5. Knead until the dough is homogenous, supple and smooth.
* Shoots, shaping and cooking:
6. Form a nice big ball with the dough and place it in a large salad bowl. Cover everything with a clean damp cloth and leave to rise for 1 hour. At my place, it’s quite cool. If this is also the case at home, I advise you to store your salad bowl near a radiator or next to a hot water bottle and to let the dough rise for 1 hour or even 1 hour 30 minutes.
7. Flour the work surface to place the dough on it which will have risen well. Divide it into 5 equal parts (around 200 g each). Roll each part into a ball again and cover the whole thing with your damp cloth. Leave to rise again for 15 minutes. At home, again because it’s cool, I heated my oven to 50° for 10 minutes then I turned it off and I put my 5 pieces of dough in the oven on a baking sheet.
8. After 15 minutes, shape the dough pieces:
– Flatten each piece of dough with the palm of your hand to make a thick pancake.
– Take the top of the dough and fold it a third down. Squeeze the joint with your fingertips.
– Turn the dough 180° and, again, take the top of the dough and fold it a third down. Squeeze the joint with your fingertips.
– You now have a long piece of dough in front of you. Fold it in half lengthwise and seal the edges with your fingertips.
– Roll the dough like a sausage of modeling clay to make a stick about 15 cm long.
– Repeat these operations for each piece of dough.
9. Place the baguettes thus formed on 2 plates. I used 2 perforated baking sheets, each covered with parchment paper. If you don’t have one, you can use the drip tray in your oven.
ICONE arrow to the right green 30In his Larouse, Éric Kayser recommends growing and cooking the 5 patons on the same baking sheet. From experience, I recommend that you use 2 because the dough pieces will swell and will have a very high chance of touching each other during cooking.
10. Using a brush, brush each piece of dough with the beaten omelette egg.
11. Store the plates in the refrigerator for 10 minutes then brush each paton again.
12. With a razor blade, a cutter or a very very sharp knife, superficially scratch the surface of the baguettes.
13. Leave to rise again for 1h30. Once again, at home, still because it’s cool, I heated my oven to 50° for 10 minutes then I turned it off and put my 2 baking trays in the oven for 1h30.
14. After 1h30, place an empty baking tray at the bottom of the oven and start preheating to 160°C in convection mode. If like me, you grew your dough in the oven, take the trays out of the oven to preheat it!
15. When the oven is hot, just before putting it in the oven, pour 5 cl of water onto the bottom tray. Immediately place 1 tray of dough pieces in the oven and cook for 15 to 20 minutes (until the dough pieces are golden brown). Repeat the same operation for the second plate.
16. Once out of the oven, let the Viennese baguettes cool completely on a rack before eating them.
