How long have I wanted to bake a real French baguette! This delicious long bread with a crispy crust and soft center makes beautiful little sandwiches and is delicious just like that!
For a long time I beat around the bush with recipes, it still seemed that making a baguette at home was difficult. But then I was asked to make French onion soup. And, as you know, they serve it with croutons from a French baguette with cheese! But the store didn’t have a long loaf of bread, and serving croutons from regular bread would be inauthentic... And so I decided - since the baguette is not in the store, I’ll bake it at home!
And it turned out that baking a homemade baguette is not a difficult task at all, but on the contrary, it is very simple and pleasant. In general, baking homemade bread is an incomparably enjoyable experience! Fiddling with bread dough is more mysterious than pies and cakes; you feel like a sorceress and a real Hearth Keeper!
After studying several recipes, I learned that there are different types of baguettes! Rice (who would have thought that you could add boiled rice to the dough!), onion (mmm... we'll try them again!), but for the first time I decided to bake a simple baguette. Flour, yeast, water, salt and sugar - that’s the whole set of ingredients, and what delicious bread it turns out!
Most baguette recipes call for dry yeast, but since I prefer fresh, I simply didn’t have dry yeast. Then I did a good search, and - hurray! – I managed to find a recipe on the Magic Food website, where the dough is kneaded with fresh yeast. Moreover, it is mixed in an unusual way. If I’m used to fresh yeast being ground with sugar and diluted with water, then in this recipe it crumbles right into the flour! This is a recipe from French baker Richard Bertinet. Very interesting. Let's try it!
If you have dry yeast, I recommend baking baguettes according to the recipe of my friend Marie on her website: http://receptimari.com/vipechka/nesladkaya-vipechka/xachapuri-pizza-chebureki/frantsuzskiy-baget-v-duhovke.html
I slightly reduced the amount of ingredients because... I had not 20, but 15 g of yeast. I present my version and the original one in brackets.
Ingredients:
For 3 baguettes:
- 15 (20) g fresh yeast;
- 3 and ¾ (5) glasses of flour (my glass is 200 grams, 130 g of flour fits in it, if without the top);
- 300 (400) ml warm water (38C);
- 1 with a small top (1.5) teaspoon of salt;
- A pinch of sugar;
- A little vegetable oil to lubricate your hands, bowl and table.
How to bake:
Take a large enough bowl and sift all the flour into it.
The flour is enriched with oxygen, which the yeast needs for good fermentation, and becomes airy!
And now crumble fresh pressed yeast directly into the flour with your hands, trying to get smaller crumbs.
Salt and sugar.
And we rub the yeast with the flour with our fingers until there are fine fluffy crumbs, kind of like we ground the flour and butter for shortbread cookies. Only even finer, the more homogeneous, the better, so that the yeast mixes well with the flour. Collect the ground yeast in a heap on top of the flour mound.
Now we make a depression in the flour with yeast - sort of like a volcano crater - and pour water into it. The water should be well warm, but not hot.
Mix the dough first with a fork.
Then, sprinkle the table with flour, put the dough out of the bowl there and continue kneading on the table.
There are several important nuances here:
- The dough should remain slightly sticky. Do not add too much flour, and then the baguette will turn out airy and soft!
- To prevent the dough from sticking too much to your hands and the table, grease them a little with vegetable oil. Just don't overdo it, a thin layer is enough. I first sprinkled a little flour on the table twice, and then greased the table with oil, and the dough stopped sticking, it was very pleasant to knead.
- And another important point - we will knead for a long time, at least 15, and preferably 20 minutes. But it just seems like a long time. I’m used to being in a hurry all the time, and at first I thought, wow, I have to knead the dough for 20 minutes! Yes, you can do so much in this time! But you need to knead the dough properly - then it will rise well, and the bread will turn out fluffy and soft, even if there are no eggs or butter in it. And then, during the kneading process, the dough becomes homogeneous, smooth, and even without adding flour it stops sticking.
Here is the dough at the beginning of kneading:
After 5 minutes:
And after 10 minutes:
It turned out to be very pleasant - not to rush anywhere, knead warm, pleasant dough and think about something, looking out the window at the spring rain. After all, sometimes we don’t have enough time to just relax and think about something of our own - so, try kneading yeast dough, it’s a great relaxation!
