Baguettes

Poolish:

• 1/2 cup water, warmed to 90F. Filtered or bottled water is best.
  (90F is warm enough so that you can't feel it at all when you dip your finger).
• 1 cup bread flour (I like King Arthur Artisan Bread Flour).
• 1/8 tsp active dry yeast

This makes a sloppy starter batter. Let it ferment at room temperature for 8-12 hours. If you make this first thing in the morning, you can make the batter in the early afternoon, and bake loaves for dinner.

Dough: in a 4 qt mixing bowl

• 3 1/2 cups bread flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp instant dry yeast

Mix 1 cup of water at 90F into the poolish, and then add it all to the dough dry ingredients. Mix with a wooden spoon until the dough pulls away from the side of the mixing bowl, and turn out onto a mixing board or mat.

Knead for 10 minutes. The dough should be soft but slightly rougher than a typical white bread. Form the dough into a ball. This is a fat-free bread, so unusually there is no rolling the dough in oil (although at altitude where everything dessicates rapidly it does help). Cover with plastic wrap, and let raise for 3 hours, punching down at the end of the first and second hours.

Shape the Baguettes. Handle the dough gently. Turn it out onto a mat, and divide into three portions. I find that rolling it over into a roughly formed cylinder facilitates judging the three portions equally. Cover the portions with a clean tea-towel and let sit for 15 minutes. For each loaf, form the dough into a rectangle, and stretch it lengthways to about 6 inches long by 3 inches wide. Work it out longer - to about 12 inches long, and fold the long ends back into the center and pinch together. Lay it out horizontally, and fold/roll down the top edge and then the bottom edge to make a right roll about 6 inches long and 2 inches in diameter. Roll it over so the seam is underneath. Now with three fingers of each hand in the center of the log, roll it gently back and forth to lengthen the cylinder. Gradually work outwards, until the cylinder you reach the ends and the cylinder is about 16 inches long - as long as the baguette pan, and then move it gently into the pan.

Slash the top of baguettes with a very sharp knife. If the knife is not super sharp, it will just tug the dough. Make three cuts, each half the length of the loaf, at a slight angle, overlapping with each other. Each cut is made with the knife at about 30 degrees - almost horizontal - and penetrates the dough about 3/8 of an inch. As the dough rises, the loaves pull open at these cuts, stretching long thin strands of gluten, and leaving a rough cut edge to crisp and make extra crust.

Let the dough rise until doubled in size - about 1 1/2 - 2 hours. Most recipes suggest covering the loaves with plastic wrap, but that sticks to the dough and ruins it when you try to peel it off. I prefer to lay (very gently) a light clean tea towel over the dough, and then to further reduce drying of the dough, lay a sheet of plastic wrap over that. Since the baguette pans have ventilation holes, its worth tucking the tea-towel and plastic film under the edges of the pan to prevent air circulating underneath. Remember to leave plenty of slack in the covering for the dough to rise.

Preheat the oven to 425 for 30 minutes with a baking stone in place. Place an old baking pan on the bottom shelf of the oven. When the oven is hot, place 6 ice cubes in the pan at the bottom to generate steam. (The pan will rust as the hot water dries out - hence the call for an old one.) Immediately place the loaves in the oven, and bake for 30 minutes. The bread is done when the crust is golden. It is easy to underestimate.

Credit: Adapted from a King Arthur Flour recipe. See also this recipe which is quite different. I haven't tried it... I've been impressed with the flour and tools I've bought from King Arthur.

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