Bread Experiments: The French Baguette Tradition.

Introduction

Since I moved to the US, I’ve been missing the taste of a warm crispy baguette for breakfast. When I say baguette, I’m referring to the French Baguette Tradition, this delicious bread that you can find in any French Boulangerie; so hard to find here in the US!

During this time, I’ve been looking for tips on where to buy a good one from French expats, cooking blogs, … and went from disappointment to disappointment. After 3 years searching, I had to face reality: none of these American baguettes taste anything like a French Baguette Tradition.

Why something so good isn’t produced in the US is a bit of a mystery. When asking around, I heard different theories: either the wheat doesn’t grow under the same condition in the US, the water contains different minerals or the yeast variety is different in Europe.

Well, after multiple trials and errors, I’m happy to report that they are wrong :) America has everything it takes for a great baguette, and anybody in the US can bake one at home if they want to. Even better, it’s actually pretty simple to make!

Recipe

Ingredients for 4 baguettes

• 550g of Organic Flour Type 70 Malted (T70)
• 200g of Organic Flour Beehive (T45)
• 550mL of Water
• 16g of Fine Salt
• 2 packet of Active Dry Yeast

You’ll also need

• A big bowl to mix all the ingredients
• A thermometer to measure the water temperature
• A non sticking baking mat (the dough can be a bit sticky)
• A baguette pan like this one (important to avoid overcooking the bottom)
• A large bakeware pan. We will leave it in the oven with boiling water to create steam. If you can, try to use a bakeware that has some good inertia so they perform better at keeping the water boiling when you open close the oven.

Let’s get started

• In a big bowl, add 750g of Flour and 16g of fine Salt. Mix these together, using the handle of a wood spoon.
• Warm 550mL of Water to 115°F-120°F. Add the packet of Yeast to the Water and mix them well together. Make sure the Yeast doesn’t stay at the bottom when mixing and that it’s pretty well diluted in the water.

• Pour the Water/Yeast in your big bowl and mix everything together, very gently, using the handle of a wood spoon; it doesn’t need to be mixed much. Just make sure the dough is homogeneous. Cover the big bowl with a warm humid kitchen towel.

Pointage/Rabat

• Let the dough rise for 20min, in a warm area around 70°F-80°F (it’s called pointage in French).
• Spread some flour on your baking mat (not too much) to make sure it doesn’t stick.
• Pour the dough on the baking mat, using a wooden spoon.

• Spread the dough to form a square on the baking mat. Rub your hands with Flour. Grab one by one each corner of your square and bring them back to the center, making sure to incorporate air to the dough in the process. This is called rabat in French.

• Put the dough back in its big bowl and cover it with the humid kitchen towel.

• Repeat the Pointage/Rabat steps two additional times (for a total of 3 times).
• Let the dough rise for an additional 2 hours.

Baking time

• After this last 2 hour rise, start your oven at 475°F and slide in a large bakeware filled with water. This water when boiling will create steam in the oven.
• Spread some flour on your baking mat and put the dough on it, using a wood spoon. You should see that the gluten network has well developped during the rise. Cut the dough in 4 loafs of equal size.

• Rub your hands with flour and stretch the 4 loafs so that they have the form of a baguette. Be careful not to manipulate the dough, don’t roll the dough, really it just needs to be stretched lightly.
• Put these 4 baguettes on the baguette pan.
• Sprinkle some flour on top of each baguette, and make large cuts using a razor blade or scissors. These cuts will help the moisture get out of the bread and will give it a nice shape.

• Once your oven is hot and the water is boiling, put the baguette pan in the oven (quickly). You really want the water to be as hot as possible, as it will make steam only when boiling. So avoid keeping the oven open too long. Pour a bit of water directly on the bottom of the oven, so that it create a big steam wave in the oven and immediately close your oven.

Edit: Since I made the original pictures, I realized the crust was more crispy if cooked at lower temperature: 475°F (vs 550°F as shown in the picture).

• Bake it around 25min, depending on the shape and thickness of your baguette.

