Baguette

We love to include bread with our meals.  I especially love freshly made crusty breads like the baguette.

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups bread flour
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 package instant active dried yeast
1 1/3 cups warm water
3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 egg white
1 tbsp water

DIRECTIONS:

Mix water, salt, sugar, 2 tbsp oil and yeast together and let sit about 10 minutes. Mix yeast mixture to 1 cup of bread flour until smooth. Add additional flour until it can be kneaded on a floured board. Knead for 10 minutes until dough is pliable.

Place dough in a oiled bowl, cover, let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes.

Divide dough in thirds. Form into long baguette loaves and place on baguette loaf rack. Gently cut four diagonal slices into top of each loaf. Let rise until doubles, 20 minutes. Paint egg white mixture on the top of each loaf prior to cooking. Bake 25 minutes at 375 degrees.
 

Baguette

A baguette is a variety of bread distinguishable by its much greater length than width, and noted for its very crispy crust. A standard baguette is five or six centimeters wide and three or four centimeters tall, but can be up to a meter in length. It typically weighs 250 grammes (8.8 oz). It is also known in English as a French stick or a French loaf.

Shorter baguettes are very often used for sandwiches. These sandwich-sized loafs are sometimes known as demi-baguettes or tiers. Baguettes are often sliced and served with pâté or cheeses. As part of the traditional continental breakfast in France, slices of baguette are spread with jam and dunked in bowls of coffee or hot chocolate.

Baguettes are seen as closely connected to France and especially to Paris, though they are available around the world. In France, not all long loaves are baguettes — for example, a standard thicker stick is a flûte and a thinner loaf is a ficelle.

French food laws define bread as a product containing only the following four ingredients: water, flour, yeast, and common salt[1]. The addition of any other ingredient to the basic recipe requires the baker to use a different name for the final product.

The baguette is a descendant of the bread developed in Vienna in the mid-19th century when steam ovens were first brought into use, helping to make possible the crisp crust and the white crumb pitted with holes that still distinguish the modern baguette. Long loaves had been made for some time but in October 1920 a law prevented bakers from working before 4am, making it impossible to make the traditional, often round loaf in time for customers' breakfasts. The slender baguette solved the problem because it could be prepared and baked much more rapidly.
From Wikipedia