Baguettes
By Bread Festival Bakers
Ingredients
- 6 1/2 cups all-purpose or bread flour
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons salt
- 3 cups warm water
- 1 Tablespoon yeast (I use SAF Red Instant)
Instructions
Put flour and salt into work bowl. Dissolve yeast in warm water, approximately 5 minutes. Add slurry of water and dissolved yeast into well within bowl of flour. Mix with whisk until all flour is wet. Place on counter for 2 hours–until nice and bubbly. Cover with saran wrap with a small hole in the edge, and place in the refrigerator. Use within a few days.
Baking Day:
Place stone and pan for water bath in oven. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Shape dough into 4 baguettes by grabbing “grapefruit-sized portions of dough” and form long loaves with tapered ends using the letter-fold technique. Use plenty of flour, and place on greased baguette pans. Let rise for a half hour or so.
Score dough with lame; use overlapping decisive cuts. Spritz with water.
Add 1 cup boiling water to water bath pan and place dough in oven. Bake for 25 minutes, or until bread has a dark brown crust.
Once out of the oven, place baguettes directly on a wire cooling rack, and listen o the crackling as the bread cools!
Serve warm or freeze for later use.
