Why are baguettes in the US so bad?

Question

The baguettes in France are light, airy and have a thin crust. I could eat a whole baguette easily. The baguettes in the US are terrible by comparison. Some are just white bread shaped into a tube. All are extremely dense and heavy and chewy. Most have a thick crust that cuts into the roof of my mouth. I have tried nearly every bakery in NYC often recommended as having acceptable baguettes. None come close, IMO. 

Are there any bakers on this board that can explain why American bakers can't make a decent baguette? From my limited knowledge, the biggest difference appears to be that the flour used in France is not available in the US. I didn't think this mattered until I made a brioche with French flour. The result was magnificent. But surely there's some way to import it? King Arthur claims to make a comparable flour for baking breads. What else explains this bad bread? 

Thanks.

Answer

Regular supermarket baguettes are very bad.

As you are in NYC, I suggest you try the Whole Foods (in chelsea). I really like their bread. Like it significantly better than Amy's Bread (too thick crust). Whole Foods tastes close enough to what I had in Paris.

Answer

You are making some very broad statements here. The wife and I enjoy locally baked baguettes (Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia) and have visited France many times. Divorce yourself from the romance of France for a moment and your locally baked baguette (from a reputable source) will be surprisingly good I assure you.

Answer

American flour is softer than European flour - that probably makes a huge difference. I think in general American breads are not as good as those found in Europe ( I am not saying all but in general) and don't get me started on American sliced bread which is too sweet and sticky for me and other expat Brits.

Answer

Obviously the flour is a factor. So's the water. So's the oven. Steam control plays a big role in the classic French bread-baking process, I'm told. Not so much in the US.

More fundamentally, traditional French baguettes are intended to be eaten no more than a couple of hours after they come out of the oven. If you buy one in the morning, it's stale by dinnertime. An American bakery that operated on that basis would go out of business. The whole process, even at an artisanal level, assumes a shelf life of more than 2 hours. The dense texture and thick crust you complain about are features, not bugs, from this perspective.

Answer

I lived in Puerto Rico and we had some of the most amazing baguettes there. I also lived in the south of France for a couple of years where my Aunt would leave early every single morning to get the bread for the family. Amazing bread.

Making a proper baguette takes days and a lot of work. In France the fresh bread sells out in a few hours. Here it goes stale because it's just not part of the daily culture so it's just not worth the trouble. However, I am sure someone somewhere is making them.

My Mother is off the boat from France and our search for a good baguette continues after 25 years here.

Answer

I've had some very good baguettes at Vietnamese sandwich shops--probably learned that when France occupied Vietnam.

Answer

It's true that baguettes here, even those from otherwise excellent bakers, are just not the same. They tend to be mass-produced bready or artisanal hard.

Croissants, on the other hand, are sometimes great in North America. The best I've had anywhere are at Chez Temporel in Quebec City.

Answer

For all the generalizations about US baguettes, I can only add that it is impossible to find a baguette as good as the ones in France ANYWHERE outside of France.

I found a "French bakery" in Berlin, got really excited.... and disappointed. Whether it's the flour, water, air, technique - nothing quite tastes like those crispy & fluffy French flutes.

Answer

For those with access to Central Market (TX only), you might try them I've never had one of their full baguettes, but the mini-baguettes are superb after placing in a 350 (f) oven for about 5 minutes to crisp the exterior. Excellent soft, airy inside with tender but crispy-thin exterior.

Answer

The best baguette I've found is from Ace Bakery, hands down! They're Canadian, but Food Emporium carries a wide range of their baked goods. I was shocked when I first tried their baguette—great texture and flavor.

For a point of reference, I find Whole Food's baguettes mediocre, at best. We still buy them from time to time, but blah.

Answer

Btw, even in France, it's not like you walk into any bakery and find that perfect french baguette. Most are far better than most US versions but there are ones that really stand out..like the one i had in this little inn or at the restaurant in Nice.
I was amazed at the quality of bread sold at some large supermarkets in France.

Answer

Btw, even in France, it's not like you walk into any bakery and find that perfect french baguette. Most are far better than most US versions but there are ones that really stand out..like the one i had in this little inn or at the restaurant in Nice.
I was amazed at the quality of bread sold at some large supermarkets in France. They are just bad.

Answer

Maybe if you have a Vietnamese bakery/place that sells bahn mi near you, you'll find a better baguette there?

I'm fairly easy to please when it comes to baguettes. Just needs to be crispy on the outside and light and airy on the inside. NOT the loaf I got from Whole Foods last time (though to be fair, I probably shouldn't have chosen the country whole wheat and just stuck to the white flour).

The only thing I really remember about the supposed superiority of baguettes in France were that 1.) you could buy a great one even in the biggest, mass market supermarket and 2.) they were all the super thin/narrow kind, not the really thick ones you mostly find in the States. I think they're so thick because most people would use them for a sandwich of some kind, and well...a lot of Americans don't want a small, thin sandwich. Heh heh.

