Yummy Buttery Baguettes

The crust of these baguettes was delicate and slightly chewy with a salty flavour (from the butter). The crumb was tender with an al dente bite.

The one thing I would probably do differently next time is to make 3 baguettes from this amount of dough as they were fairly generous in size. But that could just be because there is only the two of us to eat them here!

I hope you enjoy them as much as we did. 

Ingredients

340g warm water
1 1/2 Tbs. (2 packages) dry yeast
2 tsp. sugar
570 g bakers flour
2 tsp. salt

Method

1. Place ingredients into CC with the kneading crushing blade Pastry P1 2 mins 30 secs
2. This is a sticky dough, remove carefully from CC and scrape dough from blades onto a lightly floured bench. (you want the dough to remain fairly sticky)
3. I used a pastry scraper to lightly knead the dough (basically moved it around until it becomes a smooth ball. 
4. Cut in half and shape into 2 baguettes.
5. To make them smooth and pretty, roll each half of dough into a rectangle and roll up lengthwise. Pinch the edges to seal and place on a lightly greased cookie tray with a seam downwards. Cover and let it rise for 30 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 230 degrees.
7. With a very sharp knife (you can use a very sharp knife, one with a serrated blade or a razor blade) gently make a slash down the length of each baguette. (I did small diagonal slashes on the second)
8. Pour water in a cookie sheet and place it on the bottom rack of the oven. (this forms a steamy atmosphere for the bread)
9. Bake the bread for 15 minutes. Half way through, brush the bread with melted butter.

Recipe Source http://www.thesisterscafe.com converted for CC

Rosemary's Pizza Dough

Who doesnt love pizza, really I think it should be a whole food group on its own.  I think with pizza that less is more.  Less cheese, less topping, means more taste, or what I am trying to say is that you can taste all the ingredients, where if you have too many ingredients they tend to blend together.

I love making homemade pizza, in fact I am always disappointed if I get lazy and order in.  They are NEVER as nice.

This recipe is meant to be for one pizza, but I like my pizza’s thin and crispy so it makes two small dinner plate size pizza’s

My Perfect Loaf

Since I bought my cuisine companion almost 2 years ago,  I have rarely bought a loaf of bread.  This recipe has been tested over and over by the lovely members of Loving the Tefal Cuisine Companion Facebook group.

First of all, I don't call this bread my Perfect White Bread because I think I have discovered the BEST loaf of bread on the planet.  I call it that because after many many changes in the development of the recipe, I came up with a recipe that was easy for even non-bakers to create a good loaf of bread. Even my husband cooks this loaf!!

One of the things I love most about this loaf is its versatility, I have made loaves, rolls, and scrolls, both savoury and sweet.  I hope you enjoy making it as much as I do.

Firstly I want to say that bread isn’t that scary, I find it one of the most relaxing things to bake. I love the feel of the silky dough, it's like adult play dough!!

People get caught up in things like the temperature of the water and how long to let the yeast react before adding the other ingredients,  I say don't fuss!!  as long as your water isn’t really cold or really hot, just somewhere in between, (think babies bath water) you won't kill the yeast, there is no need to wait for the yeast to activate either, modern dried yeasts are very forgiving.

So number one - take a breath and relax, prepare to have fun!