[This was originally posted on The Fresh Loaf bread blog at: www.thefreshloaf.com]

It's not often that someone can lay claim to producing the best baguettes in a city, but in Washington, DC Sam Fromartz has done so, thanks to a competition sponsored by a local publication - the Washington City Paper. 

The competition, held in 2009, challenged metro-area bakeries to submit baguettes which were then blind tasted by a panel of experts, including Mark Furstenberg, who introduced artisan bread baking to DC.  What the experts didn't know was that Fromartz, a writer by trade but a bread enthusiast, had submitted his own home-baked baguettes as well.  When the dust settled, the judges had awarded perfect scores to the two loaves baked by Fromartz.

The story is fascinating, and you can read the City Paper article here: http://tinyurl.com/cdzhkf

But the baguettes are fascinating as well!  I've baked them on numerous occasions and they produce a delightful flavor and crust.  For those who want Fromartz's recipe from the horse's mouth, it can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/oo68jv

Sam Fromartz's Parisian Baguette Recipe

The following will produce two 16" baguettes weighing in at around 280g apiece.

Ingredient                                    Weight       Bakers %

AP flour (I use KA's Sir Galahad)          295g           98

Whole wheat flour                               5g             2

Water                                            210g            70

Starter (100% hydration)                    45g            15

Salt                                                6.5g             2

Instant dry yeast                             1 tsp            .9

The mix - Desired Dough Temp = 76°-78°

Day 1: Begin by adding the starter and water and mixing to break up the starter.  Fromartz adds his yeast as well, but because I use instant dry I instead mix it into the flour.  To the liquid mixture add the flour and salt.  Fromartz mixes by hand and uses the slap-and-fold technique to knead.  I initially followed this method, but my last bake produced great results using my stand mixer and left me with clean hands to boot!  (I mixed 4 minutes on speed 1 and 4 minutes on speed 2, which produces a dough with moderate gluten development).

Place the dough into a lightly oiled container and cover.  It then receives 3 folds at 20 minute intervals.  After the final fold, place again in covered container and retard overnight in the refrigerator.

Day 2: Preheat oven to 470°.  Remove dough from the refrigerator. Fromartz immediately divides and pre-shapes, but I allow the dough to sit for about 1 hour before dividing.  After dividing and pre-shaping I let the two pieces of dough bench rest for about 30 minutes before shaping into two 16" baguettes.  I couched them, seam side up, for an hour, before placing them on a parchment-covered peel and scoring them. 

I pre-steamed my gas oven with about 1/4 cup of water, and then immediately after placing the baguettes on my baking stone I carefully added 3/4 cup of water to lava rocks that I have piled up in a cast iron skillet at the bottom of my oven.  Bake for 18 - 20 minutes.  Because of the overnight retardation, these have a rich crust with almost a reddish coloration.

The flavor of these is truly wonderful.  The small addition of whole wheat flour and sourdough gives them a nuttiness that I've only found in poolish baguettes.

I was pleased with my slashes (despite the problems gas ovens create by venting steam), and the crumb was the most open I've achieved with his recipe.

So - want to enter your own competition with Sam Fromartz - then give his award-winning recipe a shot!

Fougasse is a type of bread found in the Provence region of France.  It is related to focaccia which is native to Italy. Think of it as pizza without the tomato sauce!

In Provence, fougasse is traditionally made with niçoise olives or anchovies, which makes sense given its mediterranean roots.  But it can be flavored with roasted garlic, sundried tomatoes or a host of other additions.

The slits made in the bread prior to baking provide more crust, and thus the finished product makes a delightful snack where you simply pull off pieces and enjoy the crunch of the crust with the flavoring you've chosen for the dough.

The recipe for the one pictured comes from Jeffrey Hamelman's excellent Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes.

A simple bread to make - but so enjoyable.  Like baguettes, fougasse have a short lifespan due to their high crust-to-crumb ratio.  They are best eaten without hours of baking.  As I tell friends, these are breads that are really just croutons waiting to happen!

Fougasse with olives

This February in Washington, DC makes me yearn for Nebraska winters!  In the span of one week we endured two storms that collectively left over 40" of snow in some parts of the metro area.  I was lucky - 24" the first storm and an additional 6" yesterday.

This snowbound condition has had an upside and a downside.  Cabin fever is the downside (and if you could get out, where could you go?).  Even my favorite pub was closed due to inclement weather - the first time since 1996.

The upside, though, has been the leisure time to bake at home, something I rarely am able to do anymore, given the hours I work baking bread for a restaurant in DC.

So, over the past 4 days or so I've dug into Jeffrey Hamelman's most excellent Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes.  The result is three bakes:
Whole wheat and rye pain au levain A three pound boule (round loaf) of pain au levain (sourdough) with whole wheat and rye, a two pound boule of whole wheat with walnuts, golden raisins and dried apricots, and finally, a poolish baguette along with some hard rolls reminiscent of the kind we used to serve at the French Cafe in Omaha many years ago.

We may be perilously low on milk and other staples, but carbs we have in quantities (though rapidly diminishing).  These are all wonderful breads with flavors that you can't purchase in a grocery store.  They remind me that the reason we take bread for granted in this country is that we've gotten used to purchasing and eating such a mediocre product.Whole wheat with walnuts, golden raisins, dried apricots

Home-baked or bakery-fresh bread is an immediate reminder of why we've been making and consuming this staple for as long as we've been drinking it (in the form of beer). 

Now if only our tastes for good bread could begin to approximate the interest in hand-crafted, micro-brewed beers that we've developed over the past twenty years.

Poolish baguette and hard rolls

This week my mentor began teaching me 'tricks' using extra dough we had. 

Here's one of the first I've learned: a simple 3-braid wreath. 

One thing to note - by way of the defect in my creation - is that it's important to retain a consistent tension when braiding.  Otherwise the circumference/diameter of the wreath is not consistent.

Still, not bad for a first time out.  This was made using baguette dough, and once cooled, I'll lacquer it and use it as a table centerpiece in my dining room.

Sometimes when the stars align, the dough is perfect.  And then, in the words of my mentor Miguel, "when the dough is good, the oven is happy!"

Below, 5 oz. mini-baguettes made with a poolish.  There are few things in life I've experienced as pleasurable as a good bake.

I did say 'few' not 'no' . . . .

By Larry Kilbourne

Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis's rendition of Oliver Nelson's classic "Stolen Moments" on Trane Whistle is one of my favorites.  I'd put up the 'wall of sound' his big band's horns created on this classic with anything rock and roll ever aspired to.

That said, I had my own stollen moment over the holidays, and the result was very pleasing.  Akin to panettone, but without any of the latter's agonies in creation (hanging it upside down overnight after baking to keep it from collapsing, for instance).

The secret is a good, long marinating of the currants, raisins and apricots in lots of rum!

Keeps you in the Holiday spirit(s)!

Well, practice baking of course!  Pictured below are a poolish baguette and an epi (pronounced eh - pee').  The latter begins life as a baguette, but before baking, is cut with scissors to resemble a stalk of wheat....very fitting. 

The term "poolish" refers to a pre-ferment of equal parts flour and water, with a very small amount of yeast added, that is made up 8 - 16 hours before a final dough is mixed.  This added fermentation period allows the yeast to convert sugars present in the starches in the flour into alcohol and carbon dioxide, contributing respectively to improved flavor and a shortened proofing period once the final dough is mixed.  Breads made with a poolish preferment typically have a nutty flavor and slight sweetness lacking in non-prefermented breads.