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Actually, to make a loaf of French bread can be anything but “simple.” I was stirred to this effort by admiration for Baking Team USA. In Paris, at the Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie — the World Cup of Baking — Team USA has won the bread or the overall title several times. I thought that it was amazing that America was baking better bread than the French and Italians!

Chef Didier Rosada coached our team for the 2002 and 2005 overall wins. Didier and the great French bread master, Professor Raymond Calvel, place great emphasis on taste. How do you make one loaf of basic French bread taste better than another?

In his book, “The Taste of Bread,” Calvel points out that selecting a flour with good carotenoid content, and handling the dough so that you save these flavorful compounds, is vital to the taste of bread. The wheat that Calvel recommends is hard, red winter wheat with a protein content of about 12 percent, not the higher protein 13 to 14 percent hard spring wheat.

When you add water to flour and stir, two proteins (glutenin and gliadin) grab water and each other to form elastic sheets of gluten. Yeast takes in sugar from starch in the flour and oxygen from bubbles in the dough and, then, oozes out a liquid. When this liquid touches a bubble in the dough, poof, it releases carbon dioxide gas and alcohol to blow up the bubble-gum-like sheets of gluten. And, the bread rises.

I always felt that the more protein, and the more gluten, the lighter the bread. Then I had a class from Didier. He got us to make loaves with the very high protein hard spring wheat and the lower protein hard winter wheat side by side.

To my amazement, the final loaves of the slightly lower protein flour had as good or better volume than the higher protein.

And, the taste was wonderful!

I still have a lot to learn about gluten. Elastic sheets of gluten have two main characteristics: extensibility — how they stretch; and elasticity — how they spring back. The more extensible the gluten is, the more it can stretch so the more the loaf can rise. It may be that a wheat that forms more extensible gluten can make a loaf with as good or better rise than a higher protein wheat that makes more elastic gluten.

In most supermarkets, Gold Medal now has Harvest King, a 100 percent hard, red winter wheat (about 12 percent protein) unbleached flour. (This is Calvel’s recommended flour.) It also has a trace of malt for good yeast activity. So, we have an outstanding bread flour available.

Now, how can we preserve these precious, flavorful carotenoid compounds that it contains?

Unbleached hard, red winter wheat produces doughs with a creamy color. Didier got us to stand around a large mixer and watch the dough as it kneaded. The dough got whiter and whiter. As you knead, more and more oxygen combines with the dough. These flavorful caretinoid compounds oxidize and lose their color and the dough loses its flavor.

Can we get a good loaf with minimum kneading? Years ago, I talked to Carl Hosney, one of the country’s top starch and flour experts, about kneading. He had startled me by saying that you really don’t need to knead bread because, when bread rises, it kneads itself on a molecule-by-molecule basis.

What does kneading do? As you work the dough, more proteins come in contact with other proteins and form more and more networks. In this way, kneading forms large elastic sheets of gluten.

Hosney pointed out that rising does this. When the liquid from the yeast touches a bubble in the dough, it releases carbon dioxide and alcohol — poof. It really is like someone blowing up bubble gum with tiny puffs. The dough moves. Proteins touch other proteins and cross-link. With every tiny rise of the dough, molecule-by-molecule, the dough “kneads” itself.

Much Depends

on Temperature

Calvel stresses that dough temperature has an important effect on oxidation during mixing and the flavor loss that accompanies it. Bakery mixing temperatures vary between 75-77 degrees Fahrenheit. Deterioration of flavor is much more pronounced at dough mixing temperatures between 78 and 80 degrees. And, bread flavor is greatly enhanced by lower mixing temperatures in the range of 71-73 degrees. So, we have our ideal mixing (kneading) temperature, between 71-73 degrees.

Ideal dough temperature depends on the situation. A sourdough starter, where you are trying to beg wild yeast to grow, should be about 80 degrees, a temperature where yeast has maximum activity. A good temperature for a flavorful baker’s yeast pre-ferment, such as a sponge, a biga, or a poolish, is about 70 degrees. At this temperature, both yeast and bacteria can have some activity, producing a very flavorful starter. For a good rise, both in bulk dough and shaped dough, you want a warmer temperature: 76 degrees.

