French Baguettes

Important! This takes 3 hours to prepare!

Preparation You need: A baguette mould A dough scraper
Ingredients (for 3 small baguettes) 345 ml water, lukewarm 17 g normal yeast; almost half a cube 430 g wheat flour (405 in Germany) or a mixture of 375 g normal flour and for example 55 g whole grain) 13 g salt
The dough Put the following ingredients in a bowl in this order: water, yeast, flour, salt Stir the mixture well with a dough scraper to form a homogeneous mass without really kneading the dough - everything should be uniformly mixed. The result should be a very moist, sticky dough. Then place the dough in the bowl in the oven, without turning it on. Just so the dough can rest there without air circulation and temperature fluctuations. Rest period: 2 to 3 hours.
Shaping the baguettes The dough should have risen clearly after 2 hours. Stir the dough again briefly with the dough scraper so that most of the air is pressed out. Now lay out baking paper (or a silicone mat) in the baguette mould and use the dough scraper to spread the dough in the three gutters. The baking paper is necessary because this dough is very wet, and otherwise it creeps into the holes (sometimes even through them), and you can't get the baked bread out of the tin so easily. Use the dough scraper to pull the dough apart so that the grooves are evenly filled and the dough pieces get the typical baguette shape. The coarse pulling apart ensures that the breads get the typical uneven surface structure of a baguette. Now let the dough rest for another 20-30 minutes. In the meantime, push a high baking tray into the lowest level and fill it with water (1.25 litres). Place the oven rack on the middle shelf. After 10-15 minutes, preheat the oven (convection oven, 210℃).
Baking the baguettes Put the baguette mould in the oven (on the oven rack) and bake for 20 to 25 minutes (keep an eye on them from 20 minutes!).When they are nicely brown on top, take them out, turn them over, and put them back in the oven for a few minutes with the underside facing up, with Top Grill --> Don't take your eyes off them! The underside should only be lightly browned. After baking, remove the baguettes immediately from the tin and place them crosswise on top -> so that air also gets to the underside. Leave to cool for 10 to 15 minutes, then eat them all straight away ;-)