French Baguettes

Mix the warm water and yeast in a jug and leave to stand until the mixture is foaming on top, this should take about 5-10 minutes.

Place the flour and salt in a large bowl and mix together. Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the yeast mixture, combine to create a dough. You only need the dough to come together so it won’t be smooth and elastic.

Place the dough in an oiled rectangular container and cover with oiled cling film. Leave to rest for about 30 minutes, it will not rise much in this time.

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and gently fold into thirds turning the dough and folding again until you have folded each side of the dough and the dough is a rectangular shape.

Place back in the rectangular container and leave to rise for about an hour until doubled in size.

Divide the dough into 4 equal portions cutting the dough length ways. Roll each dough portion to about 25-30 cm in length and pointed at the ends.

Place the dough on a baking tray lined with a floured tea-towel and create a fold in the tea-towel between each dough stick, this will help the dough rise in the right shape. Cover in oiled cling film and leave to puff up for about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200°C/180°C/Gas mark 6 and place a baking tray filled with boiling water in the bottom of the oven – this creates steam in the oven and helps form the crust on the baguettes.

Place the baguettes on a baking tray lightly dusted in flour and slice diagonally across the top and sprinkle with flour. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes until golden brown and crusty. The baguettes should sound hollow when tapped.  Leave to cool on a wire rack.