The winter months are now upon us and baking homemade baguettes are the perfect way to keep warm. Couple that with a delicious homemade casserole or a bowl of winter warming soup and it will be perfect!
Is there anything better than homemade bread? We struggled to find anything when we asked ourselves that question in the British Bakeware office! As winter has well and truly arrived, we thought we would choose our favourite recipe for making bread to help keep you nice and warm, and what better recipe to choose than one from the brilliant Paul Hollywood. These homemade baguettes may seem like a lot of work, but if you follow each step carefully and don’t over handle the dough, you will be left with a fantastic freshly baked baguettes! Also, by using the fantastic baguette tin you will find in our bread baking section, the task of making baguettes becomes a lot easier!
Ingredients:
- 500g strong white bread flour
- 10g salt
- 10g instant yeast
- Olive oil
- 370ml cool water
Instructions:
Step 1- Lightly oil a 2-3 litre square plastic container. It has to square to help shape the dough!
Step 2- Take the bowl of your electric mixer and add the white bread flour, salt and yeast. It is important that you do not pour the salt immediately on top of the yeast. Also add three-quarters of the water and the olive oil, and slowly start to mix. When the dough starts to bind, add the remaining water and mix for a further 5 to 8 minutes until the dough forms an elastic consistency.
Step 3- Then add the dough to the lightly oiled square plastic container, and cover it with a tea towel. Leave the dough until it has doubled in size. This should take no more than 1 hour.
Step 4-At this point, line two baking trays with baking paper. Our baguette tins will also work really well here!
Step 5-Pick a work surface in your home and coat it with olive oil. Then carefully place the dough on to the surface and handle it gently so to keep as much of the air in the dough as possible. The dough should feel quite wet when you touch it, but should also contain plenty of air inside.
Step 6-Split the large piece of dough in to 4 or 5 smaller pieces. Make each piece of dough in to an oblong shape by making it flat and folding the sides in to the centre. Then roll each of the 5 pieces of dough in to longer sausage shapes. The top of the dough should be smooth with a join along the length of the base. Starting in the middle of each piece of dough, carefully roll each piece of dough with your hands until they fit the baking trays or the baguette tins you are using.
Step 7-If you are using baking trays, place two or three baguettes on each tray and place inside a plastic bag to prove for 1 hour until it doubles in size. Or you could use our baguette tin which is large enough to hold two baguettes. You will be able to tell it is done as the dough will be springy to touch.
Step 8-Preheat your oven to 220 degrees celcius and place a large roasting pan in the bottom to give it time to heat up.
Step 9-Once the dough has proven nicely, dust each one with flour and score each one a few time diagonally. Fill the large roasting pan at the bottom of your oven with hot water and return to the oven. This will create steam that is very important for the bread to bake properly. Bake the baguettes for 25 minutes until they turn a delicious golden brown colour.
Step 10- Allow these delicious homemade baguettes to cool for 1o0 to 15 minutes before you serve them as part of your celebration of National Picnic Week!
Source: Paul Hollywood
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