The Easiest Baguette-ish Bread: Legate Loaf
1,391,400
Published 2019-09-19
**RECIPE**
1/2 cup water
Pinch of yeast (no more than 1/8 teaspoon)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup bread flour (you can use all-purpose, but you'll probably need a little more, since it absorbs less water)
*Note: Recipe requires a food-grade spray bottle filled with water.
Mix ingredients in a small glass container (at lease twice the volume of your dough, circa 1 quart) until they just come together. The dough should be just barely wet enough to have no visible dry patches. Add more water or flour if necessary. Cover and either rise on the counter for a few hours until about doubled in size and then refrigerate (at least overnight), or put it straight into the refrigerator for a week.
Prepare a parchment-lined baking sheet. Wet your hands and stretch the cold dough into a snake the length of the pan diagonally. Lay the dough on the parchment diagonally and let it stick. Spray the top with water to keep it from drying out, and let rise for about an hour until puffy. Bake at 500 F, spraying frequently (at least for the first 10 minutes, until fully puffed up), until dark amber and done, 20-25 minutes.
All Comments (21)
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Q: Why didn’t you score the bread? A: That dough is too wet. If you scored it, it would immediately smoosh back together again. No point. Q: Why did you spray it instead of putting a pan of boiling water in the oven to create steam? A: Not only does the pan of boiling water method create a mess that then needs to cool down before you can clean it up, it also doesn’t work very well. That’s why most of the recipes that call for it tell you to use it in combination with a spray bottle, or do to something crazy like fill the pan with river rocks to create more surface area for the water. I think the bottle is way easier and works better. But you do you. Q: What do you mean salt doesn’t kill yeast? A: I’m sure it will, but only in sufficient concentration and if given enough time. I have made many bread doughs. I have tried putting the salt right into the water with the yeast, and I have tried adding it to the flour instead, as the chef dogma would have you do. There is no difference in the rise. Salt does, however, interfere with the chemistry involved in the no-knead process. You can get a better texture if you let it rise without salt, and then fold the salt into the dough before you proof it. I tried that. I don’t think it makes a big enough difference to be worth it. Q: Why didn’t you shape the dough with some fancy folds and pleats? A: I’m lazy, and this dough is extremely wet. I’m not sure if I could shape it if I wanted to. But the wet dough makes for a very open structure and makes kneading and punching it down totally unnecessary. Q: Why do you have so much milk in your fridge? A: I have very small kids. And the open pint was leftover from a weekend car trip. Q: Why do you have X in your fridge? A: Keep in mind that I am not the only person, or the only adult, who uses that fridge. Q: Why didn’t you put sugar or oil in the dough, like you do with your pizza dough? A: The sugar and oil in my pizza dough is chiefly there to enhance browning. It’s hard to get pizza crust sufficiently brown in a home oven, and those additions help. This dough, in contrast, is plenty brown by the time the inside is cooked. Q: Are you bothered by the memes? A: No, but I do think jokes about alcoholism are kinda dick. Anyone who has lived with it themselves or via someone they love knows it’s not funny. Or, rather, the joke had better be REALLY funny to earn it.
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Adam's next sponsor: The Empire
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For whatever reason when he sprays the bread it’s really funny.
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I love your "alternative universe" bits. People think what IS is right
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Once I put some dough in the fridge and forgot about it. Eight days later, it made the best bread I’ve I’ve made.
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That was some aggressive watering, if I ever saw one. I wonder how Adam waters his plants.
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You know, white wine is a terrible thing to cook with, you should never do it. Long live the empire
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i bet alternate universe adam seasons his steak DIRECTLY
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“Me with a goatee” and “long live the empire” might be the new meme on your channel next to “why I season my-“ and white wine.
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"water can be a perfectly good lubricant" idk Adam last time I tried that my doc said the tearing probably won't heal completely
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I really like the mirror universe. keep it up always makes my day.
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Bread: gets dry Adam: Hey- HEY!!!
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Adams next video: Why i spray my oven and not the baguette.
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No more cheesy transitions 😂 Adam has a food related sponsor now
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"If you have an Awesome French bakery down the Street, then dont bother." I have the entire country of france nearby
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I love alternate universe Adam. Seeing someone with such a large audience calling out the tradition of cooking for what it is (literally just unwritten rules that have no bearing on what is actually culinarily superior) makes me really happy.
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We need a video of Adam spraying water on plants or just anything.
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Hey Adam! As an ardent home baker, I have a tip for more effectively utilizing steam, i think it would be right up your alley! I have a deep (4 or 5 inch) disposable roasting pan that i got for like 78 cents at Walmart. I get my oven super hot, mist the inside of the roasting tray thoroughly, then INVERT it over my dough when it goes in, thus creating a much smaller oven around the dough--an oven now full of near-instantly vaporizing steam. It really concentrates the steam over the loaf and works great. And that's why i mist my pan--NOT my loaf.
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Since I first watched this, I’ve been making this loaf a couple of times a week. It is my husband’s favorite bread that I make. Thanks for taking the fussiness out of this, Adam. Long live the empire!
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Amazing! This really works! Couple things with this recipe, though: • You’ll end up needing more than 1/2 a cup of water. That’s so you can add a touch more while you incorporate. • Just use your hands to mix if the spoon technique starts to get difficult. Handle gently. • Wait a week before baking. It’s worth it. • Don’t wait more than 30 seconds before spraying your dough once it’s in the oven. The top hardens almost instantly. Spray every 30 seconds the first 3 times, then every minute for the next 5 times, then every 3-4 minutes after that. • If you don’t have a fancy convection oven, pull the pan out and rotate it 180° half way through your bake. You’ll get a more even browning that way.
