The true baguette is thin, between about 24 to 28 inches long, slightly flattened, weighs nine to ten ounces, and has five or seven oblique slashes along the top surface, made just before baking, to allow the dough to expand before the crust has set. The crust itself it toasty, tight, and crackling, and the insides (known as the 'crumb' in English or the 'mie in French) are creamy - nearly golden - never bone white, and marked by an irregular profusion of glossy bubbles and holes, some as large as olives.
The true baguette is made only from flour, water, and salt - and, usually, yeast for leavening. Countless French techniques exist for arriving at the same goal, but the classic recipes call for a brief, slow kneading and a fermentation of several hours with only a little yeast. A true baguette must be baked directly on the hearth; its underside never shows the telltale curve and waffle pattern of a metal pan. Its most elusive qualities are the strong, simple sweetness of the crumb, though absolutely no sugar can be added, and a nearly paradoxical quartet of textures - around the air bubbles, the crumb is dense, moist, stretchy, and extremely tender, all at the same time, with no hint of rubberiness, no dry, tough sheets or filaments of gluten.
- Jeffery Steingarten in It Must've Been Something I Ate
Posted by DSD at December 21, 2006 3:14 PM