Carry on without me, I be right back I'm going to Home Depot.

I had to zoom waaaaaaaaaaay in to see that yours is 60".

You need a really big oven to fit that. Didn't I read you had a 6 burner gas cooktop somewhere?

You must have zoomed too far...looks like 22 inches to me.
I have a couple of commercially made things like that Chicago metallic....but the holes are much smaller.
Even with the smaller holes, though, a soft dough sometimes "oozed" into the holes and makes it hard to remove. I can't imagine how firm the dough would have to be to bake in a trough with holes that big.
Maybe if you put 2 together?
Linda C

Good idea Dcarch.

But, you can also make 22 to 24 inch baguettes if you slide your dough diagonally on to your pizza stone. My stone measures 22 inches and if your dough is firm enough, it can protrude a little at each end for a 24 inch loaf.

I am impressed! Both with your ingenuity, dcarch, and the baking prowess of both you and Ann!

Teresa

Quite a while ago DH picked up a French bread pan at an estate sale. It's shaped like a rounded W, or an upside down m. It's not 24" long, though.

Beautiful loaves, both of you! Ann, how do you stay slim?

Sally

I guess the 60 figure must be a metric measurement. Dcarch - does the shape of the screen help with the uniformity of the diameter of the loaf?

Dcarch:
If you could bend it into a large circle, it could be about 32 to 36 inches.

Maybe the screen could be wrapped around one of the foam things , you throw in a Swimming pool, or
a piece of foam pipe insulation.
and bent to shape without deforming it.

Your loaves would make a good Philly Cheese Steak,
without the seeds, to be traditional.

You never answered me , when I asked if you deliver???
LOU

12 inches if folded in half, right dcarch? #snort#

Looks like you need a bigger plate.

Does French law allow sesame seeds? I'm thinking that looks like Fritalian Bread.

Looks good though! And right about now I'm wondering whether I should feel foolish having spent $27 for Wms Sonoma's perforated pan. Though like Linda C, I wonder about the size of the holes. Those on mine are very small yet the bread pushes through and leaves bumps. What's the bottom of your bread look like?

Thank you everyone. "Necessity is the mother of invention". It is necessary for me to be cheap. So I invent all kind of cheap things in the kitchen.

Teresa, yes, 60 centimeters. In honor to the French, the baguette, it is proper to also measure it in the metric system, which is also a French way of doing things. Yes also, this is to have an easier way of making perfectly straight, long and well shaped baguette, just like the real thing.

LindaC, by turning the form upside down and bang it a few times on the counter, the bread will come out from the form with no problem.

Here is the other part of how I make the long baguette:

Because the dough is wet and stringy, it is difficult to form it nicely. After I formed the dough into some kind of a long rod, I put it on a very large silicone bake mat and roll the mat into a tube of reasonable diameter. Then I use clips to close off both ends of the silicone mat tube to prevent moisture evaporation. The tube is put in the refrigerator overnight to rise. When I am ready to bake, the silicone tube helps the dough to form a nice uniform round shape and makes it easier to be transferred to the aluminum gutter baguette form. The picture shows what I got out from this system.

Lou, "You never answered me , when I asked if you deliver??? "
You will have to be a little patient. The pony is very slow. "Neither Rain, Nor Sleet, Nor gloom of night" We have had a lot of those recently.

FOAS, I believe the law only says the dough composition, nothing about what I can put on top of the dough.

No, don�t fold it into to 12 inches (inside joke). It would not be a baguette, it would be a foot. LOL!

The bottom of the one I ate had a pattern like the mesh. Kind of interesting.

dcarch

One minor comment: aluminum is fine for contact with non-acidic food, and what dcarch suggests is just fine, but some hardware mesh items are made of galvanized steel. Don't use that. Zinc isn't nearly as benign as aluminum--although some people feel that the high level of zinc in oysters is what produces their alleged, uh, male enhancement properties.

