Light Wheat Baguettes

 

I’ve been using enough whole grain flour in baking over the last few years that the taste of anything made with all white flour stands out as unique, sometimes even blandly so. Other times, like in the case of a good white bread, it tastes almost indulgent, like cake. (Of course then there’s actual cake, and I haven’t quite felt the need to put whole grain flours in all of those. We each have our weaknesses.)

And so, even after the deliciousness of these Multigrain Baguettes that I first tried about a million years ago, I never really got around to making a whole-grain-touched baguette my go-to version. But, you know, I actually started feeling kind of guilty about not putting at least some whole wheat flour in this Baguette recipe, at least to see how it would work.

It works out nicely, as it turns out. In fact, I think I love it! I wanted this loaf to be slightly crusty, but soft on the inside, not a sandwich bread, but a sort of side loaf to accompany pasta dishes, soups, and big salads, and to make into crostini or just garlic bread when a day old or more. Since my usual sandwich loaf, does well with one-third of the flour being whole wheat flour, that’s the ratio I tried for the baguettes. No big surprise, I suppose, but it really does work well in the baguettes, too.

These loaves behave quite similarly to their all-white cousins at meal time, and I didn’t even really notice an increase in coarseness or dryness over the white loaves when they became “leftovers.” The wheat flavor, which I like very much, is gently present and reminds you that there’s at least a tad bit of whole grain in there after all. Since this 2-white-to-1-whole ratio works so well here (and in the multigrain version), I think you could replace the whole wheat with barley, oat or rye flour if you like. You’ll neither have to give up on whole grains nor on your side of baguette. At least I don’t plan to. Besides, that extra pinch of healthiness leaves room for butter, right?

Light Wheat Baguettes

I use a special pan to bake long loaves, one that is shaped like two (or three) cradles side by side. You could bake your loaves on a sheet pan.

2 teaspoons active dry yeast (1 envelope, if you buy it that way)

1 ¼ cups warm water (100 to 110 F), divided

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 cups bread flour, divided

1 teaspoon salt

egg wash (beaten egg mixed with a little water or milk, optional, but nice)

1. Combine the yeast and ¼ cup water in the bowl of a heavy duty stand mixer (or in another large bowl). Let the yeast mixture stand about 5 minutes or until the yeast appears foamy.

2. Add the remaining water, the whole wheat flour and 1 cup bread flour to the yeast mixture. Stir, using the paddle attachment if using a mixer, until a soft, batter-like dough forms. Cover with a towel and let stand 30 minutes.

3. Sprinkle the salt over the rested batter, which should have nearly doubled in volume. Add ½ cup of the remaining bread flour and mix together using the dough hook for the mixer. Continue kneading in as much of the remaining flour as you can to create a smooth, elastic dough. The final result will be a slightly tacky dough, and should take about 10 minutes of kneading.

4. Remove the dough from the bowl and shape into a ball. Spray a large bowl with nonstick cooking spray and place the dough ball in it. Spray the top of the dough and place a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the dough. Cover the bowl with a towel. Let rise about 1 hour, or until double in size.

5. Gently deflate the risen dough. Reform into a new ball. Cover with the towel and let rest about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare a baking sheet or baguette baking pan by spraying with nonstick cooking spray, or lining with parchment or a silicone baking mat. Preheat the oven to 450 F.

6. Divide the dough into 2 or 3 equal pieces. Working with one portion at a time, roll each portion on a floured surface into a long, narrow loaf. Place the loaves on the prepared pan. Cover with the towel and let rise 20 minutes. The loaves will not double in size.

7. Uncover the dough and slash in several places along the length of each loaf with a sharp knife, being careful not to deflate the dough as you do so. Brush each loaf with egg wash if desired. Bake at 450 F for 20 minutes. Remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack.

Makes 10-15 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Baguette, Multigrain Baguette

Revisiting Baguettes

I was thinking of revisiting the Baguette recipe I use often in order to bump up its WFQ*. I was simply going to add some whole wheat flour and see how that changed the texture and flavor of the bread. But then I got all into Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce and saw that it included a baguette made with a multigrain flour blend. That had to be more interesting.

The Multigrain Flour Mix (see p.109 in the book), which can be used in place of other whole grain flours in just about any recipe, is made up of 2 parts each whole wheat, oat and barley flours and 1 part each millet and rye flours. The blend was developed by the author with the idea of balancing structure and flavor. The sweeter barley and oat flours are meant to complement the stronger whole wheat flour and the millet and rye add another level of complexity.

