This baquette had to be may favorite. Dough was pulled out of the fridge the next day.
I’ve sort of been messing with homemade pizza dough and bread here and there for some time now. When skimming through some books at the soon to be defunct Border’s (sad face) I read something that stated no matter how homemade bread turns out (over cooked, under cooked, extra puffed or not puffed much at all) that it always taste good. I have to agree with that statement and it’s a good way to not feel the pressure when diving in to making your own bread at home.
This recipe I first used for pizza dough but it said that it’s good for bread as well so when my pizza came out with the best results I’ve had to date I decided to put it to the test. I’ve since made naan, baguettes and a loaf with this same recipe and they all came out great. If you only use half the dough you can save the rest wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge for a couple days. I did this once and the bread seemed to come out even better. Just take out and bring back to room temperature before rolling out if your making a flat bread or rising again if your making a loaf. I’ll be making this again and again and most likely post the pics here in this post. Getting creative with this you could add seeds or oats, cinnamon and raisins, I think you get the idea.
Baquettes are so versatile, sandwich one day, bruschetta the next.
With the day old bread you can slice at a 30 degree angle into whatever thickness you wish and grill on a Forman style grill or what have you (oven) to make bruschetta or make croutons. Leave out for a few days and toss in a food processor to make homemade breadcrumbs. Store them in a jar in the freezer for up to 6 months. Great on pasta if you don’t have fresh Parmesan.
My lovely with her Veruca Salt t-shirt.
This is the Loaf. I didn’t let it rise long enough for the second rise so it had a large cave through half of it but like I stated above, no one cared.
I cooked this dough on a pizza stone (pizza & naan), on a cookie sheet with parchment (baguette) and in a loaf pan (sandwich bread), all with great results.
Tip: When making pizza’s make sure to leave the edge a little thicker so the outer crust puffs up nicely.
Basic Bread
Adapted from the book Jamie at Home ~ Cook your way to the good life. by Jamie Oliver. Love that guy! I halved his recipe since we are a small family but you could easily just double what I have here. Below makes about four medium pizzas or four small baquettes or one sandwich loaf.
His recipe calls for tip 00 flour found in Italian delis but I researched and found out how to make a close version using other flours since I couldn’t find an organic version of tip 00. Enjoy!
- Ingredients
- 1 1/4 c. warm tap water
- 1 1/2 t. unrefined sweetener (I use brown sugar)
- 1 1/2 t. dry active yeast
- 2 T. extra virgin olive oil
- 2 c. unbleached all purpose flour
- 1 c. white wheat pastry flour
- 1/4 c. vital wheat gluten
- 1 1/2 t. sea salt
- Preparation
Combine warm water, sweetener, yeast and olive oil and set aside for a few minutes. Mix/sift together dry ingredients (flours & salt). Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in the wet ingredients. Stir wet ingredients while slowly pulling in the dry until you need to start using your hands. Knead into a nice smooth elastic dough ball (about 5 minutes). Place dough ball in a lightly floured bowl and dust top with flour. Cover with a wet towel and let rise to double in size (about and hour).
If your making pizza, naan or any flat style bread just punch down roll out to desired shape and thickness and cook on a pizza stone at a heat as high as your oven goes. if your going to make a loaf in a pan or baguettes let rise for a second time (about another hour) and gently put in oven as to not deflate it and cook at about 450 degrees until its risen and golden brown. When it comes out of the oven it will be hard and hallow sounding but will soften up a bit as it cools.
Make sure bread is fully cool before cutting or it will just squish and not hold it’s shape as well. It will still taste wonderful though, no matter what.