Hmmm…French bread slathered in butter! What more could you ask for? This isn’t an easy job but it sure is worth it. I’m not sure if you are familiar with Paul Hollywood but his baking skills are brilliant and the way he explains recipes is second to none. I have to be honest that I used his french baguette recipe for this but I made fatter loaves instead of the traditional thin loaf. You can find his baguette recipe here
I have always struggled to make that light airy texture you find in so many artisan loaves and I have to say that after reading through oh so many recipes from Paul I have finally got the hang of it. Come closer and I’ll let you in on the secret…Start with a pretty wet dough and resist knocking the dough down once risen. Yup, that’s it. Handle it with extreme care and work it as little as possible to keep all those precious air bubbles in the dough. The result, a light airy texture just like that baguette you buy from your corner baker. Yum!
I’m going to give you the recipe below but feel free to follow the instructions on Paul’s website. The one big difference is that instead of making four baguettes I split the dough in two and made two larger fatter loaves. Just remember that the dough is going to be really sticky so you need to use olive oil to form the loaves and on the surface you are working on. You also need a really sharp knife to divide the dough and to score the dough once you have formed it. And I mean razor blade sharp!
It has taken me many tries to get the perfect loaf and all I have to say is don’t give up, you will have many failed loaves before you get that perfect loaf but trust me once you get it it’s infectious and you will gladly do it over and over again.
[tasty-recipe id=”1770″]
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