Baguette , the "I need baguettes but don't want to go to the store but I don't need them till tomorrow" type. Super easy, no kneading, just combine, stir, flip, roll, bake then eat. OH and they're absolutely delicious

I make a ridiculous amount of bread.  I make all sorts of bread.  I make a ton of different baguettes.  BUT I like THIS crazy easy version as my go-to for quick (you leave it to rise while you sleep!) version for the skinny baguettes that are perfect to take on a picnic, travel to a friend's house, to eat, to slice and toast as bruschetta or just to have to nibble.

This is quick and easy and here's the entire recipe before you can blink:

TRACY'S QUICK SKINNY BAGUETTE

Before you go to bed, in a large (3 qt or larger) vessel with a lid, combine:

3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 cups room temperature water.

Mix with a wooden spoon.  It's a gloppy mess.  Be sure the flour is all combined into the goo.  Snap the lid on the vessel, push it to the back of the counter and go to bed.

DING!  8 hours later.

Dump the dough, it's VERY wet, onto a floured board or cloth.  Fold it over itself a time or two, no kneading, just making it easier to deal with with a LIGHT coating of flour.  Divide into 4 and roll each gently into a very long log.  Transfer the logs to a sheet pan with a very light dusting of corn meal.  OR you can use a baguette pan :)  

Leave them, covered with a tea towel, to rise about 30-45 minutes while you preheat the oven to 425.  They will puff a little.

Put them into a hot oven and bake for about 30 minutes.  Spin at 15 minutes.  No steam or funny instructions, just bake them hot and quick.

Remove to a rack and try to leave it to cool then eat at your whim. Eat as much as you want, you can make more!

I didn't take any process pictures, these are the completed beauty shots

the outside
  

the inside

  

it's easy, flavorful, has great crumb and you'll feel like a bread pro.  

go mix a batch :) 

/enjoy

The Quick French Baguette

There are few things so wonderful as a couple of hot, steamy, crispy, crunchy, crackly, tasty, tender, french inspired baguettes.  Sadly, in order to attain this nirvana you've had to start days ahead.  I don't know about you but I'm never inspired enough to think of something 3 days before I'm going to want to eat it, also I don't have that sort of patience.

I have this delicious go-to on days that I'm home and feel the need for some crispy crunchy tender warm deliciousness that needs to be slathered with cold butter, have a slice of old cheddar on it and a large glass of wine.  Go on, I'll share it with you.  It's a different creature all together than my go-to ciabatta that I make a couple of times a week, this is thicker, heartier, softer and harder at the same time.  This takes about 4 hours but you only need be involved a small percentage of the time, it merely needs you to pop in periodically to check on it and voila, you're a bread producing rock star! 

Tracy's One Day Cuisinart Baguette

in a small bowl, combine: 

2 1/4 tsp yeast

1/2 cup warm water

mix with a fork and leave it aside to foam and bubble and do it's yeasty thing. 

In the bowl of a cuisinart (fitted with the blade) combine: 

3 1/2 cups a/p flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 Tablespoon sugar (OK already purists, sure a "proper" baguette doesn't have sugar but this isn't a proper baguette, it's my quicker, lovelier, tastier distant cousin)

Add 1 cup of warm water to the bubbly yeast, stir and add in a gentle but steady stream into the cuisinart as it blends.  Let it go until the mixture comes together in a blob and clears the side of the bowl, 30-45 seconds? 

Replace the feed tube and walk away.  When the dough has risen to fill the bowl (1 hour) pulse the dough 4 times to deflate.  When the dough has risen to fill the bowl (45 mins this time) pulse the dough 4 times to deflate.  When the dough has risen to fill the bowl (35 mins) pulse once to deflate and remove to a lightly dusted (with flour) board and bring together in a loose, soft, ball.

Divide dough into 3 and shape each into a long baguette shaped loaf.  I lay mine on a floured towel to rise about 30 minutes. 

Bake at 450 on a stone in a heavily steamy oven.  Put a container of water in the oven while it heats and mist the loaves before you bake them, about 20-28 minutes. 

Leave on a rack to cool for as many minutes as you can stand.  Rip into it. 

Make more.  Repeat

Here's the beauty shots and play by play: 

  

  

  

After one hour, look at the rise!  Pulse to deflate and leave it 45 minutes or until it fills the bowl
 

Rise number 2, very full bowl, again pulse a couple of times to deflate
 

Last rise.  Each time it takes less time, this was 35 minutes.


