French Baguette: First attempt

You know I have made bread before, right? Would you believe me if I told you that I have never really tried to make French Baguette, my most favorite bread of all?

It must be fear: fear from knowing what a really good baguette should taste like. I have been spoiled by having real fresh-out-of-the-oven baguette in France. It's warm, and crusty on the outside, and soft and spongy on the inside. There is just enough salt to mix with the naturally sweetness of the flour. I fear that nothing can compare.

I am still searching for a bakery in this new city that will come even somewhat close to what I am looking for. So far, no luck. There are some bakeries here...but I am afraid they have not shown me a winner. I am also afraid that most people here are fine with the chain stores, the sliced bread, the bake-your-own-for-ten-minutes-dough. I miss Iggy's of Cambridge, or Gayle's of Capitola.

Well, I am on a mission to make my own then. It's a good challenge. I have gotten whole-wheat bread down. Easy peasy. Now it's the supposedly easy french baguette that I have to master.

First attempt... not the best. The crust was good. Flavor not bad. The inside though? Total disappointment. Even the kids said it didn't taste like a baguette. We hypothesized about what could be different. More yeast? More time to rise? Different flour? Higher heat? We will see. I am not going to give up just yet.

Tassajara Bread

I seem to be on a baking roll. An altering-baking-recipe roll. You see, one does not have to stick to a recipe, and the proof is in the pudding!

The other day, we ran out of bread in the house. We like our starch around here, so when we don't have rice, or bread, I go on a bit of a panic mode.

But why panic when we can make bread (not rice, unfortunately)?!

With most of our things still neatly packed in boxes that just went on a 4.5 month-cruise, I don't have any of my cookbooks. Most importantly, I did not have my Tassajara bread cookbook handy. But there is always Google!

Of course there was not just one simple bread recipe. I narrowed my search down to the basic 'Tassajara Bread' recipe, which again resulted in thousands of hits. I cross-checked and found the most trust-worthy one to settle with.

I looked at the recipe, and noted that I had everything except for whole-wheat flour. Was that a problem for me? NO! Not this altering-recipe kind of girl. I went ahead and used unbleached white flour...and added some rolled oats to it. The result...not bad. Not bad at all.

The recipe makes two loaves. The family happily ate those up in two days, which gave me plenty of time to go out and get some whole-wheat flour so that I could make the proper bread according to the recipe.

I still altered it a bit, using half unbleached white bread flour, half whole-wheat flour. And oh, we never have milk powder around here, so forget that ingredient (of course you should try to make it with, if you happen to have it around). This time, I had little hands to help me shape up some fun loaves. They were thrilled to eat their own loaves for lunch with all kinds of options for the topping.

Tassajara Bread (my version)

3 cups lukewarm water

2 packets active dry yeast

1/4 cup honey

3 cups unbleached bread flour

1/3 cup olive oil

4 teaspoons salt

3 cups whole wheat flour

In a large bowl combine yeast, honey and water. Let stand until the yeast has bubbled about 5-10 minutes. Add 3 cups of bread flour. Mix until well blended into thick batter. Rest under wet cloth for at least 45 minutes.

To the batter, add the rest of the ingredients, gently combining as you add the whole wheat flour. Once the dough is firm, take it out of the bowl and knead on a clean flat surface for about 10 minutes.

Rest the dough back in the bowl for at least another 45 minutes. Punch the dough and shape into two loaves. Heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

When the oven is ready, put the bread in to bake for about 40 minutes until brown and crusty.

Best eaten right away, but great for the next 2 days, especially lightly toasted.