Kathy in NZ wrote:
>> Yesterday I made two French Baguettes from a recipe in a Le Cordon
>> Bleu cookbook I have.
>>
>> I have no idea how authentic it is, though my son has been making the
>> same recipe for several weeks and reckons it's pretty much how they
>> tasted in the month he spent in France. However, he tells me my
>> baguettes are too fat.
>>
>> They were about 12 inches long, but it was hard to stretch the very
>> elastic dough to shape them. When I read the recipe I thought it
>> wouldn't work. It is just flour, yeast, water and salt, a very dry
>> mixture. But it worked and it tasted great. I compared it with
>> recipes on the Internet and that's all French baguettes seem to be
>> -- no fat of any kind.
>>
>> Here's a pic of my finished bread. We had it with mussels, moules
>> mariniere.
>>
>> http://i1.tinypic.com/mhaols.jpg

When shaping, let them sit for a couple of minutes to relax the glutena and
stretch some more. You will have a better result with getting the length
you want.

Debbie