Looking for an easy French baguette recipe using a bread machine that does most of the work for you? In this post, you’ll learn how to create delicious baguettes that has a gorgeous outer crust and is moist inside, all done with the help of a bread machine and your two hands.
If this is your first time ever making baguettes using a bread machine, you’ll see that it’ll do all the heavy lifting for you – letting you do the actual fun parts of baguette forming later. A great recipe and total win-win for homemade bread.
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Ingredients
4 1/2 Teaspoons of Bread Yeast
2 1/4 Tablespoons of honey (or 1/4 cup of sugar)
3 1/2 cup Bread Flour
1 Cup of Water (heated to 110°)
2 Tsp of salt (be sure to keep separate from the yeast)
Step 1: Add water, honey and salt into your bread machine. Then add in your flour. Make a little hole in the center of the flour and add in your yeast. Set your bread machine to dough setting mode and press start.
Step 2: While your dough cycle is doing its first rise, it’s time to grab the baking trays. To prep your baking tray, add some parchment paper and sprinkle some brown rice flour or cornmeal – this will help keep your bread from sticking and create that gorgeous crispy crunch. Now you are ready to work with the fresh dough from the bread machine
Step 3: Once the dough cycle (and dough rise) is complete (you’ll know it’s ready if indentation remains when touched), transfer the dough from the bread machine to a lightly floured surface. Punch out the risen bread dough and roll into a 16×12-inch rectangle. Divide dough in half, creating two 8×12-inch rectangles. Set aside one portion to work with and cover the other dough ball portions with a cloth or plastic wrap to keep it from drying out.
Step 4: Taking your first dough rectangle, and beginning at one long side, roll up each half of dough tightly – similar to folding a letter. Continue to do this throughout the entire length of the one side of the dough, pounding out any air bubbles as you go. Repeat this step on the opposite edge of the dough – this helps to lengthen the dough into that long iconic baguette shape.
Be sure to seal the dough seams together as well as folding and tucking each end of the baguette.
note: for rolls, cut your dough into smaller pieces and follow the above instructions the same way.
Step 5: Place all your loaves on the tray or bread pan about 3 inches apart.
Step 6: Make deep diagonal slashes across each of the loaves every 2 inches or one slash going lengthwise on each loaf. Once done, cover and let the dough do a second rise for least 30 minutes. This will make the baguette loaves double in size.
Step 7: Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
Step 8: Mix egg yolk with 1 tablespoon water in a small bowl to make egg wash; brush over the top of the bread loaves. Let bake for 13 minutes or until crust is a golden brown hue.
Note: If you want super crusty bread, prepare an ovenproof bowl or tray with ice-cold water. Place the bowl or tray of ice water on the bottom of the oven rack and then immediately put the bread tray on the rack above the water in the preheated oven. Do not open your oven door while your bread is baking.
Once done, remove your bread loaf tray from the oven and place onto to a cooling wire rack. Once cooled down, serve and enjoy, preferably with some olive oil sprinkled with parmesan cheese and salt.
some baguette baking Notes
To prevent a sticky situation, line your tray or cookie sheet using brown rice flour (the best kept nonstick secret). This will help your dough not stick to the tray and help it crisp.
If you’re fresh out of brown rice flour, you can use cornmeal or parchment paper too.
Always make sure to cover your dough to prevent it from drying out.
And there you have it. A delicious homemade french bread recipe with a crispy crust you can serve to your loved ones. It’s a simple recipe that’ll get your tastebuds singing.
One of the secrets of a great baguette is to start with a sponge (a mix of flour, water, and yeast), which gives the yeast time to mature and combine with the other ingredients, creating the mildly sour and nutty flavors and chewy texture.
French bread is wider and longer than a baguette, with a much softer crust. It doesn't require any special equipment to make and it's just as versatile as a baguette, but its soft outside makes it perfect for toast or garlic bread.
Like the focaccia, the baguettes made with bread flour had a much more open crumb and springier, chewier texture, and the scores (the marks on the top of the loaf) opened up more. The dough made with bread flour was much easier to shape; meanwhile, the dough made with all-purpose flour was stickier and slacker.
The law states that traditional baguettes have to be made on the premises they're sold and can only be made with four ingredients: wheat flour, water, salt and yeast. They can't be frozen at any stage or contain additives or preservatives, which also means they go stale within 24 hours.
Overall, the ideal flour for baguettes should have a moderate protein content, a fine texture, and should be of high quality. While traditional French type 55 flour is the ideal choice, a combination of all-purpose and bread flour can also work well in its place.
This percentage straddles the line between most American all-purpose flours and bread flours, but King Arthur all-purpose flour (the one in the red bag), with its higher-than-normal 11.7% protein, actually makes an excellent baguette flour. If you can't find that one for some reason, use bread flour instead.
This thin-crusted variety of French Bread—more commonly known as the Baguette, Po' Boy Loaf or Sunday Cap Bread—is fundamental to the New Orleans gastronomy. Each version of the French bread is slightly different. The baguette is the traditional 18-inch loaf that is served in many New Orleans restaurants.
While most bread has a fairly high water content (usually around 40 percent), the water content of baguettes is much higher — usually about 50 percent. That gives baguettes their light and airy texture, which also means they dry out quickly.
In France, bakers pay careful attention to where their flour is made and which grains are used in the milling process. The result is usually softer, heartier, and tastier bread than can be found in other parts of the world. French flour tends to be made with a lower ash content than the flour from other countries.
The 55 refers to the amount of mineral content that is left after burning the flour i.e. T55 has about 0.55% mineral content. T55 flour is equivalent to Type 0 Italian flour, Euro 550 flour type and American all purpose flour.
Typically, French flour for breadmaking is Type 55 or T55. The higher the number, the more of the whole grain it contains. The type number refers to the amount mineral content.
You can always substitute all-purpose flour for bread flour one for one in any recipe that calls for it. Your bread might not raise quite as high or have quite as much chew, if you are using all-purpose flour, but it will still be delicious and homemade and all the good things.
Paris Baguette is under fire after a 23-year-old employee died during a graveyard shift at a food company factory on Oct. 14. While operating a machine that mixes sauce, the employee was pulled into the machine.
1 – Regular French Baguette = Cheap Bread in France
Hence, the bakers use the cheapest ingredients to keep it low cost. And some people apparently like that taste because “le pain” (the bigger loaf of French bread”) and “la baguette” still sell like… hot cakes (pun intended). Of course, it's a question of taste.
In France, bakers pay careful attention to where their flour is made and which grains are used in the milling process. The result is usually softer, heartier, and tastier bread than can be found in other parts of the world. French flour tends to be made with a lower ash content than the flour from other countries.
Paris Baguette also only used its own proprietary dough, which was lighter, airier and less sweet than traditional dough to create its unique offerings.
Unlike other loaves, the baguette is made with only four ingredients (flour, water, salt and leaven and/or yeast) from which each baker obtains a unique product.
Secret three: Preheat the oven for baking with a pan of boiling water. Then once ready to bake, spray the oven with water for extra steam. THIS is what will give you the crunchy crust. An absolute necessity for a classic French Baguette!
Introduction: My name is Trent Wehner, I am a talented, brainy, zealous, light, funny, gleaming, attractive person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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