Delight in the simple pleasure of a freshly baked baguette – crusty on the outside, soft on the inside. Enjoy the aroma of homemade goodness with every bite!
Function: Bread Baking, Dough Proving, FullSteam® (100% steam)
Classic Baguette
Ingredients
Poolish
½ cup cold water
1 cup strong bread flour
Pinch of instant yeast
Dough
1 cup and 2 tbsps water, lukewarm
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast or instant yeast
3 1/2 cups strong bread flour
2 tsps cooking salt
Method
Mix all the ingredients for the poolish together in a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave to prove overnight or ideally for 24 , on the kitchen bench.
For the dough, mix together (either by hand or stand mixer) all of the ingredients together including the poolish that was made beforehand. This should take around 5 minutes on a stand mixer on a low speeds. The end result should leave a dough that is firm but slightly tacky.
Transfer the dough into a greased mixing bowl, cover with a tea towel and place into your on Dough proving function at 30°C for 30 minutes. Once the time has elapse turn the dough over in the bowl and prove for a further 30 minutes.
Remove the dough from the bowl, then turn out onto a lightly oiled bench and divide the dough into 3 equal sized pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a ball and then cover with greased plastic wrap and allow to rest for at least 15 minutes at room temperature.
Flatten the dough pieces out and fold nearly in half, sealing the edges of the fold using the heel of your hand. Turn the dough around 180° and repeat this process, the dough should now be elongated.
With the seam side of the dough down, cup your fingers over the dough and gently roll the dough into 40cm long logs. Taper the ends of the logs to give it that classic baguette look.
Place the baguettes onto the universal pan lined with baking paper and sprinkle lightly with flour, cover loosely with plastic wrap and allow to prove at room temperature for 40 minutes or until they are slightly ‘puffy’.
Preheat your oven on Bread Baking at 200°C and select the Steam Jet function to on.
While the oven heats up score your baguettes using a very sharp knife to create 45 degree slits along each baguette, making 4 or 5 slits on each baguette.
Just before placing the baguettes into the oven on shelf level 2, activate the Steam Jet function by pressing the steam symbol. Then cook the baguettes for 23-28 minutes or until they are a very deep golden brown. Allow the baguettes to cool in the oven while leaving the oven door ajar.
Notes
If you are struggling to find good strong bread flour then Laucke Bread Mix works well and is available at most leading supermarkets.