In the recipes below, I have incorporated much that I have learned about flour, kneading and temperature. I follow the basic formula of Calvel and then take you through the process step-by-step to make two beautiful baguettes.

In a home kitchen and with our minimum kneading, I think that if you just take an assessment of temperatures (room temperature, flour temperature, water temperature) you can make some educated guesses. You can always add a few ice cubes to several cups of water, get it to your desired temperature and then remove the ice.

For the purist, here is the professional formula for calculating the water temperature from Wayne Gisslen’s “Professional Baking”:

Desired dough temperature times 3, minus the sum of the flour temperature, the room temperature, and machine friction will give you the temperature you need for the water. This formula uses 20 degrees as the machine friction value. (An appendix in the book gives more details.)

Poolish and Baguettes

A poolish is a baker’s yeast pre-ferment for wonderful flavored breads. Poolishes contain a small amount of yeast with equal weights of liquid and flour — no salt.

Before you begin, take some temperatures with an instant-read thermometer: your flour, faucet water and the kitchen counter or table. Ideally, you want to find a place that is 70 degrees for the poolish mixture to rise. You want your mixing temperature about 72 degrees, and you need a warmer spot (76 degrees) for the dough to rise.

POOLISH

1/8 teaspoon instant yeast (Rapid Rise, Quick Rise)

1/2 cup plus 1 teaspoon water (about 68 degrees)

1 cup minus 2 tablespoons (4.19 oz, 119 gm) Harvest King flour, spooned and leveled

1. In a medium bowl, stir yeast into water, then stir in the flour in two batches. Stir or beat with a hand mixer about 1 minute until smooth.

Scrape into a clean, wide-mouth quart jar. The temperature of the mixture should be about 70 degrees. Cover and allow to stand for six to 12 hours to ripen. Fine bubbles should cover the surface of a ripe poolish. You can even see bubbles break on the surface. If the poolish is past its prime — has risen and collapsed — there will be a foam line on the glass above the current poolish level.

2. This ripening time is totally dependent on the amount of yeast and the temperature. It might take a time or two playing with amounts of yeast and temperature to get the time where you would like it for your schedule. My poolish was ripe in a little over 6 hours and ready to use to make my baguettes.

BAGUETTE DOUGH

Poolish

1 cup (plus 2 to 4 tablespoons as needed) water (about 68 degrees)

1/4 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon instant yeast (Rapid Rise, Quick Rise)

1 3/4 teaspoons salt (sea salt, if possible)

1/16 teaspoon (10 to 50 mg) ascorbic acid (vitamin C) (see note)

3 cups (13.5 oz, 382.7 gm) spooned and leveled, Harvest King flour

Oil for bowl and counter

Nonstick cooking spray

1. Pour the poolish into the mixer bowl. (Ideal mixing temperature about 72 degrees.) Add one cup water, yeast, salt and ascorbic acid. In a stand mixer with the paddle blade, mix a few seconds on lowest speed, and then add two cups of the flour and mix a few seconds. Add the rest of the flour. Mix on low about 1 minute, then mix on the second speed about 2 minutes. Dough should be soft, on the edge of sticky. Mix in a tablespoon or so more water if needed.

2. Oil hands and very lightly oil a large bowl. (Ideal temperature for a place to rise is about 76 degrees.) Place the dough in the oiled bowl, cover, and allow to rise. This will be about 2 hours in all, but after 1 hour “fold” the dough and then let it rise the other hour. The directions below are essentially those of Jeffrey Hamelman, the author of “Bread,” for “folding” instead of “punching down.” Folding develops a little more gluten and leaves the dough more aerated.

3. Using an oiled paper towel, very lightly oil an area on a clean counter top. Dump out the dough onto this oiled area so that the smooth top of the dough is now on the bottom. Allow it to spread out as much as it will. Pick up the dough on the left side, lift up about one-third of the dough, and gently fold it across to the right, trapping some air as you make the fold. Allow it to spread for a few seconds, then lift up about 1/3 of the right side of the dough and bring it across to the left. Again allow the dough a few seconds to spread. Now, pick up the bottom edge of the dough and bring about 1/3 of it up and across to the top. After it settles, pick up the top edge, lift about 1/3 of it up, and bring it across toward you.

