I was looking at Ciril Hirtz' excellent video on shaping baguettes and stumbled across this "Expert Village" video showing the "cut and pull" technique for shaping a baguette. It is so bad it's funny. There are several other videos by this same fellow taking one through the entire process. In one he explains that steam is used "because the moisture from the water kind of vaporizes and soaks up inside the bread giving it that nice pillowy softness inside."
The "cut and pull" technique for making an "authentic French baguette bread"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ow5b4WIGO
And here's a link to the final product -- about the saddest looking baguettes I've ever seen:
EV seems to have several of these types of video's, be what it may...unfortunately!
...from ths video in the same series:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCmf_bya5gA&feature=related
"we don't want the air in there because we'll get these big, huge holes inside the bread when we cook it". ROFLMAO
Oh yeah...said while the guy was mashing the dough into a leaden lump.
I also got a chuckle from when he's banging the finished baguette on the counter and saying "the outside's very very hard...that's the sign of a true french baguette." Mon dieu!
LOL,
I used his Tomato Basil recipe a month ago, and it was awesome! I used the fresh tomatoes, basil, onions, garlic and shallots from my garden, and loved the soup.
Those are some seriously malformed baguettes. At least what I could see above the captions.
Hilarious stuff! LOL. Made my Sunday complete!
Even when the only experience I had with baking bread was half-watching my grandfather from the next room as he made potato sandwich bread, I knew more than this guy. That was such a facepalm video it almost hurt to watch it.
Daisy_A, I'd say that Ciril's accent is from New England, and this seems supported to some extent by the info "About Ciril Hitz", which I just read at http://breadhitz.com - mid-page down.
Ron
Chef Hitz hails from Switzerland. You can read more about him [url=http://forums.worldpastryforum.com/forum/topics/ciril-hitz-usa][u]here[/u][/url].
Yep, though I always thought he sounded like the Christopher Walken of Switzerland.
Oppps, I'm Wrong again LOL
I listened to Ciril Hitz some more and then read up on him and the born-in-Switzerland-learned-English-in-Southern-New-England makes sense. He sounded like home to me except there was a little something that showed up occasionally sounding like a speech impediment or European accent of some sort. Although he was educated in Rhode Island and lives in Massachusetts, he doesn't have one of the extreme accents of the Boston or Providence areas. It's more a central Connecticut/Western Massachusetts/Southern New England kind of accent. It's the accent my husband says I get when I've been on the phone with my sister. I've now lived in so many different regions my accent is just confused.
Gee, and he had a chef's jacket on and everything. I thought he seemed very professional....for someone who didn't have a clue. Funny, but annoying at the same time to watch. I wonder how much of it he actually ate before he had to chuck it in the garbage.
Franko
it to death. Crumbs are always useful.