I hear it all the time — “I can’t make bread, it’s too hard,” “I don’t have the patience to make bread,” “There’s no way I could make that!”
Poppycock. Hogwash. All of it.
I remember myself almost two years ago thinking the very same things. There’s no way I can make bread at home! Me? By myself? With my hands? No bread machine? Pssh, please.
Then, when I realized there were actually cookbooks out there dedicated solely to baking bread at home, I knew that indeed, it was possible. So, I tried it.
And I tried it again. And again, and again, and… well, you understand. And eventually, it worked. I made homemade bread, and it was possible, and it wasn’t that hard, and I did have the time for it.
It took a lot of practice, I’ll admit it. It took a lot of determination, some tears, some serious frustration and also some elated leaps of joy when, “The yeast actually worked!” or, “Guess what, I made a sandwich loaf!”
Sometimes I still think I don’t have the energy or the time to make bread. But then there are recipes like this fast French baguette from a hero of mine, Mark Bittman, who has proved us all wrong with this one. You can have yummy, fresh-baked bread on your table in two hours. TWO hours. And it’s delicious, too, and very, very easy to make.
So, no excuses. Get down to business. We’ve got (yummy, easy, quick-to-make, very possible) bread to bake.
Fast French Baguette
Adapted from Mark Bittman
Yields: Two foot-long baguettes
Ingredients:
1 cup water
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
3 to 3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose or bread flour
2 teaspoons salt
Directions:
In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk yeast into 1 cup water and let sit 5 minutes. Add 3 cups flour and salt and mix, using paddle attachment, until just combined. Switch to dough hook (or remove dough from bowl and knead by hand) and knead on medium speed for about 5 minutes (10 minutes if kneading by hand), until dough is smooth and elastic. Shape dough into ball and place in a lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
Punch down risen dough and divide in two pieces. Roll each piece into a foot-long rope and place side by side, about 3-4 inches apart, on a pizza stone or baking sheet lined with lightly floured parchment paper. Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap and preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Once oven is preheated and dough has risen slightly (about 20-30 minutes), remove plastic wrap and slash each baguette a couple times using a very sharp knife. Place baguettes in oven, reduce heat to 375 degrees F and bake until golden brown, about 20-25 minutes. The bread should read about 210 degrees F with a thermometer when done. Remove from oven, spritz with water and allow to cool on cooling rack.
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I foresee myself baking this in the immediate future. An epic (EPIC!) failed attempt at sourdough bread came out of my oven last night, so I could use the boost in confidence. Thanks for the recipe!
Just made them. I can’t wait for my hubby to try it. Thank you for a wonderful recipe
I love this, pure and simple. I follow your blog because I like your humor and the recipes you make, although I am one of the scaredy-cats when it comes to cooking with yeast. This helps!
THIS WAS AMAZING.
While I was in Paris, I lived off of baguettes and chocolate. I haven’t had a good baguette since I’ve been home – but I am definitely trying this. There’s no way I can screw up a baguette..
I know it wouldn’t be an authentic baguette with wheat flour, but I’m trying to stay away from white grains. Do you know if half wheat flour and half white flour would work ok with this receipe?
Lou — That would definitely work, especially with the 50-50 ratio. If the dough seems too dry (wheat flour tends to absorb more moisture during kneading), add a teensy bit more water just until the dough is smooth and elastic. Otherwise, everything else should stay the same. Hope this helps!
Heyooo, made this last night, turned out mighty fine as my first loaf of bread.
The bread is crispy on the outside, but a bit dense on the inside.
Did i not kneed it enough? I dont have a mixer (still saving for a whisk), so im doing it all by hand.
Any pointers on making something thats much lighter and fluffier on the inside?
kingkelly — Dense bread usually is the result of adding too much flour or not kneading it long enough. Make sure you add as little flour as possible to the dough, just enough so it’s smooth, elastic and slightly tacky. And if I’m kneading dough by hand, I can usually tell it’s done when I do the windowpane test. And if all else fails, a dense bread still tastes pretty good, methinks.
Hope this helps!
I used y bread machine to handle the kneading and raising so I could work on dinner. Then I shaped the loaves and baked them. Brucshing the tops with a little water halfway through the baking gave them a nice toasty brown color. Delish! I was happy to find this recipe!
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