Sourdough Baguettes

I was feeling almost over my cold, so I decided to make sourdough baguettes.

Ingredients:

• 6 ounces warm water (make it pretty warm if your starter is right out of the refrigerator)
• 8 ounces sourdough starter (what you remove when you feed your starter)
• 1 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 8.75 ounces all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoons salt   
    
• Optional: 2 teaspoons melted butter

Instructions:

1. Sprinkle yeast and sugar on lukewarm water in stand mixer bowl, blend in sourdough starter and 1/2 cup of the flour. Let proof a  couple of minutes.
2. Add in rest of flour, kneading for a minute or so.
3. Sprinkle in salt, and continue kneading on medium-low (3 to 4) for 4 minutes, forming a smooth and somewhat sticky dough. (Add a smidge more flour if it seems really sticky)
4. Use cooking spray to lightly spray top of dough. 
5. Flop over so oiled side is against bowl, spray top and sides with more oil.
6. Mark current volume, and mark volume when doubled
7. Cover bowl, let dough rise until doubled
   (This should be maybe 90 minutes, depending on how active your starter is.)
8. Gently divide dough in half on well floured surface. Let rest 15 minutes.
9. Pat dough half into 4 x 6 rectangle.
10. Fold over long edge about 2/3 of the way, sealing with heel of hand.
11. Rotate, and fold over longe edge of other side about 2/3 of way, sealing with heel of hand.
12. Fold over edged together, sealing with edge of hand. 
13. Roll gently with cupped hands to make a log the length of your baguette pan. Repeat for second loaf.
14. Place the loaves onto a lightly greased baguette and let them rise till they're puffy but possibly not doubled, about 1 hour or so. 
15. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 425°F. (I put my pizza stones at top of oven, and at bottom 1/3. I placed a pan at the bottom of the oven to hold ice.)
16. VERY gently, use a sharp knife to make three diagonal 1/3"-deep overlapping slashes in each loaf. 
17. Mist the loaves with warm water.  Place pan on pizza stone at bottom 1/3 of oven, and toss 5 or 6 ice cubes in pan on floor of oven to make steam.
18. Bake the baguettes for 22 to 28 minutes, till they're golden brown. 
19. As needed, baste with a little butter or olive oil to deepen color.

Carole's Notes:

I used all the starter discard in this recipe to amp up the sourdough taste. I cut the water and flour in the official recipe to take this into account.  Recipe is lightly adapted to make 2 baguettes  from http://carolelikesroundfood.blogspot.com/2016/02/cant-wait-for-starter-semi-sourdough.html
and the shaping is from http://www.joyofbaking.com/breads/FrenchBaguetteRecipe.html

I think these should last me and Doug 3 or 4 days.