Friday, January 14, 2011

Baguette Competition

I have been really into making bread lately and decided to make some for Christmas Eve. Bob got me the William Sonoma baking book for my birthday and I had also just found Mark Bittman's recipe on a friend's blog so I decided to have a friendly competition between the two. I tried to enlist Bob so it would really feel like a competition--he could choose one to make and I could choose another--but he wasn't really game, so I made them both myself. It came down to this: They were both really delicious. Mark Bittman's recipe was way easier but not quite as great. The William Sonoma one was amazing but took a lot of extra steps. I am glad I made them both at the same time so I could test them against each other instead of just trying to remember what the other tasted like. I guess for a "normal" day I would make the more simple recipe and for something more special I would go all out and make the other.

A baguettepan was called for both, which I originally scoffed at. I do not need yet another thing to stick in a cabinet and didn't know why a sheet pan would not suffice. I learned quickly that while a baguette pan is not a necessity, it will drastically change the shape of your loaves. Mine turned out kind of flat since the dough is so thin and pliable and it didn't have the special pans to hold them in place.

No comments: