Baguette Viennoise: Viennese Baguette Recipe

A while back, my boyfriend’s dad mentioned that he would love a great bread but one with a crust that would not cut his gums every time he bit into it. Well Adrian, please meet the Viennese Baguette. 

La baguette viennoise is an institution in France. Ask any kid who grew up there and they will wax lyrical about being collected from school as a child and getting to walk to the local boulangerie to buy a fresh out of the oven Viennese baguette. It’s an enriched slightly sweet and milky bread not a million miles away from the original brioche. 

Viennese baguette comes in two flavours. There is la naturelle, as the name suggests you eat it as is, straight from the oven with maybe a sliver of butter. It’s a great breakfast bread and I especially love it dunked into a big bowl of Ricoree (an ersatz coffee made from chicory) or hot chocolate. And then there is the one “aux pepites de Chocolat”, a few bits of baking chocolates are inserted in the dough before it goes in the oven and if you get it while it’s still hot, it’s a treat like no others. This Viennese baguette is best eaten with a glass of cold milk. 

I had planned to make this Viennese baguette for Adrian’s birthday but due to the current pandemic that is Covid 19, I’m now writing the recipe up instead. It’s not the same, but we will meet and eat all together again soon. I rarely talk about my private life online, but I am utterly blessed with my John and his family. 

This recipe makes for 4 baguettes and is quite forgiving and I’d love to hear from you if you make it. When it first came out of the oven, I was disappointed with the look of the Viennese baguette but the feel and taste of it were absolutely perfect. It reminded me that not everything needs to look good all the time. 

Ingredients

• 500 g of strong bread flour
• 270 ml of milk
• 12 g of dried baker’s yeast
• 40 g of sugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 60 g of softened butter
• 1 egg yolk for glazing (although I’ll add a dash of milk to it next time I’m making this bread)

Recipe 

• Preheat the oven to 180 C
• Dilute the dried yeast in a small bowl with just a couple of tablespoons of warm water to get it fizzing and all excited. 
• In the meantime, in a large salad bowl (or in your food processor if you have a robot that does pastry) add the flour, salt and sugar. Mix these and follow with the milk and yeast. Keep mixing with a nonstick spatula for about 5 minutes.
• Add the softened butter and mix until the dough starts coming away from the edges of the bowl. 
• Take the dough out and shape it into a ball. Put it back in the salad bowl and cover it and place it somewhere warm enough that it can rise. 
• You are looking for the dough to rise to twice its original volume. 
• Take the dough out on a lightly floured surface and knock it back with the flat of your hands. Give it a couple of kneads but nothing too wild. Cut the ball in 4 and make 4 baguettes. You don’t want them very thin so they’ll be a bit longer than a pint glass but not by much. Let them rise again for about 45 min. 
• Make slices diagonal slices for in the dough for that traditional look but it’s not required for the taste or feel of the bread. Brush so milky egg yolk on top and put place them in the hot oven for 15 min.