Baguettes and Italian Bread 101

So here it goes. I'm delving into what may be a very time consuming and expensive (not to mention fattening) project. But baking makes me happy so I'm willing to try. I actually started this process last night for the breads I made today. I decided to make french baguettes to go with the French onion soup I'm making, and since the baguette recipe on the KAF website requires a starter, I began last night, with my first of what I'm sure will be many mistakes. I accidentally made the starter (twice) with all purpose flour instead of the bread flour it required. I thought I could walk away from the laptop and remember that. Oh well. I decided to use the mistake starter to make the Italian 101 bread, actually I made two loaves with the two false starters.

The starters were nice and bubbly this morning (sorry no pics) and I made the doughs in my new Kitchenaid mixer. (I got a great deal on one, otherwise I like making my breads by hand.)

The baguette dough made three loaves. Unfortunately, I didn't have a really sharp knife to slash the loaves, so they looked a little hacked before they went in the oven.

The Italian breads looked much better. It made two braided loaves.

Into the oven for a second rise.

The Italian loaves were ready to go after only 45 minutes, so I egg washed them, and sprinkled sesame seeds and a little kosher salt on them. Then I had a slight panic attack. I've made other Italian breads before, and they usually include a little olive oil in the recipe. I did not put any oil in these doughs. Uh-oh. I went to the recipe and realized KAF does not include oil in their recipe. Phew. Into the oven they went.

Here they are! And they tasted as good as they look! Crunchy on the outside, and chewy on the inside. And I know the recipe called for a heavy sprinkling of the seeds, but I'm not a huge sesame seed fan, so I opted for a light sprinkling.

Now for the baguettes. They did not go as smoothly as the Italian bread. It started well until the smoke alarm went off. Apparently parchment paper burns when it touches the side of the oven? Yeah, I knew that. Luckily the loaves are supposed to be brown. They are sprayed with water before they go into the oven to make them dark. They're a little mis-shapen, but came out alright. They're just going into the soup dishes anyway, so they don't have to be pretty!

Here is the "crumb shot" Not as airy as it should be, but not bad.

And here it is in the soup. Anything looks good with melted cheese...