Acme Bread Company Baguettes

Scrap Dough

(15 minutes mixing, 3 hours fermenting, refrigerate overnight)

1/4 teaspoon instant yeast

1/2 cup water, between 110° and 115°F

3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water in a glass measure, stir, and let it stand for 5 to 10 minutes.  Mix the flour and salt in a bowl and add 1/3 cup of the yeasted water (reserve the rest for the poolish).  Knead this soft dough until smooth, about 5 minutes.  Cover it tightly with plastic wrap.  Let ferment at room temperature for about 3 hours, then refrigerate overnight. 

Poolish

(0vernight/12 hours fermenting)

1 tablespoon yeasted water from scrap dough recipe

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

2/3 cup lukewarm water

Add 1 tablespoon of yeasted water from scrap dough recipe to the flour, then beat in the lukewarm water.  This will be a very gloppy batter.  Cover the poolish with plastic wrap and let it ferment at room temperature overnight (for 12 hours), or until the bubbles are popping and the top is just starting to wrinkle and foam.

Dough

(about 6 hours total, mixing, proofing, and baking)

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon instant yeast

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons lukewarm water

Fermented poolish

Fermented scrap dough

1 3/4 teaspoons salt

Mix the flour and yeast together in the bowl of a stand mixer.  Pour the water into the poolish, stir to loosen it, and pour it into the flour mixture.  With a wooden spoon or your hand, mix the dough just until roughly combined.  Mix the dough on low speed with the dough hook, just until the dough comes together on the hook, about 1 minute.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest (autolyse) for 15 to 20 minutes.

(20 minutes mixing, resting) 

Break up the scrap dough into smaller pieces and add it along with the salt to the autolysed dough.  Mix the dough on low to medium speed until it is smooth and strong and cleans the bowl, about 10 minutes. 

(10 minutes mixing) 

Place the dough in a container at least 3 times its size and cover it tightly with plastic wrap.  Let it ferment until light and bubbly and about doubled in bulk, about 3 hours.  Turn the dough 3 times in 20-minute intervals.  (To turn the dough, sprinkle the top of the dough and the work surface with flour and scrape the dough out onto the work surface.  Sprinkle with flour again, then gently spread the dough out, trying not to deflate the bubbles.  Fold it up into a tight bundle by folding the left side into the center, followed by the top, the right side, and then the bottom.  Turn the dough over so that the smooth side is up, and fold it in half again if it still feels loose.  Place it, smooth side up, back into the container and cover tightly again.)  Turn the dough a fourth time if you think you did not knead it enough.  Then, leave the dough undisturbed for the remaining time. 

(3 hours fermenting, with turning dough at 20, 40, and 60 minutes) 

Cut the dough in half.  Shape into stubby cylinders.  Lightly sprinkle the pieces with flour and cover them with plastic wrap.  Let them rest until puffy with gas and very soft, about 30 minutes.

(30 minutes proofing)

Shape the baguettes, cover them with plastic wrap, and let proof on floured surface about 30 to 45 minutes.

(30 to 45 minutes proofing)

Heat oven to 450°F.

Place the baguettes floured side up in the troughs of a couche or baguette pan, and loosely cover with with plastic or a flap of the couche.  Let proof until dough is very light, well expanded, and slowly springs back when gently pressed with a floured finger, 30 to 60 minutes. 

(30 to 60 minutes proofing)

If couche was used for proofing, transfer baguettes to parchment.  Make 3 angled cuts down the length of the baguette, being sure to overlap the cuts.  Place pan in oven or slide parchment onto baking stone.  Bake until the edges of the cuts are dark brown and whole bread is golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool completely on a rack. 

(30 minutes baking)

From Artisan Baking by Maggie Glezer