Baguettes Viennoises for BBD # 52

 la ricetta in italiano qui

     

I am hosting Bread Baking Day # 52 this month, so come along and bake a French Bread, you can blog about it till midnight (Rome time) August, 1st.

I love bread, especially kneading and baking, and I love France, where I often go for fun, so it's a good combo for our monthly baking date :-. 

I chose to bake Baguettes Viennoises because it's one of our favorite breads for breakfast.

It's a sort of pain brioche, a little less rich but quicker to make (and simply easy too with a stand mixer :-). Ideal also for teatime, le quatre-heures in France (French-speaking nations have le goûter or le quatr-heures, in other words, the 4:00 afternoon snack. Le goûter is most often prepared for children who have returned from school hungry, to keep them satisfied until dinner - from wikipedia).

Infact tradition recalls that French children once back home from school would have a baguette viennoise halved, with a bar of Poulain chocolate inside, a very popular chocolate among kids.

And it was very difficult for me to get proper pictures because my 2 youngest, as soon as the baking fragrance was coming out from the kitchen, kept on following and hanging around me (well, actually the baguettes!), watering to have one for an anticipated middle-morning snack! :-).

 

The recipe is by Richard Bertinet, a famous Anglo-French baker and chef, BBC Food Champion of the Year 2010,  now settled in Bath where he's been managing a cookery school since 2005.

I had to adapt it to a family standard, superdividing the quantities as the original was for more than 40 bauettes using 5 kilos of flour!

For 4 or 5 baguettes:

500 g strong bread flour
250 g full fat milk
60/70 soft (but not melted) unsalted butter
40/50 g caster sugar
10 g fresh yeast
2 eggs
1 beaten egg or a little extra milk for brushing
1 teaspoon salt
a couple of tablespoon chocolate chips for each baguette, optional

- Dissolve yeast in lukewarm milk, then combine to the flour and the rest of the ingredients (salt will be the last one), mix for four minutes at slow speed, followed by 6 to 7 minutes at fast until the dough is smooth.
- Let rest the dough for at least one hour, until doubled, covered and in a warm place.

 

- Divide the ough into 4 or 5 pieces, add the chocolate chips to each/some pieces if you like and shape into baguettes.
- Place onto baking tray lined with parchement paper, brush with beaten egg/milk, make several diagonal cuts on each baguette with a sharpened knife and let rest for 30/40 minutes. Better if you have a baguette pan as it may happen that some overspring, as 2 of mine did. I will definetely buy one!

 

 - Bake at 190/200° for about 15 minutes until golden brown (I did only 4 baguettes and baked for 20 minutes).

 Bon Appétit!



This recipe is my entry to this week Susan's YeastSpotting.