Baguette - Another way of making it !

Procrastination hits me every now and then or lets just keep it simple - it stays with me forever :). I would always think of making this baguette every other day, so that I could eat some right out of the oven and may be use it for bruschetta. Finally I made it :). 

It was during last winter that we made Bruschetta and Baguette for the first time and we were so much in love with it that we made it again and again. It had been a while since then. Suddenly an urge to have bruschetta grew in me the other day and no I was not going to calm it down by using a store bought baguette. I am so adamant about certain things :P.  Bad habit, I know, but if helps to overcome my laziness then ya I happily boost up my adamancy to achieve it.

Fresh breads can never be said no to. So when we made it, we had them hot with some butter spread on it. And the left over was used to make Bruschetta - the main culprit which made me give this baguette a try.

Ingredients

1. 3 cups of all purpose flour
2. 1 1/2 tbsp of yeast
3. 1 tsp of salt
4. 1 1/4 cup of lukewarm water 

Method

Making of the dough

• We would need to make a sponge. This includes adding lesser amount of flour to the yeast and water and allowing it to rise first. In a bowl, drop in 1/2 cup of flour and half of the yeast. Pour in the warm water and mix it well. Let it rise for about 45 minutes or so.
• Now mix the remaining flour, salt and yeast together and drop it into the sponge. Mix it well. If need be add more flour if the dough seems to be too sticky. 
• Drop the dough on to a floured surface and knead it well to form a soft and smooth ball of dough. Divide it into two portions.

Shaping and baking of the Baguette

• Drop the portioned dough onto a floured surface. Gently flatten it to form a rectangle.
• Now that you have the rectangular dough in front of you, fold the top third of the dough to the middle and punch it gently using your wrist into the middle third of the dough. Do the same for the bottom third of the dough. 
• Now fold in the top end of the dough to the middle and gently punch it into the dough using your wrist. Repeat it one more time. It would give you a thin log shaped dough. Now with both your hands in the middle of the dough start rolling the dough towards the ends of the dough and shaping it in such a way that they taper towards it ends. 
• Place it on a floured surface and gently flour the top of the bread as well. Leave it for about an hour to rise again. Once risen, make few cuts on top of the bread.
• Preheat the oven to 425 F and bake it for about 20-25 minutes.

Tips

1. While shaping the baguette, make sure that you do not apply too much of pressure to the airy dough. When you punch down the dough, do it gently with your wrist in such a way that the dough ends just stick together firmly. Else, the bread would not be airy and would result in a very hard bread.