Perfect Baguettes

The best way to move a proofed baguette is on a piece of pine house siding  smoothed with fine sandpaper.

Finally... after years of trying, I've perfected my baguettes. How do I know? A bit of ironical luck.

I pulled the bread out of the oven, let it cool, and began eating it. The bread was exactly what I'd been trying to make: crispy, crunchy crust, not too hard, and a chewy, tender crumb. And who should walk in the door at that very moment but one of my best customers who'd just flown in from spending a month in Paris. He'd stopped at Amy's bread in NY on his way in and bought, what else, a baguette. Well, he said mine was far better than Amy's, but that it wasn't exactly like the ones he'd gotten in the boulangerie on the first floor of his apartment building in Paris. ( I thought it may have been because he was eating the very end, or heel, of the loaf.)

The next people in the door were French. (They were with another of my customers who owned a house there.) I gave them a big chunk of baguette, and their eyes lit up. "C'est bon!" they whooped, "It is exactly the quality of bread in France!"

So here's what I did.

Day 1:

Pate Fermente

Liquid Levain

Poolish

Day 2:

Add to the above flour to make a dough.

35 Minute autolyze

Add Yeast

Add Salt

Ferment

Make up, retarding immediately on linen couches.

Day 3:

Proof in plenty of humidity.

Bake very hot with steam.

I asked another of my customers what the difference between these baguettes and the one's in France were. He said,"Oh. You make these."