Baguette

By chelyc13

Baguettes are defined as much by their crust as their crumb. The crust dominates the mouth sensation. Aside form teh shape, one important technique that differentiates the baguette from the boule in this chapter is that the baguette is not heavily dusted with flour, at least not traditionally. so, to keep the knife from sticking, brush water onto the surface of the loaf just before slashing. You'll also notice that this loaf uses whole wheat flour rather than cornmeal on the pizza peel, since cornmeal would impart too strong a flavor for classic baguettes.

Ingredients

• 1 pound Boule dough
• Whole wheat flour for the pizza peel

Details

Servings 1

Preparation

Step 1

1. Preheat the oven to 450 with a baking stone placed on the middle rack. Place and empty broiler tray on any other shelf that won't interfere with the rising bread.

2. Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 1 pound piece. Dust the piece with more flour and shape it inot a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter turn as you go. Once it's cohesive, begint o stretch and elongate the dough, dusting with additional flour as necessary. You may find it helpful to roll it back and forth with your hands on a flour dusted surface. Form a cylinder approximately 2 inches in diameter. If the loaf won't fit on your pizza peel or stone, cut it in half to make two smaller baguettes. Place the loaf on a pizza peel covered with whole wheat flour and allow to rest for 20 minutes.

3. After the dough has rested, paint water over the surface of the loaf using a pastry brush. The water prevents the knife from sticking in the wet dough, and an authentic baguette isn't flour dusted on the top crust. Slash the loaf with longitudinal cuts that move diagonally across the loaf, using a serrated bread knife.

4. Slide the loaf directly onto the hot stone. Pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler tray, and quickly close the oven door. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until deeply browned and firm to the touch.

5. Allow to cool on a rack before cutting or eating.