{"id":113,"date":"2014-05-18T09:43:34","date_gmt":"2014-05-18T03:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/promincproductions.com\/blog\/?p=113"},"modified":"2015-07-04T18:58:25","modified_gmt":"2015-07-04T12:58:25","slug":"bread-making-101-baguette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/promincproductions.com\/blog\/bread-making-101-baguette\/","title":{"rendered":"Bread Making 101 &#8211; The Baguette"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>UPDATE<\/h3>\n<p>I&#8217;ve updated my bread making method slightly and wrote a new recipe\/post for making a great baguette. \u00a0I now suggest using the recipe found on my <strong><a title=\"Baguette Bread Making\" href=\"https:\/\/promincproductions.com\/blog\/baguette-bread-making\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-lasso-id=\"79\" rel=\"noopener\">Baguette Bread Making<\/a><\/strong> post instead of this recipe.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/promincproductions.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/20140514-224305.jpg\" data-lasso-id=\"80\" data-rel=\"lightbox-gallery-niSifVq2\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/promincproductions.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/20140514-224305.jpg\" alt=\"20140514-224305.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Since I acquired a KitchenAid stand mixer, I&#8217;ve been experimenting with bread making. Not so much loaf bread, rather more artisan breads. It&#8217;s amazing how a food with so few ingredients can be so good. \u00a0Yet, the process of making it has\u00a0so many little nuances and variations&#8230; To date all of my breads have turned out as edible, but some closer to the mark of &#8220;restaurant quality&#8221; than others.<\/p>\n<p>There are countless recipes on the internet and cook books and yet each is slightly different in how to best put it together. So why am I adding yet another one? Well to be honest, my main motivation is to simply document what works for me so that I can repeat it. But if others want to use my recipe as well I&#8217;m happy to have helped.<\/p>\n<h2>Recipe<\/h2>\n<pre><code>\r\n1 1\/2 cups warm tap water\r\n1 1\/2 Tbs. active dry yeast\r\n2 tsp. sugar OR 2 Tbs. honey\r\n3 1\/2 cups flour\r\n2 tsp. salt<\/code><\/pre>\n<ul>\n<li>Run warm water into the KitchenAid bowl to warm the metal. \u00a0This will ensure a good environment for the yeast to activate.<\/li>\n<li>Pour\u00a01\/2 cup of tap water to the KitchenAid bowl. \u00a0Hot water from your tap works just fine (unless your hot water heater is set higher than the average household)<\/li>\n<li>Stir into the water either 2 Tablespoons of honey or 2 teaspoons of white sugar<\/li>\n<li>Stir into the water 2 teaspoons of\u00a0salt<\/li>\n<li>Stir into the water 1 1\/2 Tablespoons Active Dry Yeast<\/li>\n<li>Let this sit for 5 minutes &#8211; the yeast should activate and the yeast will foam<\/li>\n<li>Attach the dough hook to the KitchenAid mixer and start the mixer on low<\/li>\n<li>Add in the bread flour, 1\/2 a cup at a time, until 3 1\/2 of coups of flower has been added<\/li>\n<li>Slowly pour in 1 cup of warm tap water.<\/li>\n<li>Continue mixing the dough on low until the dough comes together. \u00a0This could take 5 &#8211; 10 minutes. \u00a0If after 5 minutes or so the dough ball doesn&#8217;t pull it self completely from the bottom of the bowl, I&#8217;ll start to add more flour 1\/4 cup at a time up to 4 cups. \u00a0Technically, if the dough is rather sticky and not a fully manageable ball it still will work out and for some breads this is recommended. \u00a0This mixing process should take about 5 &#8211; 10 minutes.<\/li>\n<li>When you feel the ball has come together nicely, turn the mixer off and poke your dough. \u00a0If all is good, the dough should spring right back to a nearly smooth dough ball again. \u00a0This is a sign that the gluten has formed and your dough is ready. \u00a0This is also where you could do a &#8220;window pane&#8221; test, but I don&#8217;t like using that method personally. \u00a0If the dough isn&#8217;t ready, run the mixer a while longer. \u00a0Keep in mind the mixer is taking the place of hand kneading the dough. \u00a0Sometimes the dough clings to the hook so well that it is just &#8220;going along for the ride&#8221; and not really getting kneaded (or beat up). \u00a0So you may have to stop the mixer and remove the dough from the hook. \u00a0This will force it to get &#8216;beat up&#8217; a bit more.<\/li>\n<li>Coat a large bowl with oil. \u00a0I prefer olive oil applied with a paper towel over cooking sprays.<\/li>\n<li>Once your dough passes the finger-pressing test, remove the dough from the mixer and shape into a ball shape &#8211; it doesn&#8217;t need to be perfect. \u00a0But try to smooth out some of the edges. \u00a0If the dough is still sticky coat your hands in flower first.<\/li>\n<li>Cover the bowl. \u00a0I prefer cling wrap &#8211; the air tight seal works well and if the bowl isn&#8217;t big enough can shift as needed. \u00a0A towel could work as well. \u00a0Place the bough in a room temperature or warm spot free of drafts. \u00a0Let the dough sit for at least 30 minutes &#8211; the dough should\u00a0at least double in size.<\/li>\n<li>At this point you have two options &#8211; bake the dough or refrigerate the dough over<br \/> &#8211; If refrigerating, uncover the bowl, and punch down the dough a bit (yes, physically punch the dough). \u00a0Then recover and place in the refrigerator. \u00a0When you are ready to bake, take the dough out at least 1 hour in advance to let it come back to room temperature. \u00a0This will make it easier to handle and bake better. \u00a0I&#8217;d suggest taking it out of the bowl as well to allow it to get to temperature easier.