(Recipe) My Homemade French Baguette, and no kneading necessary...

......how about that???No kneading necassary??.....however, I still try to manually mix it, manually knead it and punch it down on a lihtly floured wooden board...it's fun, you'll see...the results compensate any labor you put to it...come on, a hot and crusty loaf of bread coming out of the oven, letting all its aroma cloud ghosting throughout the house??!!!... A nice loaf of bread like this adds a delicious compliment to any snack, lunch or dinner..great even with pasta,soup or any vinegraitte dressing salad. And then, if you have any leftover the next day, you can transform it into a toasted "bruchetta" topped with goat or Greek Feta cheese.



Another highlight during baking this baguette was the use of my latest purchase.. the baguette loaf baking tray (the picture is posted). I was so excited when I bumped into it in the supermarket here, in France. I strongly said to myself..."I must have this"!!



I used fresh (refrigerated) yeast. You can certainly use active dry yeast. This recipe calls for 1 package of active dry yeast. I did some research, and found out that 1 pkg. active dry yeast equals to 21 grams of the fresh yeast. Other than that, all the rest of ingredients and quantities remain the same. So, our INGREDIENTS ARE:

1 pkg active dry yeast

1 1/2 cups warm water, not hot, just so if you test it on your inside forearm skin, you don't jump up and scream..." ouch!!!! "
1 Tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons salt

1 Tablespoon shortening (I prefer butter, it can be margarine), melted

4 cups all-purpose flour (do not sift it)

4 Tablespoons cornmeal or just flour



-In a mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup of the luke warm water

-Add sugar, salt, butter or margarine and the rest 1 cup of the warm water; stir until dissolved

-Add flour and with a wooden spoon stir until smooth. At this point, after everything mixes in, I knead it with my hands, folding it like you fold an envelope, only 10 times, until the dough reaches a nice and almost non sticky consistency.

-Cover with a clean dish cloth and let rise in a draft-free, warm place for 1 to 2 hours, or until doubled in size. if you use fresh yeast, allow a little bit more time than 1 hour.

-Turn dough onto floured surface. Divide in 4 equal parts. Let rest for 5 minutes.

- Roll each portion into 10" x 8" rectangle. Roll up from the long side; pinch along seam edges to seal.

-Place seam down on the oil-greased, flour or cornmeal dusted loaf pan(s). Sprinkle some flour or corn meal on the loaves, cover with the same cloth and let them rise again until doubled, for about 45 minutes.

-with a very sharp knife or razor blade, make five diagonal cuts across the top of each loaf.

-To achieve a super golden in color and crusty in texture bread, I used a sprayer bottle containing warm water, at 35 Celsius, and sprayed some before baking, you can spray it with more water during the baking process...just open the oven and very quickly spray.



-Bake at 400 F or 200 C., until you have 4 lightly browned loaves of Baguette.

-Cool on wire racks.

..wait....assuming that you can wait...for 5 minutes before you cut it

Enjoy!!!