My Dream Job–Three Hour Baguette

One day I will have a food truck.  I will be open from 6:30 in the morning until 3:00 in the afternoon.  The only things I will sell will be homemade artisan breads, unique breakfast sandwiches, awesome coffee and five different soups and sandwiches that I will rotate.

Doesn’t everyone come home from work, especially after a long work week and on a Friday night, and make home made bread?  I blame my latest issue of Saveur magazine.

I love everything about making bread.  While it may seem time intensive, it’s the waiting for the dough to rise that takes time.  The actual hands on time isn’t that long at all.

There were two bread recipes that jumped out at me.  The first one was is called Filone.  It’s made with a lightly fermented traditional starter, called a biga, that’s started nine hours before baking.

In a medium bowl, whisk 1/3 cup water, 1/2 tsp. of yeast and let it sit until foamy – about 10 minutes.  Add 2/3 cup flour and put it on your counter that’s lightly floured and knead for about two minutes.

This literally took 3 minutes.  While I will continue to make the rest of that bread today, I wanted fresh bread.  Like last night.  So I went on to my next recipe.  While the recipe stated a four-hour baguette, I was convinced I could get equal results in three hours from beginning to end.

Three Hour Baguette from Saveur May 2012 Issue

• 1.5 cups water, heated to 115 (I used my microwave to heat up tap water)
• 1 teaspoon dry yeast
• 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 cup ice cubes

Whisk together the water and yeast in a large bowl and let sit for 10 minutes.  Add flour and stir with a fork, just until the flour is combined.  Let the bread sit for 20 minutes.  Go watch Punk’d that’s on the DVR with your husband.

Take the dough out and put it on your lightly floured counter.  Sprinkle salt over the dough and knead the dough for 10 minutes, adding just enough flour so it isn’t sticking to the counter or your hands.

Put it back in the bowl (lightly greased with olive oil) and put it in your cool oven for one hour.  Go watch the last 1/2 of the movie Billy Madison with your husband, who will stop and watch the rest of that movie when he finds it while flipping channels.

After that hour – take the dough out – put it back on your counter and shape it into an 8 x 6 inch rectangle.  Take each 8 inch side and fold it in the middle, now take the two shorter sides and bring those to the middle, kind of like making an envelope.  Place the seam side down and let it rest another hour.  Forty five minutes into that last hour, remove the bowl of dough from the oven and heat your oven to 475 (my stove takes 15 minutes to get to temperature).  During that rise watch the last half of Hall Pass because your husband hasn’t seen it and finds it funny.  Which it is – go watch it sometime.

Place a baking stone in the middle of your oven.  Put a cast iron skillet on the lower shelf of your oven. I divided the dough into three, 9 ounces pieces and rolled them out into about 14 inches.  Using a sharp knife, make cuts to the top of the bread.  Put bread on parchment paper and carefully transfer the bread to your hot stone.

Pull out the lower rack and put 1/2 cup ice cubes in the cast iron skillet and quickly shut the oven.  Mine were perfectly cooked at 20 minutes, but the original recipe calls for 30 minutes.

So three hours and possible 15 minutes hands on time, I had bread.  Delicious bread.  Probably the best bread I’ve ever made good.  I actually baked one loaf last night, and made the other two this morning.  I stored the remaining dough in my fridge last night and took it out before going to WW – it was at room temperature by the time I got back.

Look at the dark, crispy crust and all the nooks and crannies in the bread!  It amazes me that flour, salt, water and yeast can create something that is so delicious.

Let’s just say I had a couple pieces of bread before  going to bed last night.  Can’t wait to see how my other bread turns out today.

Who’s afraid of trying yeast breads??  This is a full proof method that any home cook can tackle.

So you are probably wondering how my WI went right?

I am up slightly but I am not worried about it.  I know I snacked a few too much during the week and the wine consumption creeped up a bit.  And I have to do some more intense working out – just doing my 30 minute stretch and walking isn’t going to cut it.

I also found the Mission Extra Thin corn tortillas – I plan on baking up some tortilla chips.  I found them at Wal-Mart – a 24 pack cost $2.98.

I’ve been slacking on the reminders, but you have until tomorrow afternoon to submit your flour recipes for this week’s BSI – the prize?  It’s underneath those tortillas!  It’s Fast Fresh & Green – more than 90 veggies recipes, just in time for spring and summer!

Have a great day – I am off to make more bread.