Simple, But Delicious, Bread

Baking bread used to be quite overwhelming: weighing ingredients, using yeast, fermenting, resting, so many steps, so complicated… Until I did it. There may be a lot of steps, but it’s really not hard and just takes some patience. Beware though; you may never want to buy bread again after you learn to make your own. I’m going to walk you through all the steps and give you some tips which I learned in my baking class. This recipe is for relatively quick fermenting, basic baguettes and it makes 2 large baguettes or 4 smaller ones.

• 1000 g bread flour: Use bread flour. Bread flour has enough high-quality gluten to make it perfect for yeast breads. Also make sure your flour is unbleached. Freshly milled flour is not good for bread because the gluten is weak and inelastic. It is also yellowish, but becomes white from being oxidized over time. Aging flour is costly so millers may add chemicals to achieve the same results quickly.
• 20 g salt: Use regular table salt.
• 9 g instant dry yeast: Use instant dry yeast and note that it also may be called fast acting or rapid rise dry yeast. It is easy to use – just add it in as a dry ingredient. Fresh yeast is usually preferred by professional bakers, but it is perishable and not easy to find in a supermarket. Don’t use active dry yeast as 25% of the yeast cells are dead due to the harsh drying conditions and this will have a negative effect on the dough quality.
• 600 g water: Keep in mind that the dough should be about 80 degrees and mixing it will add some heat too. If the air is cold, you may want to use warmer water, but if the air is really hot, you should use iced water.

1. Scale the ingredients. Yes, you need to measure them with a scale. Why? There is a huge fluctuation in the quantity of flour in 1 cup depending on how tightly you pack the flour, but weight is very accurate.
2. Mix the ingredients. Using the mixing paddle in a standing mixer, combine the dry ingredients. Slowly add in the water; you may use less or more water than the recipe calls for. Using a little too much water is better than not using enough and you want the dough to be sticky. Mix for a couple of minutes on the lowest speed. Then switch to the dough hook and mix for 10-15 minutes on the second speed. You know the dough is ready when it stretches well without breaking (basically, you have good gluten formation).
3. Ferment. Cover your dough with plastic wrap to prevent the dough from drying out and put in a warm place. Dough ferments best around 80 degrees. If it’s a little cooler, it will take more time to ferment. Professional bakers use a special box that has controlled humidity and temperature, but I used a warm oven at home and it worked great. Ferment for about an hour or until the dough is doubled in size.
4. Folding. Move the dough to a lightly floured surface and flour your hands just enough to make the dough not stick, but don’t use too much. Fold the dough in the same way you fold a letter into thirds to fit into an envelope. Then, turn 90 degrees and do it again. This evens out the dough and pushes out excess air.
5. Portion the dough. Using a dough cutter or a knife (never tear the dough) portion the dough into even pieces. Divide into 2 if you want large loaves or into 4 for smaller loaves.
6. Rounding. Shape the pieces of dough into smooth, round balls. This helps when you shape the dough into loaves later.
7. Benching. Let the dough rest for about 10-20 minutes. This lets the gluten relax.
8. Makeup/Panning. Shape the dough into loaves for baking. Proper way to make a baguette is to start by rolling the dough into a flat oval and then rolling it into a long loaf with rounded ends. Place seam-side down on pan dusted with cornmeal. Lastly, score the bread with a razor blade or sharp knife by slashing the bread diagonally with long strides (see below photo).
9. Proofing. This is also known as a second fermentation and because the temperature of the dough is higher than before, fermentation will be much quicker. Let proof until the dough is doubled in size.
10. Baking. Bake at 475 degrees for 20 minutes with steam. Ideally, a deck oven should be used. You can simulate a deck oven by using a pizza stone or placing bricks on your oven racks (preheated with oven). You can also simulate steaming by spraying the dough with water in the beginning of baking. This cools down the crust allowing for it to expand more before hardening and will result in a thinner yet still crispy crust.
11. Cooling. Let the bread cool as the bread continues to go through physical changes during cooling.
12. Eating! Okay, this step is really called storing, but this kind of bread does not keep well. Never refrigerate bread as it will quickly dry out. It does freeze well though. Putting the bread in a plastic bag will soften the crispy crust, but I find that baking it to crisp it up again works just fine for me. Still, it’s best eaten right away!