Take One: Bread, French, Lean dough

Three French Baguettes

Can you say baking bread five times fast? I cannot, but welcome to the first installment of posts on Color & Crisp, a brand new baby blog about baking. Yes, that's right, folks. This is a blog strictly for baking and making foods. No melancholic posts, unless about a baked good gone bad. I'm sure you're wondering what I used to make these fantastic 18" thick sticks of pure heaven.

Ingredients: King Arthur Bread Flour. RapidRise Instant Yeast, it's gotta be Kosher Salt, room temp water

Tools: KitchenAid Mixer, or if you want to be old school, one mixing bowl and wooden spoon, clean surface (ahem, bamboo cutting board from Ikea, a section of granite, etc.), a bowl scraper & pastry cutter

(I didn't have either but they say these tools make bread making easier), plastic wrap and sheet pans with parchment paper. because I don't have any couches, olive oil, bread lame (didn't have this either), small tea towels, small mixing bowls for fermentation times, non stick spray.

French Boule Loaf

I caved and bought a handful of classes on Craftsy.com, including this one bread course taught by Peter Reinhart. I watched Peter's class for a good four hours last Sunday morning, and decided to give the dough a go at noon. To cut the story short, I had finished product at 5 PM that day, and was practically late to a date. Common misconceptions about bread making, as I know thus far, including the fact that not once did I knead the dough. The contemporary method is the stretch & fold process. I was thinking I'd get to pound and punch a sticky ball of "shaggy" dough, but I was wrong. Very wrong. There's none of that, unless I'm doing a boxing workout at the gym and I'm being punched in the gut. Interestingly, Peter never explicitly explained how long one should bake the cake, I mean bread. Depending on the shape, does baking take more or less time? I suppose I went rogue with my proved dough. I'm not even entirely sure what over, under, or just right "proofed" dough is. I just kept poking the dough with my index finger, looking for springiness. I guess my guess was good enough, if not right on. I baked the dough on a parchment sheet on the half sheet on convection bake 500 degrees or 260 degrees Celsius, for five minutes, having immediately poured a cup or two of water into the preheated sheet pan on the bottom rack (to create a steamy sauna for my lovelies.) I swear I watched the dough bloom and I eeked like a fangirl. After five minutes, I turned the temp down to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, and turned them after six minutes. I'd say they baked for a total of 21 minutes, unless I was so enthralled I have miscalculated.

I can tell you I was looking for that hollow sound when I thumped the baguette on the counter, and I got it. Each baguette and my baby boule had a nice rich brown color, and I could feel the crisp too.

Was I successful you may ask? *%$@ yeah! These bread babies didn't last more than 72 hours, and I didn't even mention how the crumb was fantastically dotted with medium and large-sized irregular holes. Those are what Peter calls artisanal characteristics, and let me tell you, I haven't had better bread; other than when I was in Europe.

I'll be attempting a pate fermentee very soon, and I cannot wait to eat it.