Semolina Baguette

These baguettes are awesome. The secret ingredient is semolina flour.  Semolina is grittier than regular flour. I buy it at Bosa's - which is full of Italians and Italian ingredients. It is also key to making really good pasta. If you haven't tried it yet - get some and see what a difference it makes. (Since I only use it once it a while, I store it in the freezer.)

I sometimes use baguette pans, but you don't need them - just picture a baguette shape in your head and try to form the typical baguette shape when you roll the dough.

Small loaf 
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 cup flour
1 cup semolina flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt 
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp water


Large loaf
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast 1 1/2 cup flour 
1 1/2  cup semolina flour 
1 1/2 tbsp tbsp sugar 1 1/2 tsp tsp salt 1 1/4 cup water 

Add all ingredients for the dough in the order suggested by your bread machine
manual and process on the dough cycle.
 
At the end of the dough cycle, remove the dough from the machine and divide
dough in half (or in 3 pieces for larger larger recipe).
 
Form each piece into a ball, cover and let stand 15 minutes in a draft-free place.
 
Roll each piece of dough tightly into a 12 - 15 inch log with tapered ends.
 
Place at least 2 inches apart on a lightly greased baking sheet.
 
Cover loosely and let rise in a draft-free place for 30 minutes. Meanwhile preheat oven to 400°.
 
With a single-edged razor blade or a very sharp knife, gently make 3 diagonal
slashes on the top of each loaf. Using a clean plant spritzer or water pistol, spray the breads with water and place in the oven.
 
Immediately reduce the temperature to 375° and bake 20 minutes.

My breadmaker recently bit the dust and I miss it. I loved it mostly for convenience of mixing the dough but I never cook the bread it it.  I much prefer the taste of bread baked in an oven. Possibly the best advice my father ever gave me was to remove the dough from the breadmaker and bake it in the oven!

The dough at rest.

Typical baguette shape

A really sharp knife makes good cuts. This is not a really sharp knife.