Ivory Wheat Baguettes

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again but there is nothing like homemade bread. Nothing. The only other food I could put in that category is pasta! It’s these food items that are sort of a labor of love but wow! do they deliver every single time. This Homemade Whole Wheat Baguette Recipe is no different. I’m an avid supporter of the metric system when it comes to making homemade bread because of its precision. You can be off by a few kilograms and it's not big deal, but if you convert that to US measurements, it's a whole other story! Being off by a whole ounce might be what makes or breaks your recipe. Baking is a science and when it comes to baking bread you have to be spot on every time. Since so many folks ask me to convert my baking recipes to US measurements, I’m happy to do this one for you. However, you do need an ounce scale to get accurate measurements for the flour and water. There are too many variables when measuring flour by volume so for the sake of this converted recipe, let’s just weigh it out in ounces. In addition to weight measurements being incredibly important, ingredients are equally as important. I discovered this Bob’s Red Mill product while searching through their website and it is their Organic Ivory Wheat Flour! It is 100% whole wheat flour, bran and germ included. This Organic Ivory Wheat Flour is different from other whole wheat flour because it's made from stone ground white wheat berries rather than red wheat. It’s got all of the same principles from whole wheat with a white flour appearance. For this bread recipe we're getting back to the fundamentals--whole grains and a whole lot fewer ingredients. A classic bread recipe that's been around for thousands of years has three ingredients in it: flour, water and salt--and maybe even minus the salt way back then. They would use something called a starter which is the natural yeast and fermentation to help leaven bread. We aren’t going to go that in-depth, but this recipe only has four ingredients, which are water, sea salt, yeast and this amazing Bob’s Red Mill Organic Ivory Wheat Flour!

Ivory Wheat Baguettes

Ingredients

• 35 oz Bob’s Red Mill Organic Ivory Wheat Flour
• 28 oz Warm Water (85° to 90°F)
• 1 tsp Sea Salt
• 1 ½ tsp Bob's Red Mill Active Dry Yeast

Instructions

1. In a large bowl thoroughly mix together all of the ingredients until they are completely combined.
2. Cover with plastic and let sit for 1 hour. Remove the plastic and pull and fold over the dough 8 to 10 times and then cover it in plastic again.  Let sit for 4 to 5 hours or until it has doubled or tripled in size.
3. Transfer the dough to a clean floured surface and evenly divide it into 3 pieces and roll them out to the appearance of a baguette.
4. Transfer the dough pieces to a couche or a large soft kitchen towel that has been dusted with flour and let proof for 1 hour.
5. Preheat the oven to 475°F with a baguette tray or stone.
6. Add the dough to the stone or baguette tray and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown and cooked throughout.

Yield: 3 baguettes

Hello, I’m Billy Parisi, but to some I’m known as “Chef Billy Parisi.” I do a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but for the most part I’m a Food & Content Creator, Sometimes TV Host, Digital and Social Strategist, Influencer, Picture Taker, Coffee Drinker, Daddy, Husband, College Sports Enthusiast, Fashionisto, Film & Music Lover! 

I’ve been in the kitchen since I started washing dishes in a restaurant at the age of 13, and during that time I knew immediately that I wanted to be a chef. I graduated from Arizona’s Scottsdale Culinary Institute and the University of Missouri, and have logged several years as line cook, sous chef and executive in some of the Midwest’s finest restaurants. I currently live in the city of Chicago with my wife Lindsay and daughter Olivia and cook up new inventions, mash-ups, fusions and twists on old classics. I’m incredibly spontaneous and outgoing, and run two small businesses, BPMVC and my latest venture, 5 Loaves 2 Fish!