Dexam French Bread Tin

Excellent quality. I initially bought a different brand and was surprised at how flimsy that brand was so decided to go with just the option for 2 baguettes. The edges are well finished and bakes wonderful baguettes. I will definitely be purchasing another one. Worth the extra few dollars. The product was shipped from the UK so a tiny bit slower than the US but surprisingly fast shipping via Royal Mail considering where the product came from and that is probably only because I am comparing it to 2 day Prime shipping.

I have to say that I'm very pleased with the French bread pan. It came very soon early than I was expecting. I did like to try it before write a review, and the bread came from the oven spectacular. I really recommend it . I'm really, really please. One more time well done Amazon and Emporium cookshop. Thanks a million.

It came promptly and was well packaged. Works well too.

First things first, buying this tin will NOT suddenly mean you miraculously get that French bread taste in your loaf! I've seen bad reviews given for this and/or similar items saying they think it's useless because they didn't get anything like French bread just because they shoved some ordinary white bread dough into it! Unfortunately, it takes more than that to get the best out of this baguette tin! I've included one recipe for baguette dough that I've found to be very good (especially if you want to part-bake rolls to freeze for later) below.As for the tin, it's well-made, and fits perfectly inside an ordinary domestic 60cm wide oven. But, whatever you do, DON'T wash it, or even worse, put it in the dishwasher! Again, there are some poor reviews given by people who either did not read, or chose to ignore, the basic care instructions, but basically as long as you have a hot oven and have shaped the dough on a board sprinkled with flour (semolina is optional, but gives a great crust beneath the rolls) and also sprinkled some flour (or, better, semolina - see recipe below) into the tin before inserting the dough for its final prove, you shouldn't have any issues with the bread sticking to the tin. In fact, the more its used, but not washed, the better it becomes. Some people advise wiping the tin with a small amount of vegetable oil before putting back in the cupboard, but I haven't found this necessary - as long as the tin is completely dry before storing, and never washed, it shouldn't develop any rust spots.My only complaint? I should have bought the large four loaf size! But I will be getting a second double loaf one to remedy that shortly!!Anyway, as promised, here's the recipe - hopefully it make sense!Ingredients:450 gm bread flour, plus extra for dusting2-1/2 tsp. active dry yeast1-1/2 tsp. salt375 ml, approx, lukewarm water (see method)Fine semolina for sprinkling on the baking sheetMethod:1. Use a stand mixer if you have one (it's quite sticky dough). Put flour in the bowl, and add yeast to one side and the salt to the other (salt retards yeast, so don't mix them until the last minute).2. Add about 325 ml of the water and start your mixer. Mix on medium-low speed for 1 minute.3. With a rubber spatula, scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and the dough hook; the dough should be very sticky - if it's still a bit dry, add some or all of the remaining water (adding water to a dough is not an exact science - you may need a little more/less depending on the flour you're using, the heat of your kitchen, the humidity in the air etc!).4. Mix, scraping down the bowl and hook every 2 minutes, until the dough looks smooth and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 6 minutes more.5. Use a plastic dough scraper (if you have one) to turn out the dough on to a lightly floured board, then with floured fingers, work around the dough to fold the edges into the middle. (This step isn't 'essential', but will mean that your dough rises with a smooth surface with all the untidy folds underneath.)6. Return the dough to the bowl, with the folded side underneath, cover with a clean tea towel or cling film, and leave to rise until doubled in size (usually about 1-2 hours, but it won't hurt if it has risen, but you have to leave it for longer).7. Turn out the risen dough on to your floured board again. Divide into two (for two larger baguettes which will fit this tin) or into six if you want smaller, individual rolls - cook 2 on each side of the tin, and either leave two aside to shape, prove and either part-cook or fully-cook after the first four have come out of the oven, or cook two of them 'free form' on a separate baking sheet sprinkled with fine semolina following the timings below for small rolls)8. Sprinkle some fine semolina on to your board, then shape your two large, or four small, baguettes into equal lengths (See [...] for how to do this properly, or simply tuck under the edges until you have a smooth surface and a 'baguette' shape for each piece!)9. Sprinkle some more semolina into the tin, then place your shaped dough into it (leaving plenty of space around each one if you are putting two on each side) and leave to prove, again until doubled in size.10. Using a sharp razor blade, clean Stanley knife or thin, sharp kitchen knife, make 3 slashes diagonally along large baguettes, or 2 slashes along smaller ones. Heat your oven to 220C (or the equivalent) and have a small spray bottle full of water to hand. Give about 10 good squirts of water on the sides and bottom of the oven, then put in the bread and shut the door.11. Now you have a choice: Either a) part-cook for just 11 mins, then take out and cool completely before freezing (they will cook from frozen in about 15 minutes at 200C). Or b) cook completely to eat straight away by cooking for around 30 minutes for the big baguettes, or around 18 minutes for the small ones. Test for 'done-ness' by tapping the bottom of the rolls to see if they sound hollow, then remove from the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack before eating. Enjoy!