After one taste of my Baguette made by swapping out one third of the bread flour with this mix, I thought, “Brava!” and “Spot on!” Oh, and “Yum! Yum!” This was my first experience in baking with a multigrain blend and the flavor was all that I had hoped for. Nay, more! It’s grainy, nutty and malty, and reminded me a bit of that day when you’ve outgrown Cap’n Crunch and have found just the right whole grain breakfast cereal. And the texture was wonderful, too, nice and chewy, and not at all gritty or heavy.

While I mostly just borrowed the recipe for the flour blend and added it to my own Baguette recipe, I did take one bit of procedure from the Good to the Grain. While I usually just make what I call a mini starter and let it stand for only 30 minutes, Boyce makes a poolish (another name for a starter or pre-ferment) that stands overnight. Thinking this might enhance the flavor of the bread even more, I did that this time, too. I made a thinner poolish than my mini starter, with just the Multigrain Flour Mix, and half of the recipe’s yeast. The rest of the yeast was added with the rest of the flour.

There wasn’t much risk for me in putting together this flour blend, since I had all of the flours on hand except the millet flour. (I use whole wheat flour regularly, and used barley flour in these pancakes and stone-ground rye flour in this bread and this pie crust. I haven’t posted anything else containing oat flour yet.) I was hesitant to buy the millet flour just for the 2 tablespoons I needed to make this bread, since it was difficult to find recipes featuring millet flour (there’s not a millet flour chapter in Good to the Grain). I was able to find out, thanks to blogs like Gluten Free Girl and the Chef, that millet flour, because it contains no gluten, is best used to create a sweet flavor and pleasantly crumbly texture in quick breads and cookies.

There were also recipes for baked goods containing millet flour printed on the package in which it came (I used Bob’s Red Mill brand, which I found at this supermarket), but even if I don’t try those, I think I might just use up all that millet flour baking more recipes with the Multigrain Flour Mix. I admit that I had more than my usual amount of optimism heading in, but I had no idea that whole grain baking was going to be this great!

*WFQ: Whole Food Quotient

Multigrain Baguette
Inspired by recipes from Cooking Light magazine and Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce

You can mix up a large a batch of this multigrain flour blend in the same proportions and use 1 cup of the mixture in place of the whole grain flours in this recipe.

2 teaspoons active dry yeast (or 1 envelope), divided
1 ¼ cup warm water (100 to 110 F), divided
¼ cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup oat flour
¼ cup barley flour
2 tablespoons millet flour
2 tablespoons rye flour
2 cups bread flour, divided, plus more if needed
1 teaspoon salt
cooking spray
egg wash (egg beaten with a small amount of water, optional)

1. Dissolve 1 teaspoon yeast in ¼ cup warm water in a large, nonreactive bowl. Let the yeast mixture stand 5 minutes or until foamy.

2. Add whole wheat flour, oat flour, barley flour, millet flour, rye flour and remaining 1 cup warm water to the yeast mixture. Stir until a thin batter forms. Cover with a towel and let stand 6-8 hours (overnight).

3. Stir in the remaining 1 teaspoon yeast (or the rest of the envelope if you are using packaged yeast) and let stand about 5 minutes. Add the salt and 1 cup bread flour to the whole wheat flour mixture. Stir to form a dough. Stir in as much of the remaining bread flour as you can.

4. Turn out the dough onto a floured work surface. Knead the dough for about 8-10 minutes or until it is smooth and elastic, adding enough remaining flour a little at a time to keep dough from sticking. (You could use a heavy-duty mixer with a dough hook for this step.) The final result will be a slightly tacky dough.

5. Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray. Spray the top of the dough and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Cover with a towel and let rise about 1 hour or until double in size.

6. Gently deflate the dough without completely squashing it. Reform into a ball. Cover and let rest 5 minutes. Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces. Working with 1 portion a t a time, roll each portion on a floured surface into a long, narrow loaf. Place the loaves on a well-floured surface or on a floured towel pinched into ridges to form a trough for each loaf. (Or place the loaves on a greased or lined baking pan.) Cover with a towel and let rise 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 450 F.

7. Cut 3 to 4 1/4-inch deep slits into the top of each loaf. Carefully lift the loaves onto a mesh baguette baking pan if using. Avoid deflating them as much as possible.

8. Brush the tops of each loaf with the egg wash. (Leftover egg wash can be kept for a few days in the fridge. It can be used on other baking days or cooked as scrambled eggs.) Bake at 450 F for 20 minutes. Remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack.

