French Rustic Baguette Italian

This page discusses the principles of French / Rustic / Baguette / Italian bread.

After making sandwich bread, rolls, cinnamon rolls etc my whole life I discovered that this is an entirely different thing, and that to try to apply success principles from granny / tall / sandwich bread will guarantee very flat shaped loaves with entirely the wrong crumb shape and taste. This is more different than bread dough is from pizza dough, almost as different as biscuits are from bread.

Here are the things I didn't know about:

• It is a completely different way of making bread, a completely different bread.
• The dough is not kneaded; it is stirred and then folded a few times while rising
• Do not add flour as you stir / knead until "the dough forms a smooth ball"
• The dough is much slacker or wetter than granny bread - it will stick to your hands if they're dry, so wet your hands
• Exactly when you put the flour on the dough during shaping is important because that's where the thick skin will form.
• The couche if you use it, also puts more flour in contact with the skin
• The slashes are not decorative, the crustiness is not aesthetic; they are critical to how the bread rises and bakes
• It doesn't have to be a lot of work

Principle

The principles of these breads is:

• a tough outer skin forms on the dough for the last rise which acts as a balloon, which is
• inflated by very soft dough inside and
• is allowed to open up by the slashes just before baking.

The video, How to make French Baguettes at home by John Kirkwood is extremely helpful to learn the handling and shaping method. Pay close attention to when the flour touches the dough, it's important. He uses commercial yeast but the handling and shaping is the same, just much slower. He uses four rises, with sourdough you get the same flavour with just one rise, shaping and a second rise.