Vive le baton!

Why not try to create a French baguette? Well, I did partly succeed in doing what I set out to do....

Half of my result shown above, about a foot long. I used part of my sourdough starter (see 'A well-bred loaf' from a few days ago), instead of the 'poolish' suggested in the recipe that I used - French bread and baguettes.

Whilst the recipe seems to be comprehensive, I did find it a little confusing, particularly as to how many times I had to knead the dough. In the end it got three kneads, prior to being put into the hot oven.

Perhaps my dough was a little damper than it should have been, but the two loaves I made were too close together and ended up like siamese twins, with the area of contact being a little moister than it ought to have been - but the other loaf (the one you can't see) was very palatable, despite that. I regret not having some means of making the bottoms of the loaves more rounded - I gather you can buy a specific bread tin for this - but nevertheless very enjoyable!

It will help the next time I do this if I change the loaves around on the baking sheet, as well as turning the sheet around; I feel this would give a more even bake.Yum!

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