Mini Baguettes Recipe
This Mini Baguettes recipe will help you make the best homemade baguettes with crispy crust and soft, moist, open crumb.
Ingredients
- 400 g Flour or 3 cups(loosely packed) + 1 1/2 tbsp
- 320 ml Cold Water or 1 cup + 1/3 cup
- 8 g Salt 1 tsp
- 4 g Yeast 1 tsp
Instructions
Prepare The Baguette Dough
- Into a bowl, pour in the water.The water should be cold; around 65 F. I usually add a cube of ice into room temperature water.If we use warm water, the yeast will get activated fast and will start to ferment the dough fast; which we don’t want in this french baguettes recipe.We need slow fermentation of the dough in a cold environment to get the open crumb texture to our french baguettes.
- Then add in the salt and yeast into the water.Stir to dissolve both salt and yeast.
- Then add in the flour.Combine everything together using the rear end of a wooden spoon.
- Now feel the dough with hand and make sure there are no dry spots or any lumps are left.
- Cover the bowl with a plastic film.
- Keep the dough in fridge.
Stretch and Fold the dough
- Take the dough out of fridge.Stretch and fold the dough two times in every 30 minutes.To stretch and fold the dough, lightly damp your fingers in water(this will prevent the tendency of dough to stick to our hands) and pull up on the side of the dough and fold it back down on itself.Turn the bowl 90 degrees and repeat.Do this until you have stretched and folded all 4 sides of the dough.
- Now cover the bowl again and leave it for another 30 minutes.After 30 minutes do one more round of stretch and fold.This time, you may find the dough less elastic and difficult to stretch and fold.But that’s okay.Just do it without tearing the dough.At the end ,I flipped the dough upside down and dragged the dough through the sides of bowl (as in the video), so that we get a tensive smooth surface on top.Cover the bowl and wait for another 30 minutes for shaping the dough.
Divide the dough
- Now thirty minutes after the second stretch and folds, transfer the dough on to a well floured work surface.We need to take care not to deflate the air bubbles.Dust the top of the dough with some more flour.This dough is very sticky ..but we can handle it by dusting the dough with flour.
- Divide the dough into four equal parts.Preshape the french baguettesIf you want to make long baguettes, then divide the dough into two equal parts.
- Preshape the baguettes.
- Take each portion, remove any excess dust on the surface.Now pull the dough from all sides into the center and then flip it upside down.Form in to small round balls.
- Now cover the dough balls .Let the dough balls relax for 10 minutes before shaping the mini french bread.
Shape the mini baguettes
- Take each dough ball.Place it with the smooth side down.Remove any extra flour on top.Now just roll the dough and to seal the seam, use the heal the our palm.Place the dough on to the french baguette pan.
Final Rising
- Cover it with a kitchen towel and let the shaped mini french breads sit and rise for 45 minutes at room temperature.
Bake the French baguettes
- After 45 minutes of rising, our mini baguettes are ready for baking.Score them with the help of a sharp blade or knife.
- Place the baguette baking tray into a 425 F or 220 C preheated oven.And spray with some water immediately .Close the oven door.Bake at 425 F or 220 C for around 30 minutes.
Video
Notes
4 Tips for making the best crusty Artisan French Baguettes
- Steam inside the oven during the initial few minutes of baking:This is the key to getting the perfect crispy, crackly crust on French bread. We can spray water inside the oven which will create a steamy environment or we can provide a steamy environment in oven by placing a baking pan with hot water on the bottom of the oven, just when we place the baguettes for baking.
- To handle the sticky dough, (a)use wet hands while stretching and folding (b) dust the baguette dough with enough flour while shaping (b) use a bench scraper whenever necessary. This baguette dough is very sticky with 80% hydration . So a bench scraper is very helpful to help handle and transfer the dough. You can also use flour if needed during transfer.
- Bake the mini baguettes in a well hot, preheated oven(425F).High baking temperature is one of the key factors for making crispy crusted French bread.
- Use Cold fermented dough:this will give porous ,light French baguettes and this will impart an improved flavor to our bread as well.