Make Your Cravings Once in Awhile!

Today I had an intense craving for a french style ham and cheese baguette. The problem is...I live in rural Nova Scotia.

I'm big into baking bread, so I found a baguette recipe and made that, still not fully committed to finding suitable ham and cheese.



Around 3pm, I caved and drove the hour to a specialty foods store for some quality ham (unsmoked) and comtè cheese. I blame this on pregnancy, but why not indulge once in awhile!



Recipe

1 baguette
Butter
Dijon mustard
Unsmoked ham (best you can afford)
Comtè cheese (or gruyere/emmental)
Cornichons/gherkins/random pickles

No instructions needed really, but don't skip the butter! Especially if you're picnicking, it will keep the bread from getting soggy.

Here is the baguette recipe. I halved it because I'm dumb, and lowballed my cravings for baguette.
(Can't access the video upload tool.)

French Baguette Tutorial

What are your cravings?

a reply to: Atsbhct


Fabulous looking baguettes.

a reply to: Atsbhct

A venison pastrami I make myself put onto a local baker's Mennonite rye bread, my apple chip smoked swiss cheese, add homemade horse radish mustard then cook on a apple chip smoke grill, served with a glass of my elderberry/huckleberry wine... my 2013 is still excellent.

Makes me want to go home early... LOL

S&F for climax food!!!!

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Thanks!

a reply to: Lumenari

That all sounds f#$&ing delicious! I wish I was your friend. 😂

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: Atsbhct


Fabulous looking baguettes.

its got nooks and crannies!!!!1

originally posted by: TinySickTears

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: Atsbhct


Fabulous looking baguettes.

its got nooks and crannies!!!!1

What the heck happened tonthe nooks and crannies in english muffins!? Every english muffin I buy is just plain old white bread. No nooks. No crannies. Just sadness.

a reply to: Atsbhct


I made bread this weekend, and for the 1st time baked it in a clay Dutch oven to get that "artesian" texture.

Rye, wheat and white flour with pumpkin and sunflower seeds.

For some reason I can't upload the image.

a reply to: Sookiechacha

Love baking in the dutch oven! Makes such a nice crust.

a reply to: Atsbhct


Yes! The crust was amazing!



Yeah! Got the pic to upload.

Almost four hours of raising time total. That makes a tasty bread when you let them rise longer. I actually let some of my bread rise for a long time once and it turned like a baguette in the middle, but the extra aging wasn't that great for making sandwiches, For everyday bread a little over two hours total is just right. I like sourdough rye bread but not sourdough white breads that much. Aging more gives more flavor and a tougher texture.

I suppose it depends on what you are doing with the bread, I had a ham and cheese on baguette one time long ago, just a three inch long piece. It was so full of flavor, but now if I eat a lot of it, it gets overwhelming for me.

Nice video. Learning about the towel and the proper way to score the bread was really helpful

I do not know if I would travel so far to get the ham and cheese, seems like a long way. We have a coop here with lots of different cheeses, I do not know if they have that kind. Never heard of that type of ham, they have lots of different ham types here in the stores, but I never saw that one. We do not have a french store here, we do have an Italian market though. We used to have an Indian (India) store with restaurant but it folded up. Not that many people here like much real India foods that much, after everyone tried it for the first year, their business went down quite a bit.

I suppose you have to chase a craving once in a while. The baquettes from Wallmart kind of suck compared to real ones.

Oh, the ham is unsmoked ham, they have that at the Italian Deli.

a reply to: Atsbhct

My wife is a baker, your baguette looks gorgeous. We collect Cast Iron and French Earthenware vessels for the task...but Im not kicking a nice Kentucky smoked ham off my sammie!

a reply to: BlueJacket

I do love a good smoked ham! We have a wonderful meat shop right up the road who make an amazing ham, but it's not a good match for the cheese!
I'd love to build a big collection of earthenware! So jealous.

a reply to: Atsbhct

earthen ware is very expensive and delicate as Im sure you know, but our Earthen ware salt pig, may be my favorite piece in the house.

That looks mouth watering...well done!

My craving would be Apple Crisp...I make a point of not baking them too often because I always wolf down 3/4 of the pan as soon as its out of the oven..

originally posted by: Atsbhct

originally posted by: TinySickTears

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: Atsbhct


Fabulous looking baguettes.

its got nooks and crannies!!!!1

What the heck happened tonthe nooks and crannies in english muffins!? Every english muffin I buy is just plain old white bread. No nooks. No crannies. Just sadness.

All bread products these days are a major letdown.