Baguette with Four Ingredients
Strong flour, water, salt and yeast. No fat, no milk, nothing else, which is why the resting and the shaping are the entire recipe. Makes two loaves.
Servings: 2
Calories: 938kcal
Ingredients
- 500 g strong bread flour harina de fuerza: high protein, not plain flour
- 300 g water 240 ml for the dough, 60 ml for the yeast
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar feeds the yeast rather than sweetening the bread
- 2 teaspoons fresh yeast about 7 g of dry yeast if that is what you have
Instructions
- Sift the flour through a sieve.
- Mix it with 240 ml of the water and the salt. Knead well until the dough is smooth and even.
- Put the dough in a bowl, cover it with a cloth and leave it for 30 minutes at room temperature.
- Meanwhile, stir the fresh yeast and the sugar into the remaining 60 ml of water and leave it for 15 minutes to activate.
- Work the yeast mixture into the rested dough, then divide it into two equal balls on a floured surface.
- Roll each one out into a rectangle about 25 cm long by 20 cm wide.
- Roll it up along the long side, pressing the seam to seal it, so it forms a bar. Do the same with the other.
- Slash the top of each baguette and leave them to rest again for about 25 minutes somewhere dry.
- Heat the oven to 200°C (400°F), line a tray with baking paper, and bake for about 20 minutes until golden.
Notes
The slashes on top are not decoration. Bread expands in the oven and it will split somewhere: cutting it yourself decides where, and a blade or very sharp knife at a shallow angle works better than a serrated one. Strong flour matters here more than in most recipes, because with no fat or sugar in the dough the gluten is doing all the structural work; plain flour gives a flatter, denser loaf. For a crisper crust, put a tray of hot water in the bottom of the oven when the bread goes in: the steam keeps the surface soft long enough for the loaf to expand before it sets.
Nutrition
Calories: 938kcal | Carbohydrates: 198g | Protein: 26g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 3502mg | Potassium: 298mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 45mg | Iron: 12mg