Love fresh, crusty baguette, yet skeptical about baking your own? You shouldn't be..If other people can, then you can. Unleash your baking arts talents and bake like - a professional pastry chef would -this delicious warm, crusty baguette, infused with chopped black olives and heavenly smell and taste of freshly ground herbs; all in your home baking oven. The bread's recipe is simple, and can't get any easier than this...What you need is:Ingredients:
- 350 grams of bread flour.
- 300 grams of fine semolina.
- 350-370 ml of warm water.
- 200 grams of chopped black olive, pitted.
- 3 tbsp of olive oil.
- 1 1/2 - 2 tbsp of bread instant dry yeast.
- 1 tbsp of salt (flat not full).
- 1 tbsp of granulated sugar.
- 1 tsp of fresh ground fennel.
- 1t tsp of garlic powder. (if not available, you can use fresh garlic)
- 1/2 tsp of oregano.
Directions:
- In a large bowl of an electric mixer, run whisk attachment through dry ingredients (350 g of bread flour, 300 g of semolina, 1 tbsp of sugar, 1 tsp of ground fennel, 1 tsp of garlic powder, 1/2 tsp of oregano) till well combined.
- Thoroughly mix in 3 tbsp of olive oil. Add in 1 1/2 tbsp of bread instant dry yeast till well combined.
- With dough hook fitted, gradually add warm water to flour mixture. Add in 1 tbsp of salt at this point. Knead bread dough for at least 15 minutes till smooth and elastic.
- Mix in 200 grams of chopped black olives, and knead for another 2 minutes or less.
- Slightly work dough on a floured worktop, cut into equal halves and form each half into baguette shape like (dough ends are slightly tapered).
- Coat baguette dough halves with flour and place them apart on a large baking sheet coated with flour or semolina. Cover with a towel, and let rest so as to rise and double in size for 1-1 1/2 hours. Preheat oven to 450 F.
- When risen, cut 3 diagonal slits across top of each half (loaf). Sprinkle flour on top of bread dough and bake for 20-25 minutes.
- Baguette should be done when bottom is brown, and sounds hallow when tapped on. Remove from oven, let cool on a wire rack, cut with serrated knife, then serve.
Baker Note:
- Make sure your bread instant dry yeast is not expired so as to end up with satisfying results.
- In bread baking and pastry making, we often have recipes that call for use of salt and bread yeast, it is strongly recommended that salt and yeast are not combined together. Unlike sugar, salt has a retard affect on the growing activity of yeast, especially if the amount of salt used is not in-balance with the amount of bread yeast being used.
- Kneading bread dough can be done manually (using your hands) or an electric mixer.
- When shaping bread dough, work with one half at a time, and cover the remaining half with a towel to keep from drying.
- To bake crusty chewy baguette, similar to what you may find in an artisan bakery, check out baking directions for crusty sourdough bread.
