Here We Go Again

There was no snow on the ground when I went to bed last night, and I woke up this morning to heavy snowfall.  The last I heard was to expect 1-4 inches, but we were on the edge so hard to predict.  I mentioned recently that we average 7 inches of snow in March, but it has been an above average year.  We got that in one snowstorm earlier this month, then a few more inches here and there, now about another 9 or 10 inches on top of that.  That's as high as the opening on my snow blower.

This picture was taken just after 8 this morning.  I went out to clear snow about 9, and it finally stopped falling about noon.  Thankfully the ground is warm enough that it's melting now on the pavement so I don't have anything more to clean up.  I expect all of it will be gone in a few days, but as for today, it's a good day to stay in and bake bread.

My last attempt at making baguette was a different recipe and did not turn out that well, it was bland bread shaped like a baguette, so I went back to the recipe I used the first couple times.  My technique has improved in that when I split the dough I weighed it to get it more even between the 3, and my dough handling and shaping technique I feel has also gotten better.  

But I think the biggest improvement is that I had bought a spray bottle so I could mist the loaves and the inside of the oven at the start of baking.  Between that and the pan of boiling water in the bottom it seems I finally got enough steam in the oven to get the golden crispy crust that I've been striving for.  We've just been snacking on one of the loaves, and I should wrap the others and put them in the freezer now.  I'll put a couple more baguette pictures after the break.

*Edit:  Officially, we had 12.1 inches of snow in 9 hours, a new record here for a day in March.