One year ago: Arugula Pesto with Kalamata Olives

Two years ago: Sour Cream Drop Biscuits with Lemon and Thyme

All You Knead is Loaf

I’ve got two problems that I hope this post is helping me to remedy. My first problem is a personal matter of metabolism. I seem to completely lack one. You might even say, if you’re polite, that I am quite “susceptible to bulking up.” And, as you might be able to guess from the simple hint that I write a food blog, I don’t exactly hate food.

The other problem is one that would seem to enhance the effects of the first. I have a collection of recipes, variations, and ideas of such a size that I could never try them all in one lifetime and still hope to weigh under 3000 pounds. And I keep finding more recipes and ideas, especially on the internet. I file away my internet treasures in an MS Word file, and when the file reaches 20 pages, I create a new one. I just filled up the file titled “Internet Recipes XI.” (That’s right, Spinal Tap fans. It goes to eleven!)

It’s time to start trying some of these recipes, but also to start burning some of these calories. I exercise just about every day, but I also cook every day, so I thought I should find a way to bring some exercise into the kitchen. I feel like a dork doing knee bends or lunges in front of the stove or the mixer, even though I’m usually by myself. There was, however, one more dignified thing I could do. I could start kneading bread by hand instead of using my heavy-duty stand mixer. I’ve fought against this for years, offering a plethora of weak and whiny excuses, but it was time to toughen up. If my 88 year old grandmother can knead bread by hand, then so can I. Besides, there just might be a delicious baguette studded with dark chocolate and orange peel as my reward at the end of it all.


And so, I’ve been kneading most of our loaves by hand over the last couple weeks. (If I have Popeye-like forearms next time you see me, you’ll know why.) If I’d been hoping to gain a spiritual connection to our daily bread with this up-to-the-elbows, sensual approach, I would have been sorely disappointed. I have, however, come to appreciate just when a dough crosses over from a mixture of flour and liquid to a smooth, glutinous proto-loaf. It at least feels interesting enough to distract me from the daydreams and little songs that go through my head to pass the tiresome time while kneading.

I got the idea for this chocolate and orange bread from an old post in the archives of the blog Chocolate and Zucchini. The blog’s author didn’t post a recipe for the bread, because she had bought it, not made it, but I thought, “I can make a baguette, chop chocolate, and peel an orange. I can make this bread.”

I did, and we loved it. I used a 60% cacao chocolate that I broke into shards, so there were pieces of chocolate to bite into. I used a vegetable peeler to peel the orange part of the skin from an orange, redolent with essential oils, while leaving the spongy pith behind. I cut it into smaller pieces and kneaded it into the dough with the chocolate. The whole loaf was fragrant with citrus. The slightly bitter bits of zest were a very pleasant compliment to the decadent bitter-sweet chocolate.

This bread also made a fabulous French toast, with a little more finely-grated orange zest added to the custardy soaking mixture. In fact, I waited to write this post until I could test the French toast. I’m going to be making it again, just to make the French toast! And perhaps the calories I burn kneading the dough by hand will make up for the butter and maple syrup.

Chocolate Orange Bread Recipe
You could brush the bread with an egg wash (an egg beaten with milk or water) just before baking, if desired.

1 recipe baguette dough, just kneaded (through step 3)

3.5-4 ounces good bittersweet or semisweet chocolate (I used 60% cacao)

zest from 1 medium orange, peeled off in wide strips with a vegetable peeler (avoid the white pith) and cut into pieces

1. Allow the dough to relax about 5 minutes. Stretch or roll the dough into a rough rectangle. Spread the chocolate and orange zest onto the dough. Roll the dough up over the chocolate and orange zest. Knead the dough to distribute the chocolate and orange zest evenly.

2. Form the dough into a ball and place it in a large bowl greased or coated with cooking spray. Grease or spray the top of the dough and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Cover with a towel and let stand about 1 hour, or until it has approximately doubled in size.

3. Gently deflate the dough and form into a ball. Let the dough relax 5 minutes. Form the dough into a long loaf and place on a baking sheet. Cut several gashes into the top of the loaf. Cover with a cloth and let rise 45 minutes to 1 hour or until doubled in size and puffy. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 450 F.

4. Bake at 450 F for 20 minutes. Remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack. Slice and eat. This bread also makes a fantastic French toast. You can also wrap up and freeze any (unlikely) bread leftovers.

A Pan and a Plan

Just a few housekeeping items before I hold forth about my new bread-baking pan. First of all, many thanks to all who have been reading this blog. I am so appreciative of your compliments and encouragement! And thank you also for telling your friends! As I wrote to one of my dear friends, strangers are just friends you haven’t blogged to yet.

