Sorry about the incomplete baguette - quality check!
A recent news item I saw made sense, and I think will not call for a lot of disagreement – certainly not from me. Baguettes are now cultural heritage!
The Google definition of cultural heritage is “the legacy of physical artifacts (cultural property) and intangible attributes of a group or society inherited from the past. . . a concept which offers a bridge between the past and the future with the application of particular approaches in the present.” Foods are included in its examples.
Al and I became acquainted with this baguette heritage on his first Army overseas assignment with SHAPE headquarters on the outskirts of Paris. To borrow Mama’s expression, we were “poor as Job’s turkey.” Fortunately, French bread from the bakery at the bottom of the hill was inexpensive, and he soon figured out what time they took it out of the oven. One problem remained. With his limited French, he practiced saying, “un” or “une” and carefully showed his index finger for one. Still the baker handed him two loaves and charged for both. As delicious as the French bread was the first day, it wasn’t good for much except a door stop the second day. Finally, a friend solved the dilemma. When the French count fingers, they begin with the thumb as one. The index finger then becomes two.
We’ve missed that tasty French bread with its thin crispy crust and tasty soft inside. Most French bread we have eaten since our time in France would do well to have “so-called” added to its description. I’ve worked with recipes and have come to a reasonable facsimile of this cultural heritage. It’s part recipe and part technique that gets the bread very close to those two loaves Al used to bring up from the bottom of the hill.
French Bread Recipe
1 cup water
1 t. salt
3 c. flour
1 envelope yeast (2 ½ t.)
Mix 1 envelope of yeast (2 ½ t.) yeast with ¼ cup of water and set aside. Stir salt and two cups of the flour into the remaining cup of water. Add yeast and mix well. Add the rest of the flour, and mix well. Knead until smooth and allow to rise in a greased bowl for two hours.
*Knead thoroughly. Shape into two baguettes and let rise until double (about 45 minutes) on a greased cookie sheet covered with cornmeal. (An old beat-up blackened pan works best.) Heat oven to 450°. Put a shallow pan on the bottom of the oven as it heats. Make diagonal cuts in the bread ¼ inch deep. Pour a cup of water into the shallow pan when the oven is hot for steam. Put the bread in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Take it out of the oven and brush with one egg white beaten with 1 tablespoon water. Bake five more minutes or until loaves are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped with the knuckles.
For bread machines:
If using a bread machine, put ingredients in the following order into the machine: water, salt, flour, and yeast. Let the bread machine work on the “dough” setting. Take the dough out and continue from the *.