Why passionate, you ask? Well that is because I was very excited about this month’s challenge (more so, because I had to miss the last one). I signed up for an Online Baking Session that was being hosted by Bread Chick of The Sour Dough. The only problem being that it was to be held at 10am EST, which means I would have to bake into the night being in the IST zone. I started my challenge on Sunday evening and was up till 3:30 am when I finished the challenge and posted the photos of the baguettes fresh out of the oven on the private blog. :D
I have baked bread before, but haven’t experimented a lot since it requires sooo much time! And this French bread was nothing short of defining what the Daring Baker is. The recipe itself spread across 14 pages! The recipe followed is from Julia Child’s Volume Two of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” with helpful notes from the hosts Mary of I like to Cook and Bread Chick of The Sour Doug. I am not posting the recipe, but taking the easy way out; you can have a look at it here.
At the Online Baking session, I had so much fun speaking with fellow DBers. All the girly chat was so much fun! And while I was chatting with Bread Chick, I learnt that the moisture in the bread is what will determine nice big holes in the bread. Too late! Mine wasn’t that sticky, so my bread would turn out to be pretty dense. After all the rising and deflating and kneading I finally had by dough shaped and ready for the oven. 25 minutes later and with much anticipation, I removed my baguettes from the oven, to find that I had some beautiful baguettes and tiny pain de campage (which my sis loved). Flicked it; yes, it did have that hollow sound! :D
This wasn’t as difficult as I thought at all. Simply mix, knead, rise, deflate, rise again, shape the loaves and slash it and you’re good to go. Only, it would be spaced across 7-10 hours.