Every once in a while, I get an email from someone asking about how to make Vietnamese-style baguettes - those light, airy, crisp rolls used for making banh mi the national sandwich of Vietnam or for mopping a saucy spicy Vietnamese bo kho beef stew with star anise and lemongrass.
My first response is to direct the person to a Vietnamese market or deli, or a Mexican market or deli where they can pick up a bolillo roll, which is very similar in texture and function in that they're used for torta sandwiches. Most Vietnamese people DO NOT bake their own baguette for these simple reasons: 1 it's cheap and more convenient to buy baguette, 2 yeasted dough is hard to master, and 3 home ovens are scarce in Vietnam. Those points are hard to argue since in Corinne Trang's Authentic Vietnamese Cooking , there's a Saigon baguette recipe in which a ratio of rice flour to wheat flour is used.
She argues that the rice flour lightens the dough. A number of people have tried that recipe and it hasn't worked for them. I have as well and the results were heavy and not as promised. Given the number of hours involved in baking bread, it's an awful disappointment when things don't succeed.
But people want to bake their own Vietnamese baguette and in all earnest, I rose to the occasion to try to crack the story. What started out as a lark turned out to be a month-long adventure.
I've baked about 20 batches of baguettes, using different techniques, flour mixtures, etc. My aim was to find a method that came close to mimicking the Vietnamese baguette. The method had to be easy enough so that people would actually try it out. Wouldn't you just rather buy baguette if it's just about 99 cents each?
