Bake Real Baguettes at Home, Not Fakes

Bake real baguettes at home with easy recipe and tips. There are too many fake baguettes sold at the super markets and bakeries. In order to bake real ones, you should know the original characteristics of a baguette and be aware not to call every stick like bread a baguette.

A Good Baguette vs. a Bad One

Remember these two words: steaming and fermenting. They give the baguette its special characteristics. Without these two you will end up with a soft, flat, dull looking bread.

Tips for crustier baguette bread:

• The baguette bread should hold its shape when you pick it up from the bakery counter. This can only be achieved by steaming and longer fermentation. Steaming is necessary for the crispy crust.
• A good fermented baguette will have uneven holes inside. And you can tell a bad one from the small and identical holes inside, plus it will break in half easily.
• You should not add any fat or sugar; it would only make the baguette softer and you would lose that crispy exterior.
• Scoring the baguette makes it even crispier.

Steam is necessary since dry oven will immediately set the crust of your bread and the dough will have no place to expand.

Easy Baguette Recipe Ingredients:

• 400gr wheat flour
• 7 gr (1packet) dry yeast
• 300ml water
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Mix yeast and water in the bowl and let it rest for 5 minutes.
2. Add all the other ingredients and knead for 8-10 minutes.
3. Let it rest for 45-60 minutes.
4. Take it out of the bowl and press down lightly. Fold from the sides and let it rest in the bowl for another 45 minutes.
5. Take the dough onto working surface and divide it into 4 equal parts.
6. Give each part a rectangle shape. Start folding from the long side towards you by rolling. Continue to roll till it looks like a baguette.
7. Let them rest for another 45 minutes.
8. Score with a sharp knife or use a kitchen scissors to cut 4 lines on the bread (not too deep).
9. Place a baguette tray pan inside the oven with boiling water or spray the baguettes with water to create steam. Bake at 400°F/200°C for 20 minutes or until golden brown. If you don’t own yet a baguette tray, then you should consider buying one, after reading carefully our review on the best baguette trays you can possible get for a good price.

How do you keep a baguette from getting hard?

Try to consume your baguette the same day you purchase or bake. This kind of bread will turn hard very fast, and that is completely natural due to its humidity level inside. But if you want to soften a hard baguette then there is a trick. You can moist your stale bread with water and then reheat in the oven to make it crusty. Just dip the stale baguette in water and then reheat, it is that simple.

How do you make soft baguettes? – Soft baguettes instead of crispy crust

Baguettes are traditionally baked with crispy crust but if you want to make a soft baguette then all you need to do is to add sugar and oil into your recipe. Just add 2 tablespoon of oil and 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar per each 300 gr of flour in your recipe.

Ficelle Bread: Thinner Baguettes?

Ficelle is very similar to baguette bread but only much thinner. As baguette means ‘stick’ in French where as ficelle means ‘string’; indicating the shape of the bread. There are some variations but they are usually baked plain, great for stylish sandwiches.

In Conclusion

Most baguettes sold at local stores are unfortunately fakes only resembling the real ones in shape. A good baguette has a distinguished taste and feel. The good news is that you can bake real baguettes at home, it is easy to do so. All you need is patience and practice; you will get there in no time.