Its all in the technique

I've found the secret to making fantastic bread at home.  Specifically, those oh so just right baguettes with a crispy outside and a tender, airy inside.

Let me tell you.  Its not about the ingredients.  Because the ingredients are simple: flour, water, yeast and salt.  But you can't just throw it all together and mix it up.  Of course, everybody knows this, right?  You have to knead the dough, let it rise, etc.

But even thats not enough.  After all the research I've done, I found the best technique is the one I developed on my own after doing it over and over.  And its based on the experience of how the dough feels as I work it.

What I find works is that you first of all need to understand that its going to be sticky.  I keep the dough in the bowl and just keep mixing it, with a spoon.  As it comes together I start to knead it, still with the spoon (I tried once with my hands at this point and wound up coating my hands with hard to remove goo), starting to fold it over more than mixing.  It will start looking less sticky and more dough-ball like, and then you can start hand kneading still in the bowl.  It gets less sticky as you knead.

Then something else happens, as you knead the ball.. it gets harder.  Soon the surface will start to look like its tearing instead of being smooth.  So, let it rest for 10 minutes.  Then start again.  I found I could never get a good kneading all in one go like recipes usually say.  So I knead for a few minutes, then let it rest.  Do this 2 or 3 times until you really get a smooth ball.

Then let it rise until doubled.  Knead it a couple times and let it rise again.

Then, split into pieces.  With each piece, flatten it, then roll it up, and pinch the seam together.  Stretch it out long as you do this.  Then flatten again, and roll up again.  By now it should be a long baguette shape.  I like to do the slashes at this time, and then let them rise in the pan until pretty puffy.

To bake, get the oven really hot.  Spray the loaves with warm water.  Spray some in the oven too.  Pop those suckers in and cook, spraying occasionally, until good and brown.

So anyway, whats the point of all this?

Because you can't program all day.  And a good baked bread is F*cking amazing.

And because programming is the same way.  You may think you know all about object oriented programming or the latest framework or fad language or whatever, but without good technique you're still going to produce crap.  And sometimes, good technique can only come with experience and from making mistakes and learning from it.