Country French Bread and Baguettes
Nothing can compare to fresh loaves of thick, crusty country French bread and crackling baquettes. The yeasty, sweet, encompassing smell is nearly as satisfying because the taste that follows.
Ingredients
Yield: 1 lg. loaf or 3 baguettes
Dough
2 c. tepid water
1-1/2 teaspoon. active dry yeast or 1 cake fresh yeast
1/2 teaspoon. sugar
4-1/2 c. bread flour, plus extra flour for kneading
1-1/2 teaspoon. salt
3 tablespoons of. cornmeal
Preparation
For that primary dough:
Put 1/2 c. water, yeast, and sugar right into a large mixer and process enough to combine. Put aside for ten minutes.
Add flour and salt and start processing dough. With processor running, pour in remaining 1-1/2 c. water and process thirty seconds.
Turn the dough onto a board with a lot more flour and knead. After 2-3 minutes of kneading, the dough ought to be smooth but strong. Place the dough inside a large bowl covered tightly with plastic wrap, or perhaps a plastic container having a lid, and let increase in a hot spot for 3 hrs.
When risen, the dough must have bending in volume. Bring the edges from the dough towards the center and knead lightly to deflate making it right into a ball.
For that country French bread:
Roll the dough tightly on itself right into a ball, then press and mold it right into a large oblong-shape loaf (
11"x6") using the seam underneath. Line a baking sheet having a nonstick pad. Sprinkle cornmeal around the pad, and put the loaf in the heart of the sheet.
Let rise at 70 degrees for 1-1/2 to two hrs inside a proof box. It's important for dough to become left to increase within an area that's fairly warm, draft-free, and moist. To create a proof box, cut the very best and side off a card board box big enough to support the baking sheet holding your created loaf. Insert this area right into a large plastic garbage bag, and shut the bag. Alternatively, turn a sizable card board box or plastic bin upside lower within the proofing bread.
Preheat oven to 425. Sprinkle the loaf with flour from the sieve, and, utilizing a blade, create a couple of slashes to the peak. Carefully slide the baking pad to the hot bread stone and bake for 1-to-1-1/4 hrs. Throughout the first ten minutes of baking, create steam by spraying water in to the oven at 3-minute times.
Once the bread is brown and hollow-sounding, take it out of the oven and let awesome one hour before slicing.
For that baguettes:
Divide the dough into 3 pieces. Press and extend each bit of dough right into a log
8" lengthy, then pinch the edges together across the entire period of each log to produce a seam somewhere. Using both of your hands, roll and extend each dough strip into an 18" baguette. Transfer baguettes to some baking sheet lined having a nonstick pad coated with cornmeal. Roll 1 baguette within the cornmeal and push the button along with other baguettes at equally spaced times around the sheet.
Slide the tray in to the proof box for one hour inside a warm kitchen. Remove baguettes and sprinkle two loaves (not the main one folded in cornmeal) with flour from the sieve.
Having a razor or perhaps a serrated knife, score the top of baguettes.
Slide the information and baguettes to the hot stone and bake for 30-40 minutes, spraying water within the oven after 1-2 minutes to produce steam. Repeat spraying again 3-4 minutes later. When cooked, the loaves ought to be brown and crusty. Remove, and awesome completely on the rack before slicing.
Recipe thanks to Alfred A. Knopf, 2001 Jacques Pépin