French Baguette

When you have finished preparing the bread, preheat the oven with a tin of water at the bottom of the oven - this stops the bread drying out as its baking!

This may not have looked like a Cuisine de France roll but it tasted good, so that's all that matters, right?

Preheat the oven to 230°C and brush a baking sheet with oil. I used a stand mixer and dough hook to make this bread. 

Ingredients 

450g strong white flour

1½ tsp salt

1½ tsp yeast 

325ml lukewarm water

Stage 1 

• sift the flour and salt into a bowl and then stir in the yeast. 
• pour in the lukewarm water and mix until it comes together.
• scrape down the sides of the bowl and add a dusting of flour - mix on a low speed for 10 minutes.
• brush a bowl with oil, add the dough, cover the bowl with cling film and leave to rise for 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size. 

Stage 2

• turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 1-2 minutes.
• cut the dough in half and shape each piece into a ball.
• shape each ball into a rectangle shape (approx - 7.5 x 20 cm).
• fold one-third of the dough down, then fold the remaining third of the dough (see picture), repeat for the second ball of dough.
• place them in a tin, cover with cling film and leave to rest for 10 minutes.
• repeat the folding process twice over, leaving the dough to rest for 10 minutes each time.

Stage 3

• lightly flour and pleat a tea towel, gently roll and stretch each piece of dough until its 30 cm long and an even thickness.
• support each loaf against the pleats of the tea towel, cover with a damp towel and leave to rise for 40 minutes. 
• gently roll the loaves onto the prepared baking sheet and slash the top several times with a knife.
• bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. 
• cool on a wire rack. 

♥ ♥

Wendy

XO

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Ciabatta Bread

Biga is a type of pre-ferment used in Italian baking. I'm pretty sure it helped increase the number of 'holes' in the bread, after that I don't quite know.  

Wikipedia says that it adds to the 'nutty' flavour of the bread! You're meant to let the biga rise to a point before it collapses... as you can see I let the dough collapse haha.  :) 

The actual ciabatta dough is very wet prior to the first rise - do not add more flour, its meant to look like that, promise.

Preheat the oven 220°C and dust three baking sheets with flour.

 

Biga Starter 

350g strong white bread flour

1¼ tsp easy-blend dried yeast

200ml lukewarm water

• sift the flour into a bowl, stir in the yeast and pour in the water.
• mix on a low speed for 5 minutes and shape the dough into a ball.
• cover the bowl with cling film and leave to rise for 12 hours. 

Ingredients

400ml lukewarm water

4 tbsp lukewarm semi-skimmed milk

500ml strong white bread flour

7g easy-blend dried yeast

2 tsp salt

3 tbsp olive oil 

• once the biga is ready, gradually mix the water and milk into the biga (I used the dough hook on a slow speed).
• then, slowly add the flour and yeast until its all incorporated.
• finally, mix in the salt and oil.
• cover the bowl with cling film and leave to rise for 2 hours or until the dough has double in volume.
• using a spatula, divide the dough onto the baking sheets taking care not to knock the air out.
• flour your hands and gently pull and shape the dough into rectangular loaves.
• dust the loaves with flour and leave to rise for a further 30 minutes.
• bake in a preheated oven for 25-30 minutes.
• every single step was worth it..mmmm.

PS - Wikipedia knows best... 

♥ ♥

Wendy

XO

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