Second, I’ve learned that some of you have had difficulty posting comments. I wish I knew what was up with that. Harry and I have been testing it and it seems that sometimes when one attempts to post anonymously, the comment gets rejected, other times it does not. I do monitor all comments, but have never rejected any myself. At the end of the post titled Sprung, Harry has left a comment including some basic instructions on what has worked for him when commenting. I can only ask you to keep trying! If you continue to have difficulty leaving comments, feel free to contact me via e-mail. My address is given near the bottom of my profile page.

Finally, I have added a new recipe index. You can access it at the right under THE MESSY APRON EXTRAS. It’s a bit crude at this point, but, since many of my post titles have nothing at all in common with the recipes in them, I hope it will help you (and me!) find what you need.

I am a little surprised that I have made as many posts to The Messy Apron as I have and managed to hold myself to only one post about bread. Truthfully, I haven’t been making much of it lately, and, with much warmer days coming, I probably will be giving the oven more time off (though I intend to work on some grilled flatbreads and such.)

For some time, I had been on a quest for mesh trough pans for baking baguettes. They seemed to have come and gone in the kitchen and home stores, and I was even having a hard time finding one online. Williams Sonoma carries one, and it is quite lovely. I’m on a budget, however, and it is a little more than I want to spend at this time, especially since I had no idea whether I was going to like using it.

Finally, on a recent shopping trip after liberating a couple more lonely cookbooks from the shelves of a used bookstore, I found a mesh pan more suited to my budget. It was at le gourmet chef at that crazy retail behemoth known as the Mall of America. This pan is smaller than the one at Williams Sonoma, that is, it is for baking a narrower loaf sometimes known as a flute.

I was invited to a Memorial Day weekend al fresco dining experience (at my favorite place to be invited to dinner…thanks Aunt Beth and Uncle Bob), so I thought I would pick up some wine and bring some bread. Really, I’ll admit, it was an excuse to test my new pan.

I have a baguette recipe adapted from Cooking Light magazine, which has been good to me for a few years, so I used it to try out my new toy. I have to say, it worked very nicely and may have taken this recipe to an all new level. The bread had a consistent, crunchy crust through all 360 degrees of its surface. Oh ya, it tasted great, too!

I let the dough rise on the counter rather than in the pan, so the dough wouldn’t poke through the holes as it puffed up. (I didn’t want little porcupines that I couldn’t get out of the pan.) I then transferred the rising loaves to the mesh pan. You could certainly make this bread on a regular sheet pan, as I have for years with good results. Just let the loaf/loaves rise on the pan and skip the step of transferring it from the counter (not the easiest thing to do without ruining the bread…for me anyway.) You could also make a larger (fatter or longer) loaf, but you may need to adjust the baking time. The egg wash is optional, but I find that it really gives the bread a nice crunchy, golden crust.

BaguetteAdapted from Cooking Light Magazine

2 teaspoons active dry yeast (1 envelope)
1 ¼ cup warm water (100 to 110 F), divided
3 cups bread flour, divided (about 14 ¼ ounces)
1 teaspoon salt
Nonstick cooking spray
1 egg (optional)
2 tablespoons water (optional)

1. Dissolve yeast in ¼ cup warm water in a large bowl (such as the bowl of a heavy duty stand mixer). Let the yeast mixture stand 5 minutes or until foamy.

2. Add the remaining water and 2 cups flour to the yeast mixture. Stir until a soft, batter-like dough forms. Use the paddle attachment if using a stand mixer. Cover the dough and let stand 30 minutes.

3. Add the salt and ½ cup of remaining flour. Knead (using the dough hook or knead by hand) about 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic, adding enough remaining flour a little at a time to keep dough from sticking. The final result will be a slightly tacky dough.

4. Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray. Spray the top of the dough and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Cover with a towel and let rise about 1 hour or until double in size.

5. Gently deflate the dough without completely squashing it. Reform into a ball. Cover and let rest 5 minutes. Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces. Working with 1 portion a t a time, roll each portion on a floured surface into a long, narrow loaf. Place the loaves on a well-floured surface. Cover with a towel and let rise 20 minutes.

6. Carefully lift the loaves onto a mesh baguette baking pan. Avoid deflating them as much as possible. Cut 3 to 4 1/4-inch deep slits into the top of each loaf. Cover with a towel.

7. Preheat oven to 450 F. Uncover the dough. Beat the egg with the water to make an egg wash. Brush the tops of each loaf with the egg mixture. (Leftover egg wash can be kept for a few days in the fridge. It can be used on other baking days or cooked as scrambled eggs.) Bake at 450 F for 20 minutes. Remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack.