This Friday I made batch of Baguettes using Richard Bertinet's recipe. I was pretty chuffed I'd shaped them to look like proper baguettes this time. Traditionally my finished loaves tend to come in two varieties: what I like to call the 'poo', or the 'todger'.
I recommend Mr Bertinet's Dough book to anyone who wants to make bread at home. The first book I bought was Handmade Breads by Ciril Hitz; the bread in this book is all really cool, classic French and Italian breads, which is exactly what I want to learn how to make. Old Ciril, however, preoccupied as he is with mixing all his dough in big expensive mixers, the big div, pays only scant attention to how you might want to mix by hand. Given that his book is called Handmade Breads, this is something of a disappointment.
Anyway, give Dough a read, Bertinet's French style dough mixing is a revelation (for brick-baking Britons).
