French Baguettes

For this weekend, I decided to make Cuban sandwiches for the whole family. Instead of Cuban bread, I decided to use french baguettes as a substitute. To impress my whole family and to also save money from buying bread, I decided to make the baguettes out of scratch. Once out of the oven, it was so delicious that I couldn't help but sneak a couple of slices for myself....heheheheehe.....hopefully I will have enough for the sandwiches....

You can find the original recipe at Allrecipes.com, however, I changed some of the directions around due to my experience in bread baking and also did not use a bread machine since I didn't have one.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/French-Baguettes/Detail.aspx

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups or more all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons active rising yeast

DIRECTIONS:
1. Place water, sugar, and yeast into a medium size bowl and let proof for 10 minutes. This mixture should double in size. If it doesn't double at all, then it cannot be used for this recipe since this indicates that the yeast is inactive.

2. Pour yeast mixture into a big bowl and add salt.

3. Add in flour. Stir until dough cleans the side of the bowl.

4. Flour a flat surface and knead your dough until dough is soft and not sticky. Add more flour if necessary. You want to knead until your dough does not stick to your hands.

5. Place dough in a greased bowl, turning to coat all sides. Cover, and let rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes, or until doubled in bulk. Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.

Covering greased dough to let rise for 30 minutes

30 minutes later....

6. Punch down dough. On a lightly floured surface, roll into a 16x12 inch rectangle. Roll up dough tightly, pounding out any air bubbles as you go. Roll gently back and forth to taper end. Place on a greased cookie sheet. Make deep diagonal slashes across loaves every 2 inches, or make one lengthwise slash on each loaf. Cover, and let rise in a warm place for 30 to 40 minutes, or until doubled in bulk.

7. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown. (You can also mix an egg yolk with 1 tablespoon water to brush over the top of loaf for a golden brown look; I did without the egg yolk graze since I wanted to keep the baguette low cholesterol).