Recipe: San Francisco Sourdough Baguette

Activate San Francisco sourdough starter. 

When the starter is bubbly and ready to use, mix 1 cup of it with 2 cups  all purpose flour, 1 tablespoon sugar,  and enough distilled water to make a thick batter. Bread bakers call this a sponge.

Leave it at about 85 degrees until it's very bubbly. I often let a sponge go overnight. This is supposed to be wrong, according to bread experts, but it works just fine for me, so I do it. Or, I may do it in the morning and let it rise for just an hour or two. That also works.

Mix 2 teaspoons salt, 2 teaspoons diastatic malt powder (see note), 2 teaspoons more sugar, and 1 cup all purpose flour. Stir this into the sponge. Then add enough all purpose flour to make a dough.

When it's too thick to stir and too gooey to knead, I turn it out onto the breadboard and work in flour, using the dough scraper. To do this, I put about a half cup of flour at the back of the breadboard. Then I move it a little of it forward, and work the wet doughy mass through it, pushing and turning until the flour is absorbed.

If more flour is needed, I scrape more forward and repeat. As soon as the dough is stiff enough that I can work it with my hands without feeling like some animal in the LaBrea Tar Pits, I put down the scraper and knead it.

It's said that it's almost impossible to overknead dough by hand, and that may be true. However, it's very possible to work in too much flour. Add flour cautiously, since a lot of the structure comes from the kneading action. You want the dough to be smooth, but not dry. It's still going to be sticky when it's done, but it's less sticky than when you started.

You've kneaded enough when the dough is only slightly sticky, and when you can stretch a small amount of it pretty thin without it tearing.

Let rise at 85 degrees until doubled, deflate it, and let rise until doubled again.

Cut the dough in two.

Press each half of the dough into a rectangle on the breadboard.  Roll each rectangle up tightly into a cylinder. Place them in the two halves of a baguette pan. (A cookie sheet is OK, but you'll get a better shape with the baguette pan. A baguette spreads as it cooks unless it's supported. Still makes fine bread, though!)

Let loaves rise at 85 degrees.

While the loaves are rising, prepare the oven: Preheat oven to 375 degrees, preferably with tiles in it. Below the rack with the tiles, preheat a shallow pan. When the loaves are put in the oven, pour about 1 tablespoon water into the preheated pan.

When the loaves have risen to the edge of the pan, slash longitudinally with a razor dipped in water.

Brush the entire surface of the loaves with water.

Bake until well browned and crusty.

Note: Diastatic malt can be hard to find. I get it on the Internet. I hate to call for something like this, but it makes a big difference in the bread's flavor. You can leave it out, but you'll have more of a floury taste, less like professionally made bread.