This was one of my first big accomplishments in cooking. The pictures date to March 4, 2010, so it took me a while to really start using recipes and cooking things beyond dinners. I decided that I wanted to try making bread. I consulted SK and found this recipe, which looked and sounded simple and required few ingredients. I started making the bread at 7 pm on March 4 and then got up at like 5:30 am on March 5 to do the final steps and bake it so that we would have warm, fresh bread for breakfast and to take into school. This was definitely a cooking confidence booster for me.
I modified the ingredients a bit based on what I could easily find in Morocco, so the original recipe is a little different.
3 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp wheat/corn germ or bran [I definitely didn't have this]
1/2 tsp yeast
1 1/2 cups liquid (half milk, half water)
In a large bread bowl, mix the flour, one heaping teaspoon of salt, a half teaspoon of sugar, and one tablespoon of wheat or corn germ.
Mix 1/2 scant teaspoon of yeast (active dry is just fine) with 1 1/2 cups of liquid–half milk, half water, or more water than milk–whatever you have on hand. (If you’re going to leave it overnight, use 1/4 teaspoon of yeast.)
Pour the liquid into the flour and stir it up. The dough should be neither dry nor sticky, but should tend more toward to the stick than the dry. If too sticky, add a little more flour.
Knead the dough well, roll it in flour, put it in a warm bowl. SK: I covered mine with plastic wrap at this time–a towel works as well–but realize it might not be neccessary. Leave it in a cool, draft-free place and go about your business.
Whenever you happen to get home, punch down the dough, knead it well and forget about it until convenient.
Sometime later (with a long first rise, a short second rise is fine, but a long one is fine, too) punch the dough down, give it a final kneading, shape into a baguette, slash the top with four diagonal cuts, brush wtih water and let proof for a few minutes (it was 30 minutes, in our case). However, if you haven’t the time, it can go straight into the oven.
You can preheat the oven or put it in a cold oven, it matters not a bit. Bake at 450° for half an hour. Turn the oven to 425 ° and bake for another five to twenty minutes. (SK notes: This range is long because I found my bread was done–sounded hollow when I tapped the bottom, quite brown on the outside and registered 200 or so on a thermometer, all different techiniques to check for doneness–after just 5 more minutes, but Colwin suggests 20. It will vary based on the density of your bread, the size of your baguette, etc. etc. so just check in with it every five minutes or so.)
I modified the ingredients a bit based on what I could easily find in Morocco, so the original recipe is a little different.
3 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp wheat/corn germ or bran [I definitely didn't have this]
1/2 tsp yeast
1 1/2 cups liquid (half milk, half water)
In a large bread bowl, mix the flour, one heaping teaspoon of salt, a half teaspoon of sugar, and one tablespoon of wheat or corn germ.
Mix 1/2 scant teaspoon of yeast (active dry is just fine) with 1 1/2 cups of liquid–half milk, half water, or more water than milk–whatever you have on hand. (If you’re going to leave it overnight, use 1/4 teaspoon of yeast.)
Pour the liquid into the flour and stir it up. The dough should be neither dry nor sticky, but should tend more toward to the stick than the dry. If too sticky, add a little more flour.
Knead the dough well, roll it in flour, put it in a warm bowl. SK: I covered mine with plastic wrap at this time–a towel works as well–but realize it might not be neccessary. Leave it in a cool, draft-free place and go about your business.
Whenever you happen to get home, punch down the dough, knead it well and forget about it until convenient.
Sometime later (with a long first rise, a short second rise is fine, but a long one is fine, too) punch the dough down, give it a final kneading, shape into a baguette, slash the top with four diagonal cuts, brush wtih water and let proof for a few minutes (it was 30 minutes, in our case). However, if you haven’t the time, it can go straight into the oven.
You can preheat the oven or put it in a cold oven, it matters not a bit. Bake at 450° for half an hour. Turn the oven to 425 ° and bake for another five to twenty minutes. (SK notes: This range is long because I found my bread was done–sounded hollow when I tapped the bottom, quite brown on the outside and registered 200 or so on a thermometer, all different techiniques to check for doneness–after just 5 more minutes, but Colwin suggests 20. It will vary based on the density of your bread, the size of your baguette, etc. etc. so just check in with it every five minutes or so.)
