French Baguettes

I think bread is one of the most amazing inventions ever. I could subsist off of bread alone. I guess that's why I've gotten so interested in making homemade bread lately. What I really, really, really want is a nice 6-quart stand mixer, but alas, I don't have one. I do however, have a hand mixer with a dough hook attachment, and I made excellent use of it in making these baguettes. I found the recipe on... can you guess? Yep, of course, I found it on Pinterest. Here's the original post: French Baguettes. The original has lots of great direction photos. However, the beauty of those baguettes make mine look downright dumpy. lol This is the second time I've tried the recipe, and while they don't look very pretty, they do indeed taste amazing.

3 1/2-4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 pack active dry yeast

1 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp salt

Put the flour, yeast, and water in a bowl, and mix well. If using a hand or stand mixer, knead dough for seven minutes. Add salt, and then knead dough for another seven minutes. Note, dough should remain elastic and not stick to bowl. I ended up adding about another cup of flour (a little bit at a time until it looked right, which means it didn't look wet anymore).

Sprinkle with flour, cover and let rise for an hour to an hour and a half. Turn out dough on a lightly floured surface.

Divide dough into thirds. One portion at a time, roll out dough to a rectangle, then fold into thirds. 

Roll dough like a sausage, until desired size is achieved. Pinch ends. 

Put on a lightly floured baking pan or baguette pan. Cover with a damp towel, making sure maximum contact with the loaves. Let rise for 30 minutes. Put a pan of water in the oven and preheat oven to 460 degrees. Score the tops of the loaves and lightly sprinkle with flour. 

Reduce heat to 430 degrees, spritz some water into the oven, and put in bread and bake for 20-25 minutes (with my crazy oven, I had to preheat to 450, reduce to 400, and then only cooked them for 18 minutes, so it's very important to know your own oven and to time less as you can always cook it longer). Pull them out and enjoy!