<br \/> &#8211; If you&#8217;ll be baking it right away, pre-heat your oven to 450&amp;deg; with the pizza stone on the middle rack. \u00a0I&#8217;d suggest pre-heating for 30 minutes, which may be longer than your oven needs, but it will allow the stone to get to temperature.<\/li>\n<li>Cut the dough ball into two pieces. \u00a0Stretch each piece out to a flat rectangle shape about 12 inches long and 2-4 inches wide. \u00a0Roll the dough up and try to pinch\/press the seam shut. \u00a0Tuck the ends under and try to seal the seams. \u00a0You should now have the long baguette shape.<\/li>\n<li>Let your two baguettes sit for about 15 minutes to all them to rise and firm up one last time before baking.<\/li>\n<li>Using a sharp serrated bread knife, cut some 1\/2 inch deep marks across the top of the dough. \u00a0You could do one long cut down the middle, or I do 3 or 4 angled cuts across the dough. \u00a0This adds some nice style.<\/li>\n<li>Toss some flour onto the pizza stone to prevent sticking, then carefully slide or move the baguettes onto the pizza stone.<\/li>\n<li>Bake for about 15 minutes. \u00a0I start checking them around 11 minutes to ensure I don&#8217;t over cook. \u00a0The dough should turn a nice golden brown, and if you knock on it you&#8217;ll hear a bit of a hollow sound and the dough should be hard on the outside.<\/li>\n<li>Now for the best part &#8211; take the dough out of the oven and enjoy!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Some other notes<\/h2>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Oven<\/h3>\n<p>My early bread making was with a gas oven. Then I moved and I now have an electric oven that tops out at 500 F. To be honest, I don&#8217;t know that one does the job differently than another aside from my gas oven had some warmer slots and thus you&#8217;d have to place the loaves just right to not burn a portion of the bread.<\/p>\n<h3>Baking Surface<\/h3>\n<p>I&#8217;ve made some loaves on cookie sheets, but since my lovely wife gave me a pizza stone as a present, I won&#8217;t bake bread on anything else! The pizza stone is such a perfect cooking surface for breads. I&#8217;ve seen varying rules for how long to preheat the stone and I&#8217;ve tested all of them. To be honest, I found that preheating the oven with the stone in it. the wait maybe 10 more minutes and you are all set. I have. Seen a difference if I were to do the 1 hour preheating that some suggest. I should note though that my pizza stone isn&#8217;t as thick as some of the larger baking stones I&#8217;ve seen pictures of. I&#8217;m sure a thicker stone would require more pre-heat time so use your best judgment and test it out.<\/p>\n<h3>Steam<\/h3>\n<p>I&#8217;ve seen some recipes say that if you put a pan of water under your bread while baking, it&#8217;ll create a steam effect in the oven and that will accomplish two things:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Add a glossier sheen to your breads crust<\/li>\n<li>Make the crust harder while the insider is softer<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The idea is the blast of steam will cook the outer crust quicker. \u00a0I&#8217;ve tired this method once and didn&#8217;t find any difference. \u00a0In fairness, I did leave out one step &#8211; using a mist bottle to spray water on the walls of your oven every 30 seconds for the first 2 minutes of baking.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>References<\/h2>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Recipes<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fullforkahead.com\/2012\/10\/05\/homemade-french-baguettes\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-lasso-id=\"81\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.fullforkahead.com\/2012\/10\/05\/homemade-french-baguettes\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thesisterscafe.com\/2010\/04\/baguette-2\" target=\"_blank\" data-lasso-id=\"82\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.thesisterscafe.com\/2010\/04\/baguette-2<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Make ahead dough<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nigella.com\/kitchen-queries\/view\/Proving-Bread-Overnight\/2324\" target=\"_blank\" data-lasso-id=\"83\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.nigella.com\/kitchen-queries\/view\/Proving-Bread-Overnight\/2324<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UPDATE I&#8217;ve updated my bread making method slightly and wrote a new recipe\/post for making a great baguette. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[80,30,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-made-bread","category-food","category-home-made-food"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/promincproductions.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/20140514-224305.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4BbcR-1P","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/promincproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/promincproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/promincproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/promincproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/promincproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/promincproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":465,"href":"https:\/\/promincproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113\/revisions\/465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/promincproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/promincproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/promincproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/promincproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}