After 15-20 minutes, put the dough in a bowl greased with vegetable oil, cover with a clean towel and put in a warm place for an hour and a half.
As time passes, the dough will rise and begin to come out of the bowl.
Lightly flour the table and dump the dough out of the bowl onto the table. No need to knead!
Just divide the dough into 3 pieces (if you bake a full portion, then into 4).
Form each lump of dough into a rectangle, stretching it with your hands. The rectangular cake will be small, smaller than a sheet of A4 paper - but don’t worry, during the formation process the baguette will be the length of the entire baking sheet.
Now we bend one edge of the rectangle towards the center.
Then we bend the second edge in the same way towards the middle.
Fold the workpiece in half (that is, in total, four times), and pinch the edge.
Now let’s roll the baguette on the table to make a sausage. Try to keep it the same thickness along the entire length. I didn’t fold one of the baguettes, but simply rolled the dough into a roll and pinched the edges.
Place the first baguette on a baking sheet sprinkled with flour and form the second and third loaves. We place them on a baking sheet at a distance of several centimeters from each other, just three things fit.
Cover with a towel and place in a warm place for half an hour. I turned on the oven at 50C to warm up, opened the door, and placed the baking tray with baguettes on top of the stove.
After a quarter of an hour (that is, 15 minutes before you put the baguettes in the oven), we make diagonal cuts on them - with a sharp knife diagonally. Cover with a towel again and let the oven preheat to 200-220C.
Now one more nuance from another French chef, chef Laszlo Gyomrey (I couldn’t find a transcription, so I’m giving the name in the original). Marie shared this tip, thank you so much! Otherwise my baguettes would have turned out to be unbreakable. 🙂
Before putting the baguettes in the oven, heat a cast iron frying pan on the stove (the handle is also cast iron so it doesn’t melt), and put the hot frying pan in the oven. Then place a baking sheet with bread. Pour a glass of cold water into the frying pan (be careful, steam!). And close the oven door.
And the Magic Food website advises, before placing the baguettes, to spray the walls of the oven with a spray bottle, just keep in mind that the “spray” should be food-grade, not from “Mister Muscles,” but the one from which you spray indoor plants. Spraying can be repeated several times during the baking process so that the crust on the bread does not dry out.
I also added water to the pan twice during baking (towards the end of baking, at the beginning I tried to look in less so that the baguettes fit well).
Bake baguettes for 30-35 minutes at 220C, until golden brown.
Hurray, here they are, our baguettes! And so that the crust on them would soften a little, I covered them with a towel while still hot, having first sprinkled the baking sheet and the bread itself with boiled water. 5-7 minutes - and the crust is soft but crispy!
And what a lush, tender crumb!
How tasty and aromatic they are! Homemade baguettes turned out to be a hundred times tastier than store-bought bread! We barely waited for them to cool down a bit to try them.
It's great to bake bread at home! And after making baguettes at home, I wanted to learn something else. Maybe a different type of baguette, or maybe mixed grain bread, or rye-wheat bread! Come to the light, let's try it together!
Do you like baguettes that are so soft on the inside and crispy on the outside? Today I suggest you bake French baguettes in the oven, according to the recipe of the famous French baker Richard Bertinet. These French baguettes can be called classic, which have been prepared for many years. But even they can be slightly changed to your taste by sprinkling some grated cheese, or replacing some of the flour with rye. You can constantly experiment with baking, because thanks to this, you discover new tastes that you were not aware of before.
They go well with a variety of dishes, both soup and tea. They can be used to make excellent small sandwiches, canapés, toasts, they can even be stuffed with various fillings and baked. Therefore, I think that it is very good to be able to bake such wonderful pastries. The recipe is good and I hope you will appreciate it, and your loved ones will appreciate your skills. I would also like to offer you some borscht. Prepare for your health!
Ingredients:
- Wheat flour – 500 g
- Fresh pressed yeast – 10 g
- Salt – 1 tsp
- Water – 350 ml
- Vegetable oil for lubrication
Number of servings: 6
European cuisine
Baking time: 20 minutes
Cooking method: in the oven
Calorie content: 199 kcal per 100 g
How to make a French baguette
The dough for baguettes is prepared in an unusual way; first mix the dry ingredients, then add liquid. But let's talk about everything in order. Pour flour into a deep bowl, add pressed yeast and salt. In this recipe it is not possible to replace dry yeast, but don’t worry, the taste is completely inaudible. I grind the yeast with the flour so that it is evenly distributed in it.
