French bread- the baguette

I truly believe that in life, there is nothing, nothing better than a freshly made french baguette.  A baguette, lightly buttered or served with cheese, can solve all my problems, especially when paired with a good glass of red wine. 

 (A close second for life-problem-solving foods: peanut m&m's).

Here's my top 3 reasons for making your own homemade baguette:

1.  While no baguette ever baked here will ever taste the same as those I ate in Paris, all basic baguette recipes consist of the same ingredients.  Parisian baguettes benefit from unenriched, unbleached, plain old milled flour from a slightly different wheat (usually soft wheat) then we typically can buy.  Plus, the Parisian water table will always be different from ours, lending a different taste profile.  But regardless, the familiarity of French bread remains the same and its always amazing.

2.  For some reason, they don't get as hard and crusty as store bought baguettes the day after- you know the "hard and crusty" I'm talking about.  The kind that scrapes your gums when you eat it.   When I make baguettes at home, they usually go moldy or get eaten before they get stale, as long as I keep them in gallon Ziploc bag.   

3.  Finally, to make bread is easier than making most pastries.  Bread is far more forgiving than pastry knows how to be.  Your dough isn't scraping the bowl clean?  Probably needs a little more flour.  Your dough is crumbly?  Needs a little more water. 

So, if you have a little time, you can make a little baguette. 

Basic French bread

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp Butter
1 packet Active dry yeast, or 2 tsp.  (Make sure to buy Active dry, not instant active!)
1 tsp Sugar
1 cup Warm water
3 1/2 cups AP flour or Bread flour
1 Tbsp Salt
1 Tbsp Cornmeal

Method:
1.  Using butter, grease a bowl and set aside.  Combine yeast and sugar with water and allow to ferment for 4 to 5 minutes, or until frothy. 
2.  Combine yeast mixture with flour and salt in bowl of mixer with a dough hook and mix on medium speed until dough forms and wipes the side of the bowl clean.  Balance mixture with extra flour if too sticky and extra water if too crumbly.
3.  Place dough in greased bowl, cover with saran wrap and a damp towel.  Place in warm place and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 2 hours.
4.  Split dough in half.  Punch down dough and form into baguette loaves by rolling from the center outward.  Place on baking sheet dusted with cornmeal and cover with dry towel.  Place in warm area and allow loaves to double in volume.
5.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Bake loaves for 25 to 30 minutes on upper rack.  For crustier bread, bake bread with a casserole dish of water on lower rack. 

Breadmaking 101

Demi Baguette

Months ago (back in March I think), I signed up for a Pittsburgh Groupon with the Gaynor's School of Cooking.  By the way, if you aren't on Groupon's mailing list or Living Social's mailing list, sign up stat.  Great deals for all kinds of stuff.

Pain au mie

Anyway, I signed up for a Groupon with Gaynor's School of Cooking in the South Side and had been waiting and waiting and waiting for an advanced pastry or cake decorating course to come along, to no avail.  As it turns out, their pastry chef is on maternity leave, so I opted to take their breadmaking 101 course. 

Pita rounds

Onion Oregano bread

Breadmaking, as we've discussed before, is an essential part of baking.  It was the first baked good and it's symbolism and iconography are so far infused into food culture it's inescapable.  French people are forever portrayed as beret wearing, baguette carrying, artists on bicycles, and Italians are known for their artisanal foccacia breads and rich olive oil dipping sauces.  You get what I mean.

Rosemary foccacia

My class began at 10 am today (and I was late, ugh!) and in 4 short hours, 4 women made 4 demi-baguettes, 8 bagels, rosemary foccacia bread, onion and oregano loaf, pain au mie, sunflower seed bread, pita bread and challah.  From scratch I might add.

Garlic Salt Bagel

It was a wonderful class- and it's not something you need experience or lots of baking know-how to do.  Gaynor, the owner, is a wonderful teacher and the class has a very laid-back feel to it.  Plus, you get to take home the freshly baked breads which makes the money spent completely worth it. 

Sunflower seed bread, one of my favorites!

Of course, I can't share the recipes I learned here.  This is something better learned by patronizing a great local cooking school.  I will say that I believe bread is more intensive than some types of baking, but it's also more forgiving.  If you measure a cake out wrong, it really won't work.  But with bread, you can self correct along the way by adding more flour or more water.  For instance, today, our flour was a little moist, so we had to add much more than our recipes called for. 

Challah

Bread, it might not be super sweet, but it's Sugar Lovin worthy!