Home Baked Baguettes

Checking in on my favorite sites I wandered over to Farmgirl Fare and found a page the blogger calls Four Hour Classic Parisian Daily Baguettes. With the success of my hand kneaded sour milk farmhouse white bread the other day I was ready to try a couple more loaves. This recipe comes from Daniel Leader's classic cookbook, Bread Alone. Leader was an early pioneer in American artisan breads and in the 20 years since his first book was published he has turned countless timid cooks into confident home artisan bakers. These are my first baguettes and I can't think of a better teacher -- especially with Farmgirl Fare's photos of each step along the way.
True to their name I started out and just around 4 hours later was taking these crusty golden brown loaves out of the oven. I'm told, with a bakery on every corner, no housewife bakes her own bread in Paris. If only she knew how easy (and fun) it really is.