Then I pour water into the mixture of flour and yeast. The water should be warm, at a temperature of approximately 40 degrees. If you check the temperature with your hand, it should under no circumstances be hot.
I mix flour and water with my hands.
And after about 5 minutes from the start of kneading, you get this smooth and elastic dough.
I grease the bowl in which the dough will rise with a small amount of vegetable oil, put the dough in it and cover with a towel. It works best in a warm place.
The dough is perfect; I place it on a surface greased with vegetable oil or sprinkled with flour. It is very important not to crush it with your hands, but simply turn the bowl over so that it falls out on its own.
To form a French baguette at home, I immediately cut the dough into three equal parts.
For a baguette, you don’t need to roll out the dough; I just stretch it out with my hands in length and a little in width. This must be done very carefully so as not to tear it.
Now I fold it in half and pinch the edges to make an even baguette.
I transfer the resulting baguettes onto a baking sheet with baking paper, at a distance from each other, since they will increase in size during baking.
Then I cover them with a clean towel and leave them for half an hour so that they grow a little in size.
Now I’ll tell you a little about how to bake a French baguette at home. First, I heat the oven to a temperature of 200 degrees, put a baking sheet with baguettes in it, and every couple of minutes I open the door and spray the walls and the products themselves. Baking time takes approximately 15-20 minutes, it depends on your oven and the thickness of the baguettes themselves. I remove the finished baguettes from the oven and leave to cool slightly.
Now you know how to cook a French baguette recipe in the oven, which you undoubtedly need to try yourself. I hope that I showed the whole process very clearly, and this will help you repeat the whole process without any difficulties.
Now you can enjoy the moment and try our baguettes, with an incredibly fluffy, soft center and such a crispy crust on the outside. It's worth it, so take the time to bake them. Bon appetit!
Today it’s not too difficult to find a recipe you love. French baguette is no exception. It has been prepared since time immemorial. The beauty of these loaves is that under the crispy crust there is a soft and flavorful bun. The downside is its tendency to quickly become stale, by the end of the day. But even in this state it remains tasty, although not the same as it was in the morning. Below we will look at the most popular recipe. The French baguette is a true example of a Parisian breakfast.
Spirit of France
Indeed, this romantic country is loved by many. And despite all the natural beauty and cultural values, French cuisine remains invariably popular. Croissants and oysters, foie gras and amazing buns, and also a thin and long loaf, after biting into which you just want to ask for the recipe. The French baguette has a consistently firm, crispy, and simply amazing crust with a fresh crumb. Despite the fact that it is prepared today all over the world, it invariably remains a symbol of France.
The story of an amazing bun
It first appeared on the shelves in the 20s of the last century. In fact, this was not a tribute to tradition; the bakers did not implement a special, refined recipe. The French baguette was just a necessity, driven by special circumstances. When the government issued a special decree not allowing people to go to work before 4 a.m., they had to look for an option that would require less time for dough and baked goods to rise than regular loaves.
It is a long and thin pastry. The standard size that was originally proposed is 60, 70 cm in length, width 5-6 cm and height 3-4 cm. At the same time, the product weighs only 250 g. By the way, with the appearance of this bun on the shelves, the process of mass layoffs of bakers began . Since the baking process was faster, so many workers were no longer needed, which also reduced bakery costs.
Baking Features
How do you know that what you have in front of you is a French baguette? The recipe assumes a very capricious loaf; it cannot be cut with a knife when fresh, so it is customary to break it with your hands. After only 8 hours it becomes completely stale, so it is better to take such baked goods for one or two meals. In France, such baked goods are made as varied as possible in order to please the majority of customers. It can be found in a variety of lengths and shapes, from very thin to wide, sandwich buns. The degree of roasting ranges from very pale to slightly burnt. In addition, various additives are used. It can be onions, garlic, sesame, cumin, cheese, aromatic herbs.
