Dear friends and readers,
Many moons ago, I haphazardly asked some of my friends what to bake. “Macarons!” they say, “It will be fun!” they say.
At the end of my attempt, I was very deflated, just like my poor meringue. A tired soupy mess, underbaked and eventually sulking at the deep end of a garbage can.
I get myself out of a funk by doing something I know I can do well. Vietnamese baguettes are one of those projects that I have too much experiences with because of a temporary obsession with banh mi. It will keep my mind moderately occupied while I relax and wind down on a Saturday. I also missed bread after eating a predominantly hashbrown diet for a week, and especially the thin crunchy crust that comes with this particular bake.
If anyone wants to get me a gigantic Vietnamese baguette plushie for Christmas, that’d be great.
Wow, is that a recipe?
I think I want to start keeping some recipes on here too now. I modified Huy Nguyen’s recipe to work with the equipment I have. This recipe live in my journal, and Huy did a fantastic job with the recipe development, but I did I need to tweak it to make it work for me. The notable changes here are increases to the amount of ascorbic acid, more resting/proofing time throughout the recipe for the dough, and more baking time.
- 450g bread flour
- 260g water
- 1 whole egg
- 8g instant yeast
- 4g salt
- 2g sugar
- 3g ascorbic acid
- vegetable oil for kneading
- Throw all ingredients into a stand mixer bowl.
- Mix at stir speed for 7 min, rest for 10 minutes covered, and mix at 4 speed for 3 minutes.
- Form into a ball on a lightly oiled surface and let rest covered with the mixing bowl for 20 minutes. Remember to keep tucking the dough under itself.
- Divide into 120 g portions and let rest covered with plastic wrap for 20 minutes
- Shape the baguettes by deflating the dough with a rolling pin and roll into a rough isosceles triangle, as large as you can. Take the pointy end and tightly roll it inwards. With each roll, tuck the edges a little more inward. so you get a tapered shape. Put each finished loaf on either a baguette pan or a regular baking sheet. Make sure to leave plenty of space.
- Proof in the oven with the lights on for 80 minutes, spray with water every 15 minutes or whenever you remember.
- Proof on the counter for 30 minutes as you preheat the oven to 450f. Place two baking racks in the center and bottom, and place a baking tray on the bottom rack.
- Boil some water.
- Once the oven is ready. Score the loaves with a razor in one smooth motion, and immediately place it in the oven. Pour in the hot water into the baking racks, and trap the steam inside closing the door.
- Bake for 8 minutes to let the dough rise with the steam, and then open the door briefly to let the steam out. Bake for another 15 minutes to color the loaves.
- Let cool. Enjoy by reheating for 3 minutes in a 350f oven.