My weird way of making baguettes

I'm a first time poster and although I'm nervous of posting this method I use of making baguette I'm intrI'm a first time poster and intrigued to hear other people's views of what I'm doing. It seems so unlike much of what I read but to my taste makes absolutely gorgeous baguette but with viertually no effort. I'm confused by the taste I get for the virtually no effort I put in.  This method of bread making is totally counter intuitive and produces unbelievable bread. It is disarmingly easy and you think it can't work but It does. This is for me a daily ritual as I make it every day. It involves a longer time but very little actual work or activity and once you have done it a couple of times much less mess than tradtional approaches as water is used and no mixer to clean.  I think it's say five minutes effort per day of physical activity!

 1. Night before … do just before you go to bed. Do it every night. This is for two baguettes ish. Double for four ....

 Put your mixing bowl on the scales. Take around 300 gms of flour, I use Waitrose Canadian ie 14.9gms per 100gms …. and I also prefer to use around 250gms of white and I add around 50 gms of rye flour ….. and mix it in a bowl with half a teaspoon of instant yeast and a teaspoon of salt. Just lightly mix it for a second or two with a wooden spoon handle until it is all combined.

 Once the flour is mixed add 240 gms or so of water. This is extremely wet ie 80% hydration. I don't use a mixer but instead simply combine all the water and flour until there is no loose flour left in the bowl with the wrong end of a wooden spoon. This takes 10 seconds. No kneading or further mixing. I put a shower cap over the bowl and leave out in a cool place over night.

 2. When I get up the following morning it is around twice the size with some surface bubbling. I spray the work surface with some water and scoop out the dough with the scraper. The mix looks silky. Wet my hands thoroughly and just fold it gently a couple of times, “ball” it and drop it back into the bowl. I do this again whenever I walk past if for at least a few hours and every hour or two. I'm not precious about this. I don't use a timer. Just whenever I think about it … no sooner than an every hour and any time up to every three hours. So perhaps two or three or four times.

3. An hour or a bit more before I want my fresh baguettes, I dust a board with some flour and scrape out the mix, dust my hands with flour and cut the mix in two with a larger dough scraper. I do not over handle or knock out the air or do any envelope folds. I cut this into two without too much disturbance and on each fold a long edge inwards so you have a sort of fat sausage shape. Press the folded in length into the dough so it's sort of sealed (think of when you played with Plasticine) and then roll the dough from the middle back and forth to stretch it out to a rough baguette shaped bit of dough that is just a little shorter than the tin. Plonk into baguette tins. I cover the bread with a tea towel. Because it has flour on the surface I don't need to treat the tin in any way as the dough will not stick. Turn the oven on to around 230 ish. And let it warm up for up to an hour or so with the rdiged steak griddle in the bottom of the oven.

4. After an hour or so the baguettes have grown in size. I don't bother trying to perfect using a bakers lame because it's too wet but use scissors and pull it up as I'm cutting into the surface so there is a temporary peak giving me a touch more crust. I cut diagonal overlapping cuts deep into the bread ie at about 45 degree cuts. As many as it seems to need. Spray the bread with water and drop some sea salt on it whicxh my wife likes. Put the bread in the oven spray inside the oven and drop half a mug of water onto the griddle and slam the door shut so steam is produced. Take the bread out when it is the right colour and cooked and put it on a rack to cool with a tea towel over it.

This method produces what to me has the flavour of the best baguettes I have had in France and is also sort of “sour-dough light” using a lazy biga/poolish method.  These are a lot of words to explain the easiest method of baguette making I know which also happens to produce the best bread I have ever made.If they are mishapen and rustic looking .. so much the better.

 I'd appreciate reading comments and opinions about what I do.