Meet the French baguette recipe
In the capital of France alone, up to a million crispy loaves are sold every morning. The finished product weighs 250 g (for comparison, remember the Soviet loaf, weighing 1 kg). It is prepared, in general, in the classical way. First, the dough is laid, for this, as all housewives know, you need to dissolve the yeast in water, add flour and leave for 20 minutes. Then you need to add salt, the rest of the water and flour, knead the dough. This is an important point; you need to knead for a long time, about 10 minutes. Then the structure will become homogeneous. It remains to proof for 45 minutes, after which you need to cut it into pieces. They are covered with a damp cloth and left for another 45 minutes. After this, they are placed in the oven for 15-20 minutes. As you can see, it’s nothing complicated; every housewife can do it, even without experience in the culinary arts.
Cooking at home
A bakery is one thing, but making something similar at home is very interesting. Imagine how in the morning you take out a warm French baguette for breakfast. The recipe for a baked product in the oven is no different from the original, which is designed for industrial ovens. As you have already noticed, such baking has many advantages. The dough is easy to make, requires a minimum of ingredients, all of them are simple and affordable. In addition, there is no need for special ovens, food processors and other devices. A quick bake can be a good option for your morning breakfast. Proofing will take place in the refrigerator. There is a minus, the dough turns out wet and sticky. It is not very convenient and you need to get used to handling it.
So, let's bake a French baguette. The oven recipe assumes a two-day cooking cycle, although you can do the entire procedure in one day. This can be convenient for those who will prepare dough every day for the next day, and when they get up in the morning, prepare a bun for breakfast. You need to take 500 g of 1st grade flour, 375 g of water, ¼ teaspoon of dry yeast and 10 g of salt. As usual, you dilute the yeast, add everything else and knead the mixture. Cover with film and leave for 20 minutes. Using a mixer, knead the dough for about 10 minutes. Now the dough needs to be greased with oil, covered with film and put in the refrigerator. And you can go about your business.
The second cycle begins the next day. In the morning you take out the dough and divide it into three parts. The dough is very sticky, but try not to overwhelm it with flour. You can lubricate your hands with oil. Each part needs to be kneaded into a layer and rolled into a roll, immediately transferred to a baking sheet. This will be the final shape of our baked goods. Your French baguette will remain this way (the recipe with photo will help you figure out the shape), they don’t rise very much, so you don’t have to leave a lot of space on the baking sheet between the loaves. After 45 minutes (cover with film), you can put them in the oven. Temperature 250 degrees, bake for about 20 minutes.
Features of cooking in a bread machine
The recipe for a French baguette for a bread machine is slightly different from the classics; in particular, it greatly reduces the housewife’s busy time. Each model may have its own differences, but we will give a standard recipe. You will need to stir 2 teaspoons of yeast in a glass of warm water. Add a tablespoon of sugar and leave for 15 minutes. Now the next step is 2 tablespoons of butter, 370 g of flour. Knead the dough, divide into 2 parts, roll into layers and roll into rolls. Now you can put them in the bread machine for 60 minutes in the “Baking” mode.
The largest number of adherents of this baked product live in Germany and France. It is very interesting how the table is set. A real French baguette (the recipe may contain flavorings) served with butter and a large cup of coffee. This is consumed in a very original way: by breaking off a crispy roll and spreading it with butter, you quickly dip it in coffee. The butter does not have time to melt, and the crumb is saturated with coffee. The result is a delightful composition from which you get real pleasure.
Let's sum it up
You don't have to go to France to taste a wonderful baguette. You can make your task easier and buy it in the store, but usually we don’t follow the classic recipe. Therefore, to appreciate the real “crunch” of a French bread, you should try baking it at home. It's easy and doesn't take too much time. The stunning smell from your kitchen will attract guests all day long. By adapting to the time required to prepare this baguette, you can wake up your loved ones every morning with the smell of fresh bread. And even if hot bread is harmful to our figure, it is better to go to the gym in the evening than to deprive yourself of such pleasure. By the way, experts note that baking in a bread machine somewhat changes the taste of the baguette. Therefore, it is better to spend a little more time, but serve a real miracle on the table.
Thanks to Raisa Savkova, I enjoyed browsing her blog.
I baked it and became convinced that, indeed, it is not the gods who bake the pots - in the most antediluvian gas oven from the times of the Soviet Union, you can cook baguettes that store-bought buns cannot hold a candle to.
