emile henry

The allure of a homemade baguette is enough to inspire and frustrate me. To no end, sometimes this simple bread drives me to madness while at the same time making me think that I sometimes just may know what I’m doing. To me, the simple breads can be the hardest to master and the baguette is my equivalent of Ahab’s White Whale. Sometimes I believe that a good result is imminent and then something happens to dash my hopes, like bread stuck to the pan or bread that didn’t get enough steam or a loaf that would be otherwise good except for the fact that it burnt. Ugh!!

Don’t get me wrong, most of my baguette experiments (and I’ll call them experiments until I can get them consistently right) taste good. On occasion they taste very good, but the overall appearance is lackluster. To me, a baguette has to be crispy and have a blistery crust with a golden hue, and the crumb of the bread should have enough holes to absorb the generous amount of butter or jam that ends up getting smeared over it but not so much as to lose its contents.

Of all of those things, the crust is probably my biggest problem due to my oven. I’ve talked about the beast before but, if you’re a first time reader here, I’ll rehash. The Beast is what I call my oven. It’s probably the sole reason my wife and I bought our house and it continues to amaze us that we actually get to use it. It’s a 60” commercial grade oven made by a company no longer in existence (or rebranded) called “US Range”. It features 6 burners and 2 ovens in addition to a very cool griddle that we use to hammer out some tasty treats for family and friends on special occasions. It’s not a very beautiful oven but it is pretty awesome. The one exception to its awesomeness may be the industrial build of The Beast. The oven is very drafty and the temperature is not very accurate. In one corner we may have 475˚F while on the other we may have 400˚F. It is also a mystery to me how but the oven chamber is drafty, which makes it very hard to steam breads in the oven.

Emile Henry Baguette Baker to the Rescue

You may recall the a while a go I reviewed the Emile Henry Bread Cloche. For the reasons noted in that post I love that cloche and with it, my breads come out beautiful every time. That’s why I was so excited to receive a demo of their beautiful baguette baking pan. Their beautiful baguette baking pan is “crafted from Emile Henry’s innovative refractory ceramic” which I must say is really quite nice. The baker and the cloche have a very nice feel to them and are actually lighter than they may look, yet they retain their heat very well. “The Emile Henry baguette pan assures delicious results and a beautiful presentation” which I do agree with.

After using the Emile Henry Baguette Baker several times, I have become used to how it behaves and know what I can expect to get from it given my skill set and limitations. I love the way the baguettes get baked thoroughly while at the same time having a nice crust on the outside and delicious flavor on the inside.

Emile Henry

Started in the mid 1800’s, the Emile Henry company has been producing quality earthenware for quite some time. Started in Burgundy, France by Jacques Henry, the Emile Henry brand is now present in over 50 countries. And still to this day, each piece of cookware is made by hand and if you look carefully at the bottom of your piece, you will see a stamp noting the artisan that made it for you!

Emile Henry doesn’t just make bread baking products. They have a whole catalog of housewares for your enjoyment. From plates and cups to oil dispensers and tajines, it seems like they make it all, including the Baguette Bread Baker dish.

The Baguette Baker

The Baguette Baker by Emile Henry is a covered clay tray with a lid that helps you bake good quality baguettes right in your home oven. Its tray has three wells so you can make up to 3 loaves at once. As I mentioned before, the baguette is a simple bread that is hard to get right, and the baguette baker is a great tool help you get it right.

Upon receiving the product, I didn’t even read the directions the first time I used it. And much to my surprise, I messed up and ended up with a misshapen lot!

First batch fail. I made the baguettes too fat and when I covered them with the lid, it pinched the sides of both loaves on the ends.

Disheartened but determined, I read the directions and suggestions, and when I used it I followed the directions to the T. Lo and behold, the breads came out just as advertised.

Second batch. Much better but still not not perfect!

