Leeloo's French cuisine: The French Baguette

Just think about France, then French food... what's so special and also so basic in French food?

The French Baguette!! This is the French favourite snack, with butter, cheese, pâté, ham, meat or whatever else... to dip into a nice sauce or just because you like it for its punchy crust followed by the soft crumb! 10 billions* of baguette are eaten each year in France, that means about 27,6 millions baguettes each day!!! In short, this is very common food in France, but most people just buy it in the bakery every morning. I have to say, this is much easier than making it by yourself! But here in New Zealand, it's not so easy to find a French baguette, so today I have decided to make it by myself! This is not so difficult, but it's a very technical work that has to be followed meticulously to make the perfect baguette you want!

Preparation time: 4 hours (variable)
Baking time: 20 min

Ingredients:

500g flour

350ml warm water

2 teaspoon dry yeast

1 teaspoon of salt

Just as simple as that!

Method:
Dilute the yeast into 50ml of warm water and rest for 20 min. Prepare the flour and the salt in a big bowl and make a hole where to put the diluted yeast, and mix together. Add the rest of the water gradually and mix. The dough will be sticky but don't add more flour. Knead the doug for at least 20 min, and then make a ball. Cover and let rise for 20 min.

After 20 min

Then, raise the dough delicately while turning the bowl. This manipulation aims to loosen the dough from the bowl and thus strengthen it.

Before the manipulation

After the manipulation

Repeat this manipulation every 20 min, 5 times (about 1h30). You should see some bubble on the surface of the dough.

Then let rise for one more hour.

Divide the dough into 3 equal parts and make 3 balls very delicately, not to break the bubbles. Wait for 20 min and then lengthen each ball from left to right to make the baguettes (kind of sticks) and let rise for 20 min.

During these last 20 min, preheat the oven to 230° with a cookie pan filled with water on the bottom of the oven.
Make several incisions on the baguettes (for a nice crust), moisten sligthly the uncooked baguette and put in the middle of the oven. Turn down the temperature to 210°, let the cookie pan with the water and bake for 20 min. You can easily bake up to 2 baguette a time.