My favorite bread, hands down, without a question, are Baguettes. I think the reason I love them so much is because the crust to bread ratio, in my opinion, is perfection. I guess I’m just a crusty old girl, LOL. Not only am I from the “bread-is-the-staff-of-life” camp, but I’m also the one that’s always reaching for the heel of every loaf. I confess, I love the chewy crust much more than the fluffy, soft interior of a loaf. The purpose of the soft interior of the loaf? To serve as the vessel to spread copious amounts of butter on to. Anyone else feel the same way?
Now that I’ve been baking bread on a fairly regular basis I figured it was high time I gave baking baguettes a try. The main reason I haven’t attempted them before is the extra equipment that many recipes call for. Proofing baskets, special pans, and overly complicated steps have kept me from trying in the past. Honestly, the last thing I need are more kitchen gadgets! My kitchen is a decent size with ample storage but I still struggle with space to store everything. So when I stumbled upon a technique that doesn’t require any fancy equipment that I didn’t already have on hand I decided it was finally time to give baking baguettes a try.
Some will tell you that baguettes are tricky to make, but now that I’ve given it a try I say “phooey”! This easy to follow technique produces lovely baguette loaves with almost no effort or special skills needed. Each loaf has those lovely airy holes that you typically find in the store bought versions. Keep reading to find out just how easy it is to bake up some lovely, tasty loaves of baguette bread at home in your very own kitchen with a minimum of effort. The hardest part is a little planning ahead.
Those are homemade loaves not store bought!
Start the process the evening before you want to bake. Before going to bed stir the yeast into warm water. Allow the yeast to “bloom” while you prepare the dry ingredients, about 5-10 minutes.
FYI: Instead of finding out the following morning that the yeast was no longer active, blooming the yeast in warm water lets you know if it’s still good and active before you add it to the flour.
Sift or stir together flour, vital wheat gluten and salt in a large mixing bowl.
Look for Vital Wheat Gluten in the baking isle at the market or try the bulk food bins. Vital Wheat Gluten Flour is the natural protein found in wheat. A small amount (about a tablespoon for each cup of flour) added to yeast bread recipes will improve the texture and elasticity of the dough.
Add the yeast water to the dry ingredients in the bowl.
Stir ingredients together until you have a shaggy dough.
Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise over night, for 8-10 hours.
GOOD TO KNOW: Place bowl in the oven with just the light on for best results. The oven creates the perfect warm environment for the overnight bulk fermentation.
In the morning, place a metal pan on the bottom rack of the oven with another rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
While the oven preheats, place a wire rack on a baking sheet and place a sheet of parchment paper on top of the wire rack. Set aside.
Flour your work surface and turn dough out of the bowl onto your work surface. The dough will have a yeasty aroma and look swollen and should have doubled or almost tripled in size overnight.
Gently stretch out and shape the dough into a rectangle shape. Dust your hands with flour if the dough is sticking to them.
Use a dough scraper to cut the dough into two long pieces of equal size.
Roll each piece of dough gently to form 2 logs. Don’t overwork the dough, use a light touch and handle the dough as little as possible to form it into loaves.
Use a sharp knife and score the top of each loaf, either right down the center, or cut diagonal slits every couple inches down the length of each loaf.
Dust the top of each loaf with a little flour and carefully transfer the 2 loaves onto the parchment paper and place on the cooking sheet with the rack.
Once the oven is hot, pour a cup of water into the hot metal pan on the bottom rack in the oven and place the loaves of bread on the rack above.
Bake loaves for 30 minutes at 450 degrees.
Remove loaves from oven when they are a light golden brown and allow them to cool completely before slicing, about an hour.
I’m always so pleasantly surprised whenever I bake bread. When I was new to the whole process some of the loaves I baked up weren’t picture worthy, but they all tasted really good. Over time my loaves get prettier and prettier. It really is true that practice makes perfect. These baguettes turned out so pretty, even with my first attempt. And I know the more often I make them the better and better they will get. Not bad for my very first attempt.
I told my family that if they didn’t turn out someone was going to have to make a run to the store to grab a baguette so we could enjoy a Raclette meal that evening. You can’t have a Raclette without a baguette, well I suppose you could, but it would be a sad meal indeed. What The Heck Is A Raclette? It’s An Effortless, Unique Way To Host A Dinner Party.
Don’t let the thought of baking bread intimidate you! Once you give it a try you will be asking yourself what you were so afraid of. I have to admit that these loaves turned out much better than I anticipated and I will be baking many more baguettes in the future. This recipe is almost fool proof and can easily be doubled if needed. Once you pull a couple of these beautiful loaves out of the oven you will want to make them all the time. Make a double batch and gift the extra loaves to friends and family. I have yet to come across anyone who isn’t thrilled to receive a loaf of freshly baked bread! Give this easy method a try, you are going to love the results, I promise!
Easy No Knead French Bread Baguettes
Equipment
- large mixing bowl
- measuring cups
- Danish dough whisk or wooden spoon
- plastic wrap
- cooking sheet
- Wire rack
- Parchment paper
- Dough scraper
- oven safe metal pan
- sharp knife
Ingredients
- 3 cups flour
- 3 tbsp vital wheat gluten
- 1 tsp salt
- 3/4 tsp active dry yeast
- 2 cups warm water
Instructions
- Stir yeast into warm water. Allow the yeast to “bloom” while you prepare the dry ingredients.
- Sift or stir together flour, vital wheat gluten and salt in a large mixing bowl.
- Add yeast water to the dry ingredients.
- Stir ingredients together until you have a shaggy dough. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise over night, for 8-10 hours.
- In the morning, place a metal pan on the bottom rack of the oven with another rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- While the oven preheats, place a wire rack on a baking sheet and place a sheet of parchment paper on top of the wire rack. Set aside.
- Flour your work surface and turn dough out of the bowl onto your work surface.
- Gently stretch out and shape dough into a rectangle shape. Dust your hands with flour if the dough is sticking to them.
- Use a dough scraper to cut the dough into two long pieces of equal size.
- Roll each piece of dough gently to form 2 logs. Don't overwork the dough, use a light touch and handle the dough as little as possible to form it into 2 loaves.
- Dust the top of each loaf with a little flour.
- Carefully transfer the 2 loaves onto the parchment paper.
- Use a sharp knife and score the top of each loaf, either right down the center, or cut diagonal slits every couple inches down the length of each loaf.
- Once the oven is hot, pour a cup of water into the hot metal pan on the bottom rack in the oven and place loaves of bread on the rack above.
- Bake loaves for 30 minutes at 450 degrees.
- Remove loaves from oven when they are golden brown and allow them to cool completely before slicing, about an hour.
Notes
- 6 cups flour
- 6 tbsp vital wheat gluten
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp yeast
- 4 cups warm water
Did You Make This?
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1 Corinthians 10:31
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