Recipe: French Baguettes

Preparation Time: 100 minutes (actually most of the time is waiting time)
Baking Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

1. 90g Plain Flour
2. 360g Bread Flour
3. 1 1/2 tsp Salt
4. 1 tsp Sugar
5. 3 tsp Instant Yeast
6. 250ml Water
7. 10g Shortening
   

Optional Ingredient:

1. Different flavour (crushed garlic, grated lemon zest, sunflower seeds, chocolate chips, crushed almond, etc).

Steps:

1. Mix plain flour, bread flour, salt, sugar and instant yeast.
   
2. Add in water and knead to form a dough.
3. Add shorrtening and knead to form a smooth and elastic dough. Leave it to rise for 45 minutes.
   
4. Divide the dough into 3 portions and mould each of them into balls. Let them rest for 10 minutes.
5. Flatten the dough and roll them into stick shapes (about 30cm long). Leave them to prove for 30 minutes.
   
6. In a baking tray, place all the 3 rolls of dough onto it.
   
7. Brush them with water and slash the tops with a sharp knife 3 or 4 times.
   
8. Bake in a preheat oven at 220ºc for 25 minutes.

Tips:

1. In the baking tray, place a piece of baking paper and put some flour to avoid stickiness.
2. You can add flovour to the baguettes according to your preferences by mixing the chosen ingredients in step 5.
3. Consume as early as possible to taste the fresh baguettes.