Et Voilà, Baguette!

Friday evening I stumbled home and flung myself on the couch after seven straight days of talks. Yep, seven. APS had begun the previous Saturday at 8:30 am and lasted through Tuesday. I got on a plane back to Berkeley Tuesday afternoon, missing the last half day of APS talks, and Wednesday morning I was back at LBL for a 7:30am meeting. That meeting was followed by the start of a workshop which lasted until Friday evening. When I flung myself down on the couch my brain was so saturated I vowed to not think about physics for the entire weekend. My plan for the weekend included sleeping, bike riding, cooking, and attempting to bake a decent baguette. I am happy to report that I had a wonderful weekend accomplishing all four of the above activities and almost succeeded in not doing any physics!


This post is to detail the baguette making, which was just as satisfying, if not more so, than the bagel making. The baguettes are made pain à l’ancienne style, detailed in Peter Reinhart’s book, which involves letting the fridge do most of the fermentation work. The result was a wonderfully crusty, sweet and nutty baguette which I couldn’t quite believe came out of my oven. I was supremely happy the rest of the day. It’s funny how flour, yeast, water and salt can do that to you.

Baguettes à l’Ancienne from Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice

6 cups unbleached bread flour (27oz)
2 1/4 teaspoons salt (fine sea salt)
1 3/4 teaspoons instant yeast (increase by 25% if using active dry)
2 1/4 -3 cups ice-cold water (needs to be as cold as possible)
Semolina or cornmeal for dusting
*you will need an oven-safe, heavy duty skillet and a spray bottle of water for the baking stage

Step 1: Mixing

Stand Mixer Instructions: Combine the flour, salt, yeast and water in the bowl of the electric mixer with the paddle attachment and mix for 2 minutes on low speed. Switch to the dough hook and mix for 5 to 6 minutes on medium speed. The dough should be sticky on the bottom of the bowl, but it should release from the sides of the bowl. If not, sprinkle in a small amount of flour until this occurs (or dribble in water if the dough seems too stiff and clears the bottom as well as the sides of the bowl).

Hand Mixing: Standmixing is much preferred because it minimizes contact with the dough so it doesn’t heat up as much. However, I was using my stand mixer and didn’t realize that the dough had climbed up the dough hook and got a bunch of grease in it from the place where the hook attaches to the machine. I decided to start over and hand mix it with the following process. Combine the flour, salt and yeast in a large, wide mouthed bowl. Add the water and mix (by hand or spoon) until combined. Then, dip your hand in cold water and knead the dough inside the bowl by holding the bowl with one arm and using the other hand as a dough hook, folding and pressing the dough against the sides of the bowl. Do this for about 10 minutes. I think my dough got a bit too warm and wasn't quite sticky enough, even though I added more than the 2 1/4 cups of water. Next time I will add closer to 3 cups.

Step 2: Refrigeration
Lightly oil a large bowl and immediately transfer the dough with a spatula or bowl scraper dipped in water into the bowl. Mist the top of the dough with spray oil and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Immediately place the bowl in the refrigerator and chill overnight, to retard fermentation.


Step 3: Final Fermentation
The next day, check the dough to see if it has risen in the refrigerator. It will probably be partially risen but not doubled in size (the amount of rise will depend on how cold the refrigerator is and how often the door was opened). Leave the bowl of dough out at room temperature for about 2 to 3 hours (or longer if necessary) to allow the dough to wake up, lose its chill, and continue fermenting.

Step 4: Shaping
Prepare the oven for hearth baking by putting a baking stone at the bottom and a heavy duty skillet on a rack near the top to function as a steam pan. Preheat the oven to 500 F, or 550 F if your oven goes this high. Boil ~4 cups of water and keep covered near by. Cover the back of two big sheet pans with baking parchment and dust with semolina flour or cornmeal. If you don’t have a baking stone you will just cook the bread on the back of the sheet pans.
When the dough has doubled from its original prerefrigerated size, liberally sprinkle the counter with bread flour (about 1/2 cup). Gently transfer the dough to the floured counter with a plastic dough scraper or spatula that has been dipped in cold water, dipping your hands as well to keep the dough from sticking to you. Avoid punching down the dough as you transfer it, to expel as little as possible of the carbon-dioxide gas that has built up in the dough during fermentation.
If the dough is very wet, sprinkle more flour over the top as well as under it. Dry your hands thoroughly and then dip them in flour. Roll the dough gently in the sprinkled flour to coat it thoroughly, simultaneously stretching it into an oblong about 8 inches long and 6 inches wide. If it is too sticky to handle, continue sprinkling flour over it.

Dip a metal pastry scraper into cool water to keep it from sticking to the dough, and cut the dough in half widthwise with the pastry scraper by pressing it down through the dough until it severs it, then dipping it again in the water and repeating this action until you have cut down the full length of the dough. (Do not use this blade as a saw; use it as a pincer, pinching the dough cleanly with each cut.) Let the dough relax for 5 minutes.

Take one of the dough pieces and repeat the cutting action, but this time cut lengthwise into 3 equal-sized pieces. Then do the same with the remaining half.
Flour your hands and carefully lift one of the dough strips and transfer it to an inverted parchment-lined pan, gently pulling it to the length of the pan or to the length of your baking stone. If it springs back, let it rest for 5 minutes and then gently pull it out again. Place 3 strips on the pan, and then prepare another pan and repeat with the remaining strips.
Score the dough strips as for traditional baguettes, slashing the tops with 3 diagonal cuts. Because the dough is sticky, you may have to dip the razor blade, serrated knife or scissors in water between each cut. You may also omit the cuts if the dough isn't cooperating.

Step 5: Baking
Take one pan to the preheated oven and carefully slide the dough, parchment and all, onto the baking stone (depending on the direction of the stone, you may choose to slide the dough and parchment off the side of the sheet pan instead of off the end); or bake directly on the sheet pan. I recommend wearing long sleeves and using oven mits or gloves and hot pads.
Make sure the pieces aren't touching (you can reach in and straighten the parchment or the dough strips, if need be). Pour 1 cup of the hot water you set aside into the steam pan and close the door.

After 30 seconds, spray the oven walls with water from the spray bottle and close the door. Repeat twice more at 30-second intervals. After the final spray, reduce the oven setting to 475 F and continue baking.

Meanwhile, dust the other pan of strips with flour, mist with spray oil, and cover with a towel or plastic wrap. If you don't plan to bake these strips within 1 hour, refrigerate the pan and bake later or the next day.

The bread should begin to turn golden brown within 8 or 9 minutes. If the loaves are baking unevenly at this point, rotate them 180 degrees. Continue baking 10 to 15 minutes more, or until the bread is a rich golden brown and the internal temperature registers at least 205 F.
Transfer the hot breads to a cooling rack. They should feel very light, almost airy, and will cool in about 20 minutes.

While these are cooling, you can bake the remaining loaves, remembering to remove the parchment from the oven and turn the oven up to 500 F or higher before baking the second round.