And you can bake it every day: put the dough in the evening and bake it for breakfast in the morning (of course, if breakfast is not at 6 am). Well, I couldn’t wait until the morning, I tried to finish it by midnight and taste what happened. On the other hand, if the baking had failed, no one would have seen my “work”, except perhaps the vigilant neighbors under the third floor window..."
Baguette recipe, dough preparation and baking
Products:
- flour - about 700 g;
- water – 350 ml;
- fresh yeast – 20 g;
- two teaspoons of salt;
- to lubricate dishes and hands - a tablespoon of vegetable oil.
The original recipe for baguettes called for 500 g of flour, but I honestly don’t know how people manage to knead dough that can be worked with their hands using 350 ml of water and 500 g of flour. I already take different types of flour, but anyway, I usually put in more than what is indicated in the recipes.
Okay, I immediately sift 5 cups of flour (200 ml each) into a bowl.
I crumble the yeast.
Now you need to rub the yeast into the flour with your hands.
I add salt. I heat the water until my finger feels good warmth when dipping. I pour water into the flour.
I knead the dough with a spoon.
I sprinkle the table with flour and continue to knead it with my hands.
It takes about another glass of flour to bring the dough to condition and then dust the table. I knead for about 15 minutes to get a soft, smooth dough. If it sticks slightly to your hands, it is better not to add more flour, but to grease your hands with vegetable oil.
I also grease the bowl with vegetable oil.
I put a ball of dough in it.
If you leave it to rise until the morning, it is also advisable to grease the dough itself with oil and cover the bowl with cling film to avoid drying out. In this case, you don’t need to put it in a warm place, just leave it on the kitchen table.
I decided to speed up the process: I lit the oven to heat up, put a cutting board on top of the stove, placed a bowl of dough on it and covered it with a towel.
There is no sugar in the baguette recipe, which is probably why the dough took longer to rise than, say, cheese bread or poppy seed pie. It took two hours for it to grow right up to the towel and stick to it in several places:
I dust the work surface with flour and spread out the dough.
I knead it lightly and divide it into four equal parts - four baguettes will turn out (for me, my wife and two Totos - enough for one snack).
I knead the workpiece with my hands into an oval cake.
I fold one of its long sides towards the middle and press it well with my fingers.
Also the second side.
Now cut it in half again and pinch it.
I rolled the sausage a little so that it stretched over the entire length of the baking sheet. I lightly dust the parchment with flour and make a fold in the middle so that the baguettes do not touch.
I also place the remaining two baguettes on paper on a baking sheet. I leave it in a warm place to rise for about an hour. After this, all that remains is to make several decorative oblique cuts with the blade.
Cut confidently so that the dough does not stretch. I made the cuts before proofing, so they blurred and it didn’t turn out very nice.
Before baking baguettes, you need to place a deep baking tray with water on the bottom of the oven, and spray the oven itself well with a spray bottle.
I put the bread in the oven, spray it on the walls again and close the door. The temperature in my oven, judging by the height of the flame and the noise of the burner, was above 200 degrees, and the recipe indicated 250 degrees.
After 25 minutes, the “logs” began to brown, they began to smell, naturally, earlier, and my instinct told me that the inside was also ready. The “toothpick” test confirmed that my instincts were right.
I quickly baked the second batch, wrapped the baguettes in towels and waited for them to cool at least a little. And now I will try...
Who would have thought - only four products, such a simple baguette recipe, and what a miracle it turns out! Thin, crispy crust and soft, springy, slightly stretchy crumb... In general, I ate my fill at night and went to watch bread dreams...
A real French baguette is a song. The thin crispy crust produces an indescribable sound when lightly pressed, and an airy, aromatic crumb hides inside. It is believed that a real baguette can only be tasted in France, but Russian craftsmen have been preparing it at home for a long time.
Today the site talks about how to bake a French baguette and shares little tricks that allow you to achieve that unique taste, color and smell for which this type of bread is famous.
Ingredients (for 3-4 baguettes):
- Baking flour – 500 g,
- Cold water – 350 ml,
- Warm water – 25 ml,
- Dry yeast “active” – 5 g,
- Salt – 10 g.
