Why is it that the French stick seems simple, but it is difficult to be perfect?

The baguette belongs to French bread. Of the 350 tons of bread consumed in France every year, 65% is baguette, so it is called "the king of bread". Christian, a famous French baker, said: "The baguette is a legend and the legend will not disappear." So if you go to France one day, you must put this item on the list of things you must do: it feels great to walk on the road with some French sticks.

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Surprisingly, the ingredients of the baguette are extremely simple, using only four basic raw materials: flour, water, salt and yeast, and the rest depends on the baker's skill. Because of this, it is not easy to be a perfect baguette!

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The birth of baguette

The birth of the baguette originated from a law promulgated in 1920 that' bakers are not allowed to work before 4 am'; This rule looks wonderful, but at least it ensures the freshness of bread that day! The baker doesn't have enough time to make traditional steamed buns. As a result, the French staff who were quick in preparation and production quickly occupied the French dining table.

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What does the perfect baguette look like (from Zhihu)

① Flour: Because the ingredients are extremely simple, baguette is the best carrier that can best reflect the original flavor of flour. There are hundreds of kinds of flour suitable for making sticks on the market. Pure sweet flour with high ash content reflects the preference for wheat flavor, and Q is soft and tender, which is worth savoring. ② Fermentation: The baguette worth eating must be naturally fermented, ranging from bland dry yeast and active yeast blocks to fruity raisin yeast, rye yeast with extremely high acidity and balanced whole wheat lubang seeds. Natural yeast is a high-risk choice, because there are too many variables, even the same raw materials, the results may be very different. 3 color: If the surface of the baguette you see is light yellow or golden yellow, you'd better not buy it. Brown and dark brown (brown) are the guarantee of fragrance. The source of brown is not burnt, but the sugar produced in the process of bread fermentation, which turns brown in caramelization at high temperature. 4 leather: it should be crispy skin. After a long period of low-temperature fermentation and repeated folding, the baguette dough will form a crisp shell with numerous small bubbles after steaming and baking because of the fine internal bubbles and proper protection. However, the shelf life of this crispy skin is not long, and the best effect is probably 30-90 minutes after baking. Of course, eating at the best time is also a key. ⑤ Internal organization: Internal density: medium-high gluten flour with incomplete gluten, incomplete fermentation and high water content. The four main points in the standard of baguette are: making the inside soft, tough, elastic and easy to melt; You can't spoil the soft texture like toast. 6 Listen and pat the bottom of the bread. Listen to the sound. A perfect baguette will be empty when you knock it. In other words, the bread should be lighter than you think, because there are bubbles in it. Generally speaking, the more bubbles there are, the better the French stick is made. ⑦ Observe the honeycomb structure: The internal structure of a good baguette should be honeycomb with medium-sized bubbles, which is helpful to the taste of bread. If the bubbles are too small and the material is too dense, the bread will be very dry; If the bubbles are too big, it is difficult to form. The baguette has both taste and flavor, so the bubbles must be moderate. Chewability: Because the baguette needs to reflect a rich layering, it needs to be chewed in the mouth for a long time. The more chewy the bread is, the longer the eater chews it, and the better the taste of the bread is.

This seems simple, but it is still very complicated.