4. Place the dough back in the bowl, turning it over so that the smooth top that was against the counter is back on top. Cover and allow to rise for another hour.

5. After the last hour of bulk rising, lift the dough out and place on the lightly oiled counter, smooth top up. Divide the dough in half.

For each half, with both hands in a cupping motion, tuck the sides slightly under to create a smooth top. By tucking the dough into a tight, smooth round you create a covering to better hold gases. With both hands, grab the sides of the each round and stretch it sideways into an oval. Let it spring back slightly, then pull it out again. Cover each oval with plastic wrap and leave on the counter for about 20 minutes. The relaxed dough is now much easier to shape.

6. To shape baguettes, cup an oval piece of dough with both hands, fingers spread out behind the loaf on either end and thumbs in front of the loaf. Press your thumbs into the dough and down against the table.

This pulls or tucks part of the bottom half of the dough in. At the same time, pull the top of the dough tight and forward with your fingers. Now, move your thumbs down slightly and press down and in again, pulling the top forward with your fingers to knead and tuck again. Repeat this motion two to three times until the loaf is stretched taut and well tucked in. The loaf will lengthen as you stretch and tuck and may be long enough if you have pulled your hands outward in the process. If not, lengthen the loaf by placing both hands, spread out, palms down on top of the center of the loaf. Then, simultaneously push away against the table with your right hand and pull towards you with your left, pulling the dough out in opposite directions.

Repeat this pulling once or twice more, if necessary. Now, pinch the bottom seam together.

7. Spray a double-trough French baguette pan with nonstick cooking spray. Place loaves, seam side down, in the pan, cover with a floured smooth surface towel or plastic wrap, and allow to rise. (Ideal temperature for rising is about 76 degrees.) This rise will be about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

8. About 45 minutes after you have shaped the dough for its final rise, arrange a shelf in the lower third of the oven, place a baking stone on it, and preheat the oven to 460 degrees.

9. Steam Bath: Place a few clean, small rocks (about 1 to 2 inches each) in a metal pan with 1- to 2-inch (25- to 50-cm) sides and place the pan on the floor of the oven near the door. You are going to pour about 2 cups of boiling water over the rocks just before you put the bread in the oven. You want a good steam-filled oven for the bread to go in. This steam will condense on the dough to keep it moist and allow a good “oven rise.” For the boiling water, place about 2 1/2 cups of water in a saucepan with a long handle on a back burner and bring to a low simmer. When the bread is risen, turn the heat up on the water and bring to a boil. VERY CAREFULLY — MAKING SURE THAT YOUR HANDS ARE OUT OF THE WAY OF THE STEAM THAT WILL BURST UP — pour the boiling water into the pan of hot rocks. Close the oven door to allow it to fill with steam.

10. It is imperative to slash loaves so that they can rise rapidly in the hot oven. To slash loaves, you need a single-edge razor or an X-ACTO knife. (Bakers use a tool called a lame that looks like a curved razor blade at the end of small stick. These are available from King Arthur.) Slashes should be at about a 30-degree angle to the horizon so you are slashing a thin layer of dough, not straight down. Baked baguettes look like the slashes are across the bread, but this is after the slash has spread.

The original slashes are very slightly angled down the center. Start at the top of the baguette. Imagine a line right down the center. You want to start the slash about 1/4 to 1/2 inch to the right of this imagined line and end up about 1/4 to 1/2 inch to the left of this imaginary line. At a 30-degree angle, make a slash about 5 inches long. Each slash should overlap the previous slash by about 1/4 its length. So, start a little over an inch above the bottom of the first slash, just to the right of your imagined center line, make another 5-inch slash that ends up just to the left of center. Continue in this way to slash all the way down the center of the loaf.

11. Place the pan with the loaves in the oven on the hot stone. Bake until well browned, about 25 minutes. Place the loaves on a rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature. Makes 2 baguettes.

Note: You can buy Vitamin C powder at Whole Foods, or you can cut a 500-mg Vitamin C tablet into fourths, crush one fourth and use a pinch of this.

Food scientist Shirley O. Corriher is author of “CookWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Cooking,” William Morrow, 1997.