Advice from the site: In order to measure the required amount of food, it is recommended to use a kitchen scale, since the “by eye” method, as well as measurements with glasses and teaspoons, do not work here. In addition, the ingredients listed above do not include flour, which you will need to form baguettes and for dusting the baking sheet or special stone.
Preparation: The preparation of French baguettes takes place in 3 stages, in each of which several nuances must be taken into account.
How to properly knead baguette dough
In a separate container, mix warm water (25 ml), yeast and 2 tablespoons of flour. Place in a warm place and wait until the dough begins to bubble and doubles in size. This will take about 20 minutes.
In a large bowl (approximately 3 liters), combine flour and salt, add the dough, mix thoroughly and gradually pour in cold water, constantly kneading the dough. You can also use a mixer with a special attachment. In this case, turn on the mode with the slowest speed.
Knead the dough for 7-10 minutes until it becomes elastic. The dough is ready for further manipulation when it completely separates from the sides of the bowl or mixer bowl, but continues to be slightly sticky to the touch.
I option. Place the dough on the board, cover with a towel, wait until it rises for 20 minutes, then knead it again, turning the outer edges inward. This procedure must be repeated three times.
After this, form the dough into a tight ball, place it in a bowl greased with refined vegetable oil, cover with cling film and refrigerate for about 20 hours. Then take it out, place it on a table sprinkled with flour, and divide the dough into as many parts as you are going to bake baguettes - 3 if you want to make long classic ones, and 4 if you prefer short ones.
Cover again with cling film and leave for an hour to finish.
Option II. Continue kneading the dough on a floured surface for another 15 minutes, saturating it with oxygen and ensuring that all ingredients are completely combined. If you use a mixer, set the speed to medium and reduce the kneading time to 7-8 minutes.
After the dough is completely kneaded, place it in a bowl greased with vegetable oil, cover with a slightly damp towel and place to proof in a warm, draft-free place. You can heat the oven to 50-60 degrees, turn it off, let it cool slightly for 10 minutes, and send the dough there.
How to bake a French baguette
After about 1-2 hours (the time depends on the quality of the yeast and the external temperature), when the dough has tripled in volume, punch it down and either put it back in a warm place, replacing the towel with cling film, or proceed to the next stage of cooking.
Explanation: If you want the cavities (air holes) in the crumb of the finished bread to be large, you can start shaping the baguette immediately after the first rise. If you like small traces of air bubbles, then let the dough rise three times. In this case, it must be kneaded the second and third time when it doubles in size again.
How to form a baguette correctly
If you have not done this before, then divide the dough into 3-4 parts (depending on what size baguette you want to get), sprinkle the table with flour. If you decide to follow French traditions, then form long or short baguettes with your hands.
How to bake a French baguette
To do this, knead each piece of dough into a layer 40 cm long and 20 cm wide. Then fold 1/3 of each long edge inward, press down a little and fold the layer in half lengthwise. Using your palm, make a small indentation in the middle and fold along it again. After this, begin to gently stretch the dough. When the baguette stretches out a little, roll it out with your hands to the length you intended. Let us remind you: the classic length of a baguette is 65 cm.
Place the bread on a baking sheet (or on a special stone), greased with butter or vegetable oil and sprinkled with flour. Cover the baguettes with a slightly damp towel and let sit until doubled in size (about 45 minutes). Then, using a sharp knife, make transverse oblique cuts on the loaves approximately 1 cm deep, sprinkle the baguettes on top with flour, or brush with milk, or sprinkle with water.
Molding option: Sprinkle the table with flour, sprinkle the rolling pin with it, roll each piece of dough into a rectangular layer about 1 cm thick, roll it into a tight roll along the long side and secure the seam. Decorate the ends of the baguette - give them a pointed shape, and then proceed as written above.
Rules for baking French baguette
Baguettes are baked in an oven preheated to 220-230 degrees. Before placing the baking sheet with bread in the oven, place an enamel bowl with water there. This is necessary so that the baguettes have an even, golden, thin and crispy crust. About 10 minutes after the start of the baking process, the container with the liquid must be removed and the temperature reduced to 175-180 degrees.
How to bake a French baguette
You can do it differently - before baking, spray the walls of an already hot oven with water from a spray bottle and repeat this procedure one more time during cooking - before reducing the temperature.