Answer

In France Boulangeries are closing down left right and centre.
Each summer I cycle through small villages and towns to see these shops with the shutters up.

When visiting E.Lecerc or any other big supermarket you cannot move for French shoppers filling their chariots with baguettes, and i am talking about a dozen each time.
The quality of this bread is mediocre , but if one cares to stop off at a traditional shop you will always be delighted.

I go for a sign outside the shop 'Bannette' which guarantees tradition.

http://www.banette.fr/

Answer

The short answer is that bread in the US is terrible in general because people just don't know any better and don't demand better (or boycott the awful stuff on offer in most stores.)

When I was a kid, we lived in Ghana, a former British colony. Bread there was just awful. We lived near the eastern border and if you drove just a few miles to Togo, formerly a French colony, you could get good bread. Both products were presumably made from the same flour, it was the culture and the expectations that were different.

Answer

Why are steaks in Europe so bad?

Answer

Totally baffling. I've been to Tahiti - it's humid; it's poor - the baguettes are GREAT. There's simply no excuse - you can import flour and the best ovens in the world are available. There was a bakery on National and Motor that used to make real baguettes (and real croissants). They are closed and have at least been replaced by something cool - Simpang Asia's cafe. I believed that they suppled Angelique downtown back when it was a real restaurant.

Answer

Hey, ZenSojourner -- pop over here -- there's a couple of likely suspects under the bread category:

http://www.ricanrecipes.com/recipes/detail.php?category_id=6&id=17

and one of them has shortening in the recipe. (hmmmm.)

Answer

For what it's worth, someone on a highly-regarded cooking bulletin board recommends par-baked baguettes at Costco from Kirkland.

Answer

I have used Bob's Red Mill unbleached white pastry flour with more success than hard flours. Gold Medal all-purpose unbleached white works as a good second choice. If you're using American bread flour for European style breads, try the ones with less protein. King Arthur flours are very hard (I've found) and (for me) their bread flours are really just suited for bagles or pretzles.

Answer

I lived in Mexico City in the late 80's and bought some of the best baguettes I had since working in Paris ten years earlier.

Answer

"Why are baguettes in the US so bad? "

Because everything tastes better under the Tour d Eiffel?
Actually that's a myth to us anyway. We didn't enjoy a meal in Paris except for one Italian restaurant we found there. Why all the hoopla about French food we wondered?

The baguettes in France are truly delicious though, I do agree.
Mine are flat in taste, can't get the tang taste that are present there and the holes, those holes and chewiness, missing too.

Answer

Don't know where you're located, but if in Westchester, NY, try going to the market near Tuckahoe train station on Sundays. I know the baker's daughter and I have eaten his baguettes many a time.....absolutely out of the this world.

Answer

I honestly have no idea. It's not like the everyday grocery stores couldn't get good flour, or good starter/yeast, or that our grocery stores can't get a decent oven.

Of course it's not that hard to find decent bread - it just seems like all decent bread is labeled "artisan" something or other. It's almost like good bread is a specialty product and boring sandwich-bread like italian/french loaves are the norm.

When I lived near a trader joes I'd get their artisan loaves, fairly priced and yummy.

Answer

My husband bakes in a local pasta and bread shop, and he turns out dozens of truly fantastic baguettes every day. (The first time we went into that shop - years ago, and long before he started working there, what drew us was the sign in the window - "REAL BREAD.")

Anyway, he frequently brings a bag of baguette dough home at the end of the day (they use the same basic dough for baguettes, ciabatta, and focaccia - they just treat it differently) and we always end up, in our home oven, with above-mediocre loaves. (I think the smallest recipe he has makes either 24 or 48 baguettes and I haven't had a chance to try to cut it down.)

When it ends up getting chucked into the fridge overnight, the flavor is slightly more tangy - that long, slow rise, I guess.

To bake it, FIRST the dough comes out of the fridge to come up to room temperature, then we heat up the oven (and stone) (I want to say about to 450, but I'm not positive - fairly hot, though). Once the oven is hot and the dough is less cold, he shapes it into baguette-shapes, usually on a piece of parchment, and he lets that rise for maybe half an hour or so - just until it's puffy.

At that point, he'll cut it - lately, he's been amusing himself by doing a "dragon tails" (http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2010/09/12/dragon-tail-baguettes-shaping-video/), then, using the peel, slide the parchment and all into the hot oven for maybe 10-15 minutes. Though steam would improve the crust, we usually don't bother because, well, it's a bother.

Answer

In his book "It Must Have Been Something I Ate" Jeffrey Steingarten gives a quite good description of why the French baguette is something special, and even participates as a judge in a baguette competition in Paris.

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Why are baguettes in the US so bad?

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