Baguettes and the French way of doing business

A picture is definitely worth a thousand words in this case. I baked baguettes for the snowy Sunday we just had and was quite successful really. I was in full force using Richard Bertinet's technique for kneading and using a 70% hydration dough.  Making the sloppy dough was the easy part.

1000 gm flour
700 gm water
20 gm salt
2 t yeast

I mixed the dry together and then added water. Using a plastic scraper I pulled and prodded it into a wet sticky mess and then unloaded it onto the granite counter top. For the next 20 minutes, I threw it down, grabbed it, stretched it, trapped air in it and did it all again about 600 times. After the first 10 minutes, the dough stopped sticking to my fingers and after 20 it was a nice tacky but workable smooth dough.  I let it rise till double which meant a few hours in our cool house, then formed the loaves paying rapt attention to Richard's You Tube video. Loaves formed, I waited for doubling again and baked at 450. Good stuff, great flavor, real french baguettes. Amazing. Lot of work.  The funny shaped loaves are my virgin attempt at Pan d'Epi. Maybe the next ones will look better. Tasted great though.