Bread Baker Shortfalls

My biggest issue with the product is that that to successfully make bread in the pans, the breads end up being too small for my liking. They say that “you can bake up to 3 baguettes weighing up to 160g each” and in my opinion, they are quite small. I usually make my baguettes a little over 15 inches long and weighing about 320-360g, so these are less than half the size I’m used to. Another note is that the crust doesn’t really ever get very crispy. Since the breads rise in the pan and go directly in to the oven, you don’t really have the same effect on the crust as you do with the Emile Henry Bread Cloche or a cast iron pot where you’re loading a room temperature bread dough in to screaming container. While they claim that “the Baguette Baker maintains a perfect humidity rate during cooking”, I think that may depend on your oven and your mileage may vary so be prepared to add some extra steam to your oven if you want a crackly crust.

emile henry baguette baker — Emile Henry baguette baker

I have been using the baguette baker for about 3 months now and have made several batches of baguettes. While the bread loaves are quite small they are very satisfying. At a dinner party you can just slice the breads and put them on a nice cheese platter and nobody will now how big or small the breads were. However, the size of the baguette is my main issue with this device. Aside from that, I encourage you to snap one up on Amazon and give it a try! I think you’ll like it and it may just be the thing you need to take your baguettes from good to great!

I’ve been hacking around my kitchen for quite some time trying to figure out how to make my loaves look as good as they do at a bakery. At one point, I broke one of our tea kettles on purpose and tried to inject steam in to the oven via high temperature plastic tube in to the oven during the baking process. You can imagine how that went. I also tried using an electric steamer to inject vapor in the oven and the bread. I’ve tried lava rocks in pans, covered bricks, pizza stones, baking steels, baking on the grill, dumping water in the oven throughout baking, and several other hair brained attempts all with very little success. Then one day I tried a bread cloche and was blown away. “Why didn’t I try this before?!” I thought to myself. That was the golden ticket. An “oven inside an oven” where the bread’s own moisture would be used to create the perfect environment for a golden, crispy, crunch, bubbly loaf.

After baking with a cloche almost exclusively for a couple of years, I found the Emile Henry cloche while browsing through Amazon. I decided to reach out to them and they sent me a demo unit that I used for this post.

I’ve used other cloches in the past but this one is a little lighter and much more attractive than my old clay setup. The Emile Henry cloche is made in France and seems to be very well made. It’s “fire engine red” coating is nice to look at and the whole thing is much lighter than I expected. When I first received the box I thought they hadn’t sent me the right thing since it was so light, but it punches way above its weight in the oven.

This would be the perfect gift for bakers!

I used my trusty 30% whole wheat sourdough loaf to put this cloche through its paces and made two loaves.

The recipe is as follows. You need 200g of starter so prepare it the night before. If you don’t want to use a starter but would rather use commercial yeast, add 100mL to the water you add and 100g to the AP flour weight.

[table id=15 /]

The night before you bake, feed your starter so it’s mature and ready to go on bake day.
Mix your flours and gently stir to combine them, and add the starter to it.
Start incorporating your water and save about 150mL for now.
Mix the flour and water until you have a dry mass, and add just enough water so that everything comes together. Cover for about 15 minutes and let things relax a bit then add the remainder of your water.
Knead until things start to come together and then cover again for about half hour to 45 minutes.
Knead again for just a minute and cover again for half hour.
Knead again for just a bit and cover again, this time let it remain undisturbed for about 3 hours.
When it has visibly grown in size and bubbles start to form, dump it out to a lightly floured surface and divide in two.
Gently pre-shape the dough and let it relax for 10 minutes.
Shape your dough to its final shape and place in covered proofing baskets for another 1-2 hours.
In the meantime, place your cloche in the oven and pre-heat to 475˚F for 30-45 minutes.
Gently turn one loaf on to a parchment paper lined peel and score the loaf.
Carefully load it in to the cloche and cover for 15-20 minutes and bake the remaining 10-15 minutes without a lid.
Again, carefully remove your loaf from the oven and load up loaf number 2. Repeat the baking process.
Let the loaves cool before cracking in and devouring!

Thanks to the Emile Henry Cloche, this loaf came out crusty and hitting all the right notes. The cloche took approximately half an hour to heat up before I slid the bread in to it.

I’ve made several breads on this cloche and have not yet been disappointed. It traps the steam in the cooking chamber and helps your bread stay moist during the first half of the bake, which aids in oven spring and crust development.

While they sent me this demo unit to review, I’ll be keeping in my regular lineup from here on out!

Review: Emile Henry Baguette Baker

Emile Henry Baguette Baker to the Rescue

Emile Henry

The Baguette Baker

Bread Baker Shortfalls

Bread Cloche: Why you should get one NOW.