French Baguette Recipe

A couple of days ago I tried my hands on making French baguette from scratch. I wanted to make garlic bread to go with my lasagna. In the past I've made buns and stuff but never plain bread...so that was an interesting experience. It was surprisingly easy too....all thanks to this recipe I found Here. I did adjust the recipe a little bit and it worked out great! I don't have a bread machine nor a electric stand mixer...just a electric hand mixer...but it still worked out fine! Fresh bread smells so good! and it tasted great too! It was however a bit time consuming to make but if you already have the ingredients in your pantry and have some time to spare, why not give this recipe a try?

French Baguette Recipe

Makes 2 baguettes

Ingredients:

6 cups all purpose flour

5 tsp active dry yeast

2 cups of warm water at 110°F

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 egg white

1 tbsp water

cooking oil spray

electric hand mixer with dough hooks

clean towel

rolling pin
pastry brush

Instructions:

1. In a large bowl, combine 2 cups of flour, warm water, yeast, and salt. Mix well with a electric hand mixer attached with dough hooks. Gradually mix in remaining flour.

2. Lightly flour a clean surface. Pour the dough out onto the surface and knead dough by hand until smooth and elastic. Round the dough into a ball.

3. Lightly grease a large bowl with cooking oil spray. Place the dough into the bowl and cover with a clean damp warm towel. Let it rise about 30mins or until double in size.

4. Remove the towel and punch the dough down. Divide the dough in 2. Lightly flour the surface again and knead each dough into a ball. Cover with a towel and let the dough sit for about 10 minutes.

5. Lightly flour surface and roll out the dough into thin rectangular shape.

6.  Roll up the dough starting from the longer side. Roll as tight as you can without denting the dough. Seal both ends and edges of the roll. Repeat with the other dough.

7. Lightly grease 2 baking pan with cooking oil spray. Place the rolls on the baking pans. In a small bowl, lightly mix egg white and 1 tbsp of water. Lightly brush the mixture on the surface of the rolls. Cover with plastic wrap. Let them sit for about 40 minutes. they should almost double in size.

8. Preheat oven to 375°F.

9.  Remove plastic wrap and make 4 shallow diagonal cuts on each roll. Cover one of the rolls up with plastic wrap again, and place the other one in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and brush another thin coat of egg wash on the surface. Loosely cover the roll with a sheet of foil. Bake in the oven for another 15- 20 minutes or until lightly brown. Place bread on a cooling rack. Repeat with the other dough.

All done!