• Get the baguettes out of the oven, and put them on a gril so that all their steam can easily evaporate and create a crispy crust.
• You’re done!

Note that you can freeze them, and they will still be delicious toasted in the morning! Yummy :)

Now for the most curious, I wanted to give more information on my different experimentations.

Experimentations

Flour: Finding the right Flour is the first important part. There is a lot of different type of flours, going from pure white (made from the wheat core), to whole wheat. The pure white is called T45 in France (or 00 in Italy). In the French system, the higher the number, the closest it is from whole wheat (T110). The All Purpose Flour you buy in a grocery store is usually a T45: its flavor is very neutral so that it can work in any type of cake; Bread flours in grocery stores are usually T55s.

Of course, the quality of the flour is critical to the result and the number is only part of the story. The type of grain can vastly change the result, and some flours even include other ingredients like malt, to increase enzymatic activity during fermentation (to produce greater volume) or improve the crust color.

While I was getting bread at Tartine Manufactory (the best bakery in SF in my opinion), I noticed that they were using flour from Central Milling. So I tried their flours and they’re really good!

For our recipe, I ended up mixing 2 types of flour:

• 75% of the Organic Type 70 Malted (T70): this flour provides a strong flavor and a colorful crust.
• 25% of the Organic Beehive (T45): this flour dims the flavors intensity a bit, so that it’s closer from the taste of a Tradition Baguette

Yeast: You can buy dry yeast in any grocery store, and they usually have 2 different types: Active Dry or Instant Dry. Both lead to similar results and can be used interchangeably. The main difference being that the Instant Dry Yeast can be mixed dry, directly in the Flour, with the water added after; the Active Dry Yeast requires to be mixed in Water first.

Also worth noting is that the Instant Dry yeast rises faster at the beginning, so it’s better to use Instant Dry Yeast when you have a short rise cycle (less than 2 hours). After 2 hours though, Active and Instant Dry Yeast are pretty comparable. Since we mix the yeast in Water first and let it rise for a total of 3 hours, any of those 2 work.

Note: You could also use Fresh Yeast instead of Dry Yeast. It’s a bit harder to find, and from what I read online, it doesn’t change much the final result, but let me know if you try with that!

Salt: it’s important to use fine salt so that it mixes well together with the flour. Salt kills Yeast, so you never want the Yeast to be exposed to too much Salt.

Water to Flour Ratio: Usually, recipes gives a ratio of Water to Flour between 70% and 80%. I found 80% to work best (300/375 = 0.8). At 70%, the dough is dry and doesn’t raise as much in this specific recipe.

Lighter Dough: In my first try, I simply let the dough rest for 2 hours, covered by a humid kitchen towel. I got a baguette that was already good, but its core was pretty dense.

To make it lighter, I found that the best way was to incorporate some air in the dough (rabat in French) during the rest time (pointage). You achieve this by spreading roughly the dough to form a square, without manipulating it too much. You then fold over each corner, back to the center. I found the best was to do it 3 times, separated by a 20min rest time between each. Once done, I let the dough rest for at least 2 hours.

You should see that the dough raised well and develop a nice gluten network. This network is important to create elasticity: the bread will raise better and the core will have a better texture.

Steam in the Oven: If you don’t put steam in the oven, I found the crust to be very thick and not shiny (more like a ciabatta). The role of the steam in the oven is to slow the crust development, by coating the dough with moisture. It makes this nice shiny look on the baguette and a thinner crispier crust.

Baguette Pan: At first I tried to bake baguettes using normal baking sheets. But the lower part of the baguette was always overcooked (probably because the steam couldn’t do it’s effect as well). Baguette Pans have little holes that let the dough breath.

Conclusion

Making bread was quite fun. I did a batch every day for 2 weeks. That’s how you get to know your oven, baking pans, etc. The only way to understand how it works is to experiment and try different methods.

I’d be very curious to know how this works for you and whether you find other great tricks! :)

I hope this recipe can contribute to help America make great baguettes :)

Bon appétit!