Perfect French Baguettes
Make on Fresco
I love making bread. I also love the French law that only allows bread to have 4 ingredients. Salt, flour, water and yeast. And look what they do with just those 4 ingredients. It is amazing.
Knowing that steam is the key to the crust, I determined to use my beloved steam oven to see if it was up to the task as I had so often said it was…a picture tells a thousand words doesn’t it? This is easy and do-able, particularly without the muscle of hand kneading required..go Thermomix!
The steam does the crusty, golden almost bubbly crust...I swear, there was no egg wash, no milk brushed on to the dough, this is the genuine, additive free article! A fine texture, a dense yet soft interior, pass the butter and no one will get hurt!
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Need
- 2 Teaspoons Fine grind salt
- 640 Grams bakers or strong flour
- 380 Grams room temperature water
- 2 Teaspoons dried yeast
Do
- 1
Place ingredients into Thermomix bowl in the order listed.
- 2
Mix 10 sec/speed 6.
- 3
Knead 1 min/Interval. Allow to 'rest' for 5-10 minutes. (Go shower, water the garden, plan the toppings for this most delish bread, put on your make up!)
- 4
Turn out into oiled bowl and cover completely with plastic wrap so the air will be trapped and allow to double. (This may take up to 3 hours or longer on a cold day.)
- 5
The dough will be quite hard and dense and yet flexible.
- 6
When happy with the rise, punch down and roll into two (or more) rectangular shapes. Fold in both long sides into towards each other. Tuck in the ends and seal all together by pinching the dough together. Roll until you have a baguette shape with pointy ends. (This is achieved with practice, pressing down on each end with the sides of your hands as you roll the baguette.)
- 7
Turn over so that the seam is down and you have a nice smooth top. Place onto baking paper and allow to rise again covered with a floured tea towel.
- 8
Preheat pizza stone in a 220ºC oven.
- 9
When ready to cook, slice several slashes almost vertically, down the dough. Place in steam oven and steam for 10 minutes. OR, bring 1L water to boil in the Thermomix bowl 8 min/Varoma/speed 2. Lay the loaves onto a piece of baking paper and onto the tray of the Varoma. Steam 10 min/Varoma/speed 4. If you are using this method you will find you need to make many smaller baguettes, rather than 2 large ones.
- 10
Carefully transfer to hot oven and cook for a further 10-15 minutes. Loaf should sound hollow when tapped, but crackly when squeezed gently. The sound of Paris!
Served with
Tenina Holder is a wife, mother of five and grandmother of eight, who started cooking in the olden days before Thermomix was even a thing.
Tenina has become the premium go to source for all Thermomix expertise and of course fresh and easy recipes that work. Her cooking classes and foodie trips are sold out in literally hours, her cookbooks appear on the Australian best seller lists and her social reach is in the millions. Her Insider Club is the most fun you can have with a Thermomix and you really should join her! She believes chocolate, butter and salt are health foods. Her food positivity mantra is, eat everything, just not all at once!
