Today’s experiment was supposed to be a baguette. Sadly, while I was working the dough, I couldn’t pull it enough to make it skinny. That’s why I ended up with a batard.
Acknowledgement: The full and original version of this recipe can be found in The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cup lukewarm water
- 1/2 tablespoon granulated yeast
- 3/4 tablespoon kosher salt
- 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
You’ll also need a pizza peel, a baking stone and a broiler tray.
Mix all the ingredients in a big bowl, then cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest for 2 hours. When you’re ready to bake, dust your hands with flour and shape the dough into a ball, then into an oval. Start stretching the dough until you form a log with a diameter of about 3 inches.
Put your baking stone in the oven’s middle shelf and the broiler tray on the lowest shelf. Preheat your oven to 450°F.
Let it rest on a pizza peel with parchment paper for 40 minutes. By the way, a longer resting time results in a softer batard.
After allowing the dough to rest, brush the loaf with water and make slight diagonal cuts on the top of the loaf.
Put the loaf on the baking stone. Pour 1 cup of hot water into the broiler tray, and close the oven door fast. (You don’t want to get burned.) Bake for 30 minutes.
Once done, take out the loaf from the oven and allow the loaf to cool on a cooling rack.
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