I am puzzled by the marked difference in color of the loaf you have pictured. It's obviously the same loaf....but in one picture it looks very "toasty" on the ends even though by the pattern of the seeds and "slashes" it's the same loaf.
Did you put it back in the oven and cook it more?
You say you shaped the bread in a tube made from a silicone cutting mat? That explains the absence of the traditional "gluten cloak".
I still want to see the bottom of the loaf.....and the inside after you have cut it.
For beginners, looking for an easy way to make baguettes, I don't recommend this method.
Linda C

Posted by lindac "I am puzzled by the marked difference in color of the loaf you have pictured. It's obviously the same loaf....but in one picture it looks very "toasty" on the ends even though by the pattern of the seeds and "slashes" it's the same loaf. Did you put it back in the oven and cook it more? "

Very observant. The loaf was made in the morning. Didn�t get a chance to enjoy it until the evening. I had the oven on to dry up some home-made pasta so I put the baguette in the oven to warm it up and it got browned some more.

"---You say you shaped the bread in a tube made from a silicone cutting mat? That explains the absence of the traditional �gluten cloak�---".

It went thru the whole folding process before I put it in the silicone tube for final rise in the refrigerator. I think it had the normal "gluten cloak" as in the normal baguette making steps. The silicone mat, besides helping the shape of the loaf, is really to prevent it from drying out in the refrigerator.

"----I still want to see the bottom of the loaf.....and the inside after you have cut it.
For beginners, looking for an easy way to make baguettes, I don't recommend this method. Linda C"

Sorry, as I was loafing around, I was overcome by "glutton cloak" and ate the whole thing. You will get to the "bottom" of this and the "inside" story the next time I make another. BTW, this is not meant to be an easy way for a beginner to make baguettes. I am not giving any recipes here. This is just for anyone who may be interested in making a 24-inch or longer, straight and more uniformly shaped baguette, whatever recipe you happen to be using.

dcarch

Posted by arley "One minor comment: aluminum is fine for contact with non-acidic food, and what dcarch suggests is just fine, but some hardware mesh items are made of galvanized steel. -------"

Thanks arley. That is a very good point. In addition, some ovens can reach zinc's melting point, which is much lower than aluminum.

" --- zinc in oysters is what produces their alleged, uh, male enhancement properties."

And that can be a topic for another thread, using the same title as this thread. LOL!

dcarch

No commento on this last post... lol.

Love the idea and love the look of the bread. Impossible for me to ever want to leave off sesame seeds, traditional or not. I'd love your loaf. I have one of those pyrex tubes that sit on a steel rack for making french bread. I haven't used it in decades. Time to do more than wash it and put it back on top of the fridge. It's not that long though and my stone is round so using it like you do Ann wouldn't work. Luckily there are only two of us so whatever size I make is good enough. Love the look of your bread too Ann, as always, particularly those wheat stalks. Just makes me want to rip a hunk off and slather it with butter.

It looks wonderful.
There are many types of baguettes and, yes, you get ones with sesame seeds.

Dcarch, how do you transfer the baguette from the silicone mat to the aluminum mesh without totally destroying it, which is what would happen to me? I can just see me carefully taking it out of the fridge, opening up the mat, and then having the dough collapse and go all over the place while I'm trying to transfer it to the baking mold.

Sally

Gontran Cherrier is very famous here for his bread so I thought you might be interested to see this TV programme. He's making "petits pains" but the principle is the same - it's fascinating to see how the bread should be shaped - all the folding is quite complicated. Also, it's interesting to see that you don't need those shapers to bake the bread. It seems to handle well without all that support!
Anyway, he's cute enough to spend a bit if time just looking in front of the computer hahaha.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gontran Cherrier

So, have you got any mad invention for how to store it?? Mine aren't nearly that long, and they already don't fit in anything.

I would store it in a zip lock baggie cut into thirds.
Beautiful by the way.

Linda

Beautiful loaves, and I'm jealous.

I have a perforated metal channel, sort of like that, and one trick I have learned is to form the loaf on parchment paper, then simply move the loaf and parchment paper to the channel. The paper seems to transmit heat well, so the loaf browns fine on the bottom where the paper is, without getting the funny mesh pattern.