Tip it onto a board, you can see it's gooey and wants to stick to your hands, keep the flouring light, we don't want to make heavy bread, just barely enough to keep it from sticking. Bring it together as a lovely soft ball and divide into 3
  

Flatten each ball to an oval, fold the top third down and pinch, the bottom third up and pinch.  Press the heel  of your palm into the seam to seal it and pull up the sides to pinch together.  Roll it back and forth a few times, taper the ends a bit and leave it covered, on a floured surface, to rise while the oven heats.
  

    

  

I was trying to be artsy and left this batch to rise on a floured towel, it worked great but if you don't feel like trying to wash the flour out of a towel, you can just leave it to rise on any old floured surface.  I let it rise 45 minutes and it got puffy and wobbly, we love puffy and wobbly. 

 

Bake until it's beautiful, 20-28 minutes, leave to cool on a rack for a bit and either rip it open or cut it, your call but either way, you're gonna love this!!!
  

these are purely beauty shots :)
  



/enjoy!

The baguette - I did it

Sometimes, very little needs to be said, this is one of those times...here is my Friday morning, in pictures

I made baguettes. I found a few recipes in the old old cookbooks and morphed them into a version that ended up being very similar to the p'ain ancienne that everyone is abuzz about.

Mine was a simple, gloppy dough of

3 1/4 c a/p flour (plus a little for dusting the top if it needs it)

1 1/2 t salt

1 heaping t yeast

1 1/2 cups ice water

I dumped it all into my beloved kitchen aid with the paddle attachment. I beat the heck out of it about 2 minutes (it might need a little more flour, depending on your day/weather/house/flour so sprinkle in more by the tablespoon; the dough should just start to pull away from the sides of the mixture but still be very sticky at the bottom) When it began to look like it might become a dough I switched to the dough hook and beat it like hell for 6 minutes. I switched to the hook not because this is a firm enough dough but because it has a lip on the top which stops the dough from travelling up into the innards of the machine.

Blech, as you beat it, it'll start to pull away ever so slightly, this is when you switch out to the hook and then beat it for a good 6 minutes on medium high, it'll flap, smack, whack around the machine, cleaning the bowl completely on the sides and become incredibly shiny.

The resultant dough looks a little like, well it makes my 11 yr old son giggle every time he sees it if that's any hint. It is VERY slimy and very shiny and sticks to everything.

Drop/pour it into a greased bowl (I use olive oil) and flip it over with a spatula because you don't want to touch this stuff!

Toss the bowl, covered, into the fridge and forget about it.

The next day pull the bowl out of the fridge and leave it on the counter for 3 hours. I took it out when I drove Connor to school at 6:30 and by the time I ran a quick errand, had a shower and dealt with the monotonous dealings of the day, read laundry, dishwasher and pets, the dough had come to room temperature and easily doubled, that was 8:45 am.

Dump the jiggling mass onto the floured counter and split it into 3, stretch each piece out, kind of gently, to the shape of a baguette. I like long and skinny, you can go short and rounder if you want. I picked up each chunk of dough, rolled it gently an shook it out like I've seen noodle makers do on tv until it was long enough. I did cut the top of them with scissors in an attempt to make them look artsy, that failed and next time I will razor them as they go into the oven. I lay each one on a parchment covered sheetpan and left it to the side. I added some olive oil, salt, tomato to one because I needed to use some of these tomatoes.

Crank the oven to 500 and put a cast iron pan in the bottom. By the time the oven is screaming hot the bread is rested enough, no worries about doubling in size here. Put the sheetpan in the oven, toss a large handful of ice cubes onto the cast iron pan and close the oven.

I baked for 10 minutes, added more ice and went another 15 minutes. Your oven will cook differently, just go till it's the color you like!

Put on a rack and try really hard not to rip it apart and eat it immediately. I set a timer to wait for 15 and managed to wait for 12 before I ripped it apart, took it's picture and devoured. No, I won't tell you how much I ate.

The crust is crisp and shatters, the crumb is chewy with a little tang. It actually has flavor which is missing in so many artisan breads you buy. Sure, it takes a day to make but that's really 24 hours you can ignore it. It's easy, delicious and you should go and make it, now.

/enjoy

second day quality control sample worked just beautifully :)