My First Baguette

Easter turned out to be a very enjoyable day, accompanied by to much good food. Because we were having a big early dinner, my mom and I made snacks around noon to replace lunch. My baguette was one of those snacks, and I'm proud to say it was a success!

I picked out the recipe from the book, “No Need to Knead.”

It has an abundance of easy bread recipes, each with a different than normal, but easier, approach to making bread. Suzanne Dunaway, the author, believes in simplicity. If you practice her method you can bake bread no matter how short of time you are. She also believes fancy equipment is unnecessary, so don't bother spending the extra money.
Here is the recipe.

2 cups of water
2 tablespoons active dry yeast
5 cups all-purpose or unbleached bread flour
2 to 3 teaspoons salt

Mix the water and the yeast. Put 2 cups of the flour in and stir. Once it's mixed, add the rest of the flour and the salt. Stir until the dough is completely mixed and the sides pull away from the bowl. You may need to add one-fourth to one-half a cup of flour if it's to wet. The dough should be smooth and shiny.

You have two options. You can either cover the bowl that holds the dough and let it sit in the fridge overnight. Or you can cover the bowl and let it sit in a warm place for thirty to forty minutes. It should double in volume by the end of forty minutes. Then, fold the dough over a couple of times and let it sit for the same amount of time. Repeat once more before shaping it.

If you choose to leave the dough in the fridge overnight then it will have to sit out for two hours before you can shape it.

Once it's ready to shape, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Spray a two- or three-loaf baguette pan. If you don't have one of these a baking sheet will work just as well.

Put the dough on a floured surface and divide it into two or three pieces. Leave it be for fifteen minutes. Then lengthen each piece of dough to fit the baguette pan. Let the dough rise for thirty minutes on the baguette pan. Cut three slashes on top of each loaf and spritz with water.

Now the bread goes in the oven. Reduce the temperature to 400 degrees and bake for thirty to thirty-five minutes. After taking them out let the loaves cool on a wire rack. If you have trouble getting them out of the baguette pan just tap the pan to loosen the loaves.