You want French bread as good, crunchy and chewy as straight out of the boulangerie?Think you can't bake? Get one of these trays and read on. Couldn't be easier.2 cups strong white bread flour1 ¼ tsp salt1 ¼ tsp dry baking yeast1 cup water at room temperature1. Mix flour, yeast and salt in a bowl.2. Make a well and add warm water.3. Fold in, mix, but don’t knead. It will be a little bit wetter than other bread doughs.4. Move to a greased bowl, cover and let rest for 15 mins.5. Move to a warm place and let rise until doubled in size.6. Scoop out – it will be sticky - and divide into two portions.7. Pull, stretch and fold each portion into a long thin roll. Don’t over knead.8. Press down into the baking tray trough, take the full length of the trough. It will look spindly, but don’t worry.9. Cover with a clean tea towel and put in a warm place and let rise until it looks about the right shape. About 90 minutes depending on the temperature.10. Fill a deep baking pan with hot water and place it in the bottom of your oven.11. Preheat the oven to 210 deg C, and allow it to fill with steam.12. Using a bread lame (basically a razor blade in a holder), slash the top of both baguette diagonally three times.13. Immediately put into the oven and bake for about 18-20 minutes.14. Give it about 10 minutes to cool and crisp up, then eat.You could try to source real French flour, but I've tried this method with several supermarket brands of strong or very strong white flour, and it is still great. Not so good with self-raising flour and not advised with plain flour.You can clean the tray if you want, but it's not necessary. The baguettes just lift off and you brush the tray off.

I now have two of these, and they are both used weekly.I make a 74% or higher French-bread dough, using an overnight poolish pre-ferment, and with the help of these baguette trays always turn out authentic classic French Bread Baguettes.A few hints I've learnt:Don't wash them after use; let cool and just with your hand scrape off any residue of the dough baked on, after a few uses you will then get even less sticking to them.Don't over-load with dough, shape to the size before putting in the tray, and leave a little bit of space at each end before they undergo the final rise in the trays.Cook hot, as hot as the oven will go, for at least the first 15 minutes, and during this time create steam within the oven (old roasting tray full of water in bottom of oven etc), to ensure a good oven-spring and crust texture (remove steam after 15 minutes though for full crust development).Score each baguette using a lame (or suitable sharp knife), to get the typical Baguette appearance, this also helps in the oven spring of the baguettes (Score at end of final rise in trays, having first sprayed baguettes with water, and wet blade of knife during scoring, score quickly, and firmly to avoid snagging on the dough).Add a small amount of rye flour (8% or less), to the dough, if you want a vaguette which keeps fresh slightly longer.Once cooked, and cooled down, you can make garlic bread with the baguettes; cut baguettes appropiately, put in garlic butter, put in the trays, cover with tin foil, cook 15 - 20 minutes, then remove foil to allow to toast/chrisp up crust.These baguette trays are excellent and at a decent price too, I expect they shall give years and years of regular use without failing.As others have mentioned, do be sure to measure your oven's internal size; in my small domestic oven, I can just fit two of these baguette trays onto one shelf of the oven, which leaves the trays virtually touching both the sides and back/front of the oven.

This is the second one of these I have bought having had success with one and wanting to bake more than two loaves at a time. Batons, proved on this bread pan forms little dimples on the base, much like commercially produced loaves and can form a lovely crust on the top if you prepare the dough well and add a bit of steam to the bake by throwing a cup of cold water onto a hot baking tray at the base of the oven, when you put your bread in to cook. Obviously, the key thing is to prepare the dough well - I usually do it 24 hours in advance and keep it in a bowl in the fridge with a light covering of olive oil and sealed with cling-film. Apologies for seeming to turn this review into a semi cookery lesson, but the point is that these pans are great if you make the right dough and then the results are impressive: other containers such as banetons and ordinary baking tins, are good too; this one is just different, but definitely worth getting if you enjoy making different kinds of artisan bread.

CHECK YOUR OVEN WIDTH BEFORE ORDERING. This tin fitted my oven like a glove but only just. This bit of kit is well worth the investment. It is made of steel with a tough non stick coating. So much easier to make baguettes on this. The first time it was used it made two wonderful and professional looking crusty baguettes which were eaten too quickly. Do not attempt to wash and a dish washer would be death. Just a quick wipe with kitchen roll and put away.400 grams of flour made two good sized bagettes in this tin. Make the dough on the wet side. 200C in an electric fan oven for 20 minutes with a tray of water in the bottom of the oven.P.S. After using about 12 times and following care instructions to the letter, the non stick is starting to come off slightly, so this is not going to last for years and I worry about ingesting the non stick plastic. Next time I will look for one in stainless and oil it well.