Sourdough Baguette

Ever since I got in to bread making I have been on a mission to make the perfect baguette. It has to be nice and crunchy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside with lots air bubbles. Well I have been using a new sourdough baguette recipe that is pretty amazing and I wanted to share it here.

Ingredients:
2 cups sourdough starter
2 cups bread flour or all purpose flour
1/3 cup water
2 tsps salt

Mix all your ingredients together to form a shaggy, wet dough the night before you want to bake. The next morning, divide the dough in half and shape each half in to a long rectangle on a lightly floured surface. Roll each rectangle up to form a long roll and place in a well oiled baguette pan (the baguette pan makes all the difference in my opinion but if you can also try it just on a baking stone. You won't get the same rounded shape though.)

Allow the dough to rest for 30 minutes. In the mean time, preheat your oven to 500 degrees and place a baking sheet on the bottom rack. Just before baking, slice a long, shallow slit along the top of your loaves with a very sharp knife. Place the baguettes in the hot oven and quickly dump one cup of ice cubes in to the baking sheet. Close the oven door immediately so as not to let the steam escape, the steam is what gives you a nice, crisp crust. Bake for 20 minutes and allow to cool before slicing.

Sourdough Bread!

I am such a lover of bread and I have really gained some skill and confidence when it comes to baking over the past few years. I've acquired some really excellent bread cook books and there is just nothing like the experience of making delicious home made bread to sooth me. One area of baking I hadn't had the nerve to tackle though was sourdough... until now! I always thought sourdough sounded so intimidating, what with having to keep the starter alive and all. I also didn't know how to get started, should I buy a starter? Make my own? Well luckily for me one of my generous friends from Echo's preschool program offered to share her starter with me (as well as some tips for keeping it alive) and it has been magical. The recipe I've been using can be found here. It's a no knead recipe and it takes a long time to rise but in terms of hands on time it's very quick and easy. The taste is amazing and I haven't had one failure yet in spite of experimenting with different ratios of different types of flour. The taste of this stuff is amazing, it was love at first bite for sure. Have you ever tried making sourdough? It is so good and it kind feels like magic that you can make bread without yeast!