Anyways, I'm not very used to taking photos and frankly, I'm not much of a photographer, but here goes. Recipes and measurements like these are also pretty foreign to me, but I'll do the best I can.
You do NOT need to take this many pictures. I only did because baking decent bread is pretty hard without visual guidance.
Here's how I make:
Classic (Herbal) French Baguette (Difficulty: Easy-Medium)
Makes 2 loaves, cost <$1 Total time spent: ~2.5-3 hours, much of it spent resting the dough
Ingredients:
~1.5 teaspoon yeast
~1 cup warm water
~3 cups flour (preferably bread, but can do with AP)
~few pinches of salt
~few pinches of dried herbs of your choice (optional) (rosemary, thyme, oregano)
-1 egg yolk (optional)
1. Whisk 1.5 teaspoons of yeast in 1 cup of warm water. Leave for about 10 minutes. If you're not sure whether your yeast is alive, stir a spoon of sugar in there and it'll slightly bubble at the end of 10 minutes.
It should look something like this:
2. Combine your flour, salt, and herbs in a bowl and whisk to mix it up. Create a small well in the center and pour in your yeast/water mixture.
3. Stir flour and water mixtures. When it comes together enough to handle, knead it for about 10 minutes. If it's too sticky, add more flour, if it's too dry, add a little water. It should be fairly pliable in your hands meaning, if you push it, it should return to its original form. Basically, kneading creates gluten, which gives bread its deliciously chewy texture and it also helps bread to rise.
Continue kneading until you get something like this:
4. When at desired consistency, cover with a damp towel and put on top of a pot half-filled with warm water. Let rise for around 1-1.5 hr. It should about double in volume at the end of this time. If it doesn't, your yeast is probably dead or you didn't activate it in the warm water. Or, the environment was too cold for it to rise, which is what the warm pot counteracts.
5. After it's risen, take it out and knead it on a surface one more time for about 5 minutes and then cut it into two sections to make two loaves of bread. I opted to make a bread roll out of one of them and just made one larger. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise for about 1 hour. *Start pre-heating your oven to 425F about 45 minutes in. Also put a few cups of water in your water boiler.*
6. Here's what it should look like after it's risen. You can make the characteristic french bread slashes like I did, and I chose to use an egg wash for a crispy and pretty crust. You can also choose to top with more dried herbs if you like your bread herbal.
7. Hopefully your oven has preheated fully and your water has boiled. Now put an oven-safe tray on the bottom rack of your oven and pour the boiling water in. Traditional french bread is made by steam. Unfortunately, my oven is really ghetto and can only achieve this affect slightly. Stick your bread in for about 20-25 minutes until your crust is brown/crispy and it sounds hollow when you tap on it. CAREFUL WHEN YOU OPEN THE OVEN, AS THE OVEN SHOULD BE FULL OF STEAM.
You've finished making french bread! Take it out and let it rest for around 5-10 minutes until it's easy to handle.
Use this recipe for all sorts of things!
And... my slightly reluctant model. =) Good luck studying for finals!
-Samuel
this is great, I'll try to make something soon too! I definitely love my bread extra herb-y:)
ReplyDeleteExcited for your recipes! Lucky you who is at home instead of studying for finals. :)
Deleteand yet I still somehow did not make time to post anything until this week...bahaha!
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