King Arthur Quick Baguettes.
King Arthur Quick Baguettes can be ready in just a few hours (after you make the poolish the night before, which takes maybe 2 minutes) so you can start after lunch and have delicious warm baguettes to serve with dinner. The recipe, as well as a few new techniques, comes from the half-day “Beauty and the Baguette” class we took at the Norwich Baking Education Center after live classes resumed in Summer 2021. Makes 2 very long baguettes or 3 medium baguettes to fit a half sheet pan (length about 17 inches).
Ingredients:
For the poolish:
150 g warm water (a little hotter than body temperature, 105 degrees or so)
150 g all purpose flour
Pinch of active dry yeast
For the final dough:
Fully proofed poolish
312 g all purpose flour*
177 g warm water (a little hotter than body temperature, 105 degrees or so)
1 t active dry yeast
1 ½ t Kosher salt
Equipment for baking:
Half sheet pan
Foil baking pan (like for Thanksgiving turkey) with exterior dimensions similar to the half sheet pan
Very happy with this crumb. It’s open without too many big holes, so it’s perfect for spreading cheese or paté.
Method: make the poolish the night before (or very early in the morning for an afternoon bake). Add water to yeast in a large bowl and stir to dissolve, then mix in flour till smooth, It will start with the consistency of thick pancake batter but will thin out and become light and bubbly, with a yeasty aroma, as it proofs. Once the poolish is fully proofed it can be used immediately or held for 4-14 hours.
To make the final dough add the final four ingredients to the poolish and mix with a spoon or plastic bowl scraper until uniform. Autolyze 20 minutes or so, then turn out onto a floured board and knead till gluten is well developed, 8 minutes or so. The dough will be very yet at first but try to avoid adding flour by using a light touch in kneading. Proof in a warm room 90 minutes with one fold or additional kneading step at 45 minutes.
Form into 2 or 3 balls of equal size and rest for 20 minutes, then roll out into baguettes. Proof in a floured baker’s cloth, with ridges formed to separate the loaves, until the dough just begins to spring pack when you poke it with your finger. (If it does not spring back it’s not ready; if it springs back all the way it is overproofed.) Meanwhile, heat oven to 500 degrees along with a sheet pan you will use for baking.
When oven is hot, carefully transfer the hot sheet pan to a trivet and sprinkle with semolina flour to prevent sticking. Load the loaves onto the sheet pan by rolling them onto a plank of plywood or carefully transferring with your hands. Slash the tops, spray with water for a crispy crust if you like, and cover with the inverted foil baking pan. Bake for 15 minutes, remove the aluminum baking pan, and bake another 15 minutes until golden brown. Baguettes when done should have a crackling crust and a hollow sound when thumped.
*If you like, replace about 50g of the APF with einkorn (our choice), spelt, whole wheat or another darker/denser flour.
