825 grams

Times:

Preparation	Resting	Cooking	Start to finish
45 min.	4 hours 5 min.	20 min.	5 hours 6 min.

Step by step recipe

1	In bread-making, the water temperature is always important. It's not a fixed value, but related to 3 other temperatures: 1) the temperature of your flour, 2) the room temperature in your kitchen, and 3) the basic temperature of this recipe, which is 56-60°C. You can calculate the temperature of the water for this recipe in one click, using this small calculator.
2	Put in the mixer bowl 1 kg plain white flour (French Type 65) and 550 ml water. Knead for 5 minutes at minimum speed, to well mix water and flour. Note: For the best way to knead, see: A few tips for effective kneading at home.
3	Cover with a plastic sheet and let stay for 1 hour.
4	After this time, add 18 g salt, 250 g leaven and 7 g yeast. Knead for about 10 minutes, ideally dough should be at the end of kneading at 73°F (23°C), or better try the window-pane test.
5	Put the dough, roughly shape in ball, in a plastic container, covered with a plastic sheet, and let stay for 1h30.
6	After this time, pour the dough on your working surface...
7	...and scale pieces of 300 grams. Note: if you plan to make half-size baguettes, you should scale 150g pieces instead.
8	Shape pieces of dough in balls, like in this short video on the right.
9	Let stay dough lumps on your working surface for 15 minutes, covered with a plastic sheet.
10	From lumps, shape baguettes as shown in this video.
11	If you use baguettes moulds, put lumps directly in, cover with plastic sheets and let stay for 1 hour.
12	If you don't have moulds, put lumps on floured linen, then cover with plastic sheets and let stay for 1 hour.
13	Preheat your oven at 460°F (240°C), slash top of lumps...
14	...and put in the oven for about 20 minutes. Note: As when baking any bread, you should ensure that the oven is filled with steam for the first 15 minutes of baking. This page shows you how; it really is the secret of golden-brown, crusty loaves..
15	You will really appreciate the very light crumb and the crunch of the crust...
16	...of good French baguettes.

Remarks

You can make baguettes as for other bread: plain or with different flours, or with added seeds, grains, etc.
If you want more information about making your own bread, you can look at this dedicated page.

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