Half Whole Wheat Baguettes Recipe

How to make it

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• The night before you bake:

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• Mix the “predough” ingredients in a bowl until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 12-24 hours

• The next day:

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• Mix the flours, yeast, salt and ginger in a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook).
• Add the water and “predough”. Mix well.
• Scrape onto a lightly floured surface (or start the mixer) and knead for 15 minutes, taking care to avoid adding more than ¼ cup flour (the dough should be soft and pillowy).
• Place the kneaded dough back into the bowl and cover. Allow to rest for 30 minutes.
• With the dough still in the bowl, pretend the blob of dough is a clock. Starting at noon, gently pinch one centimetre of the dough’s edge and pull it up and out, stretching it as far as you can without breaking it. Fold that pinched bit over the blob of dough. Repeat all round the blob of dough.
• Re-cover and allow to rest for 30 minutes.
• Stretch and fold the dough this way once more in the bowl.
• Re-cover and allow to rest for 30 minutes.
• Scrape out onto an unfloured surface (UNfloured is important here).
• Stretch and fold the dough and roll it into a loose sausage. Cover with a dry tea towel and allow to rest for 10 minutes.
• Divide the dough into three equal portions, and stretch and fold each.
• Shape them all into loose balls, cover and allow to rest for 15 minutes.
• Stretch and fold each ball again and roll up into tight log shapes. Cover and allow to rest for five minutes.
• Grease 3 baguette pans or heavily flour a tea towel and place it in a roasting pan with deep sides, making sure the tea towel comes well up the sides of the pan.

• Shaping:

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• Pick up one log and move it away from you.
• Starting with your hands together in the middle of each log, thumbs completely touching, roll dough toward you as you move your wrists (not your hands) apart so that the fingertips of the index finger and the fingertips of the middle finger on each hand meet.
• Pick up the dough, move it away from you and roll again as above. Do this as many times as you need to get the length you would like. Don’t use any downward pressure, just gentle outward pressure.
• Repeat with the rest of the sausages of dough.
• Lay the baguettes one by one in the prepared pans or on the towel in the roasting pan, making sure there is a deep fold in the towel between each baguette so that they do not stick together as they rise (if you do not have enough baguettes to fill the roasting pan, wedge them together with something like an upturned loaf pan or a book so they rise up and not out).
• Cover and allow to rest for 30–45 minutes or until doubled in size.

• Baking:

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• Preheat the oven to 450˚F.
• If you are using baguette pans, make slashes in the tops of the baguettes with a sharp knife and spray with fresh water from a plant sprayer to help achieve a crispy crust.
• If you proofed the dough on tea towels, gently pick up each baguette and lay it down on a prepared baking sheet. Make slashes in the tops of the baguettes with a sharp knife and spray with fresh water from a plant sprayer to help achieve a crispy crust.
• Bake the baguettes for about 20 minutes, until golden brown.
• Remove from the oven and transfer immediately to a wire rack.