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PRODUCT REVIEW www.kitchenwarenews.com n OCTOBER 2016 n KITCHENWARE NEWS & HOUSEWARES REVIEW 9 French Baguettes From Home BY MICAH CHEEK Warm, crackling French bread is the kind of food that is welcome at any meal, lending itself equally to dipping in hearty soups and being used as an accoutrement for a charcuterie platter. The natural instinct is to find a traditional recipe and make the bread yourself, but the idea presents a problem. As Julia Child notes in Volume Two of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," "The average French household does no yeast baking at all, except for babas, savarins, and an occasional brioche. It certainly does no bread baking, and there is no need to because every neighborhood has its own boulangerie…" French bread is usually made in the boulangerie, or bakery, because the process is very complex. Creating that crackling crust requires careful resting and shaping, as well as high heat and high humidity during baking. The recipe Child offers, adapted to home kitchens, involves seven total hours of work. She also suggests some methods for a better loaf, including heating a rock or fireplace brick on the stove and dropping it into a pan of water in the oven. "You may use a spray bottle rather than a brick; it works reasonably well though less dramatically," she helpfully adds. While I trust Child's recipes implicitly, this one always seemed to be approaching diminishing returns. When I received the Emile Henry 's Baguette Maker, I cautiously hoped that I could turn out bread with less of an investment in time and bricks. The Baguette Maker is an enamel- covered clay bread pan, available in red or navy blue, with a tall arched perforated lid. The package includes a recipe book, in which the recipe calls for reducing the customary three to one ratio of flour to water to two to one. The dough only required two rises, one before and one after shaping. Furthermore, there was no mention of a brick anywhere. The resulting dough rose nicely, but was difficult to knead and shape because of the high water content. After one rise in a bowl and one rise in the pan, the Baguette Maker was put into a 460 degree Fahrenheit oven for 20 minutes, followed by two minutes uncovered to brown. The result was a crispy baton of bread with an array of air pockets inside. The crust crackled when squeezed, and tapping the bread produced a drum- like hollow thump. I rigorously taste-tested the first loaf with butter and coarse salt before examining just what made this work. While the traditional recipe required lots of moisture applied to the outside of the dough f rom the outside, the recipe that came with the Baguette Maker used moisture f rom inside the dough itself. The higher ratio of water creates more steam, which was then trapped by the lid. When water vapor settles on dough, it gelatinizes the starch on the surface, creating a uniform and crispy crust. The Baguette Maker gives steam room to move around while keeping it close to the dough's surface to make sure it interacts with the starch. Having an enclosed pan also helps regulate and even out the heat f rom the oven. The baguettes turned out by this pan take about an hour and 20 minutes for assembly and baking, with some down time during rising. The dough can get sticky and messy, but otherwise it is a simple way to put great bread on the table. At a suggested retail price of $130.00, the Baguette Maker is a bit of an investment for a home cook, but a great option for someone who wants to spend a little extra to bring the French bakery tradition into their home. KN Product Review

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