Skip to main content

Baguette Success!

By
I made some French baguettes yesterday using this recipe. It's kind of a long process with a lot of steps which made me nervous but I'm really excited about the result!

Check these babies out:


   

Now all we need is some fancy cheese, good wine and the Eiffel Tower!

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 17, 2010 at 7:18 PM

    Seriously Ellen. those are some of the most beautiful baguettes I've ever seen! Rich's never turn out like that....

    ReplyDelete
  2. EllenNovember 18, 2010 at 11:49 AM

    Thanks!! There were two things (IMO) that made me successful:

    1. I used 100% white flour. On the Artisan Bread site, they definitely do mixtures of white and wheat but I wanted to give myself the best chance of success so I went with the easy to use flour.

    2. I used a Poolish (at the direction of the recipe) which, I learned, is basically just a pre-mix and pre-rise (preferment) of a portion of the ingredients that is added to the rest of the ingredients when you start. It made me feel like my rise had a head start. It also made me feel fancy and French.

    You two should try the recipe out. It took a lot of time from start to finish (maybe five or six hours, not counting the Poolish prep) but most of that was a series of 45 minute rest periods. Other than that, it was super easy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousNovember 19, 2010 at 12:04 PM

    I use to love baking fresh bread. That was before Andrea and McKenna went gluten free. Maybe they just didn't like my bread.

    Yours looks amazing. Go get that bottle of wine and enjoy it!

    ReplyDelete
  4. EllenNovember 20, 2010 at 9:07 AM

    @Jay - Rich actually told me all about your bread making - you're legendary! The bread and the wine have been devoured...time to make some more!

    ReplyDelete
  5. JonathanNovember 29, 2010 at 12:38 PM

    I also attribute the nice crusty shell to the "humidifier" that Ellen added to the oven while baking.

    http://www.artisanbreadbaking.com/breads/f_b/french21.htm

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Are We Here?

By
There are three ways to answer this question: Why are we here? (What are you two up to?) For the past few years we have been watching our budget closely, paying off our debt, and saving as much as we can. This has given us the freedom to pursue a dream. What dream, you ask? A random one! While we do not have a definite goal or specific plan, we have developed some guiding principles: Let life rule instead of work. Explore the country and the world. Trade "stuff" for genuine experiences. Create rather than consume. Develop a spirit of volunteerism. Take odd jobs in unfamiliar disciplines to see if there is something we love, but don't yet know we love. Live in the moment. Work for ourselves as much as possible. Dance outside our comfort zones in order to grow. Find a way to stretch the money we have saved for as long as possible. Identify properties of cities that we like should we choose to "settle down" again. ("You kids back there bet...
17 comments
Read more

I spy...

By
I was looking for directions on Google Maps today when I realized that Google had just added "birds-eye" views for Fort Collins. So, of course, I went to see what our home looks like. Much to my surprise, I found that Google just happened to catch us on the morning of March 29, 2012. Our moving day! So, you better think twice before deciding to run around naked in your back yard. You never know when the aerial photography plane is going to fly by!
Post a Comment
Read more

Boeke Prospective City Analysis Matrix AND House Walk Through!

By
Several people have asked us how we picked Fort Collins as a place to live so I thought I would share the story with all of you. Or rather, the Matrix. Because that is how we decided. We called it the Prospective City Analysis and this is what it looked like (click to enlarge): Once we were mostly done filling in the Matrix (we had a hard time finding some city data), we sat on it for awhile and "tried out" the front runners in our heads. That would be why we told some of you that we were going to live in Durango...or Prescott...or Seattle...or Manitou Springs (a late entry after the Matrix was completed). But each time, something didn't feel quite right to us so we would move on to the next place on our radar, hoping something would stick.  And Fort Collins did. It didn't wither under the intense scrutiny that I put it under and when we got here to do our final "walk through", it felt right.  And that feeling hasn't gone away. I love that I can ge...
11 comments
Read more