SF Sourdough Baguettes 6-29-08

SF Sourdough Baguettes Crumb 6-29-08

These baguettes were made with the formula for San Francisco Sourdough from Peter Reinhart's "Crust&Crumb." The firm starter was made with a mixture of Guisto's Organic (whole) Rye and King Arthur Bread Flour. The final dough was made with King Arthur European Artisan Flour.

The recipe makes 4-1/2 pounds of dough. I made two 1.5 lb. boules and these two baguettes. The dough was on the dry side, although I added about 1/4 cup of water during mixing. I cold retarded the formed loaves for about 18 hours. The baguettes were baked with steam for the first 10 minutes, then dry for another 15 minutes. The crust is crunchy, thicker than a traditional baguette. The crumb is less open than I wanted. The taste is typical of breads made with this dough - moderately sour and complex.

A word about the scoring, since that has been a source of frustration for me: These results are as good as I have ever obtained. I think the factors that contributed to it were 1) The dryer dough is easier to slash, 2) I was careful not to over-proof. They were baked 2 hours after being taken out of the refrigerator, 3) I consciously attempted to implement what Proth5 calls "Mental mis en place." I take this to mean clearing your mind of any other thoughts, then reviewing the procedure elements and visualizing the procedure before starting to slash, then executing the slashes quickly and smoothly according to the chosen procedure. I did not achieve perfection, but I feel I have progressed. What's needed is practice, practice, practice.

Here is one of the boules made with the same batch of dough:

SF Sourdough Boule 6-29-08

David

SF Sourdough baguettes

SF Sourdough baguettes crumb 

These baguettes were made with the same dough I have described in http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/7446/reinhart039s-san-francisco-sourdough-quotcrust-amp-crumbquot-some-new-variations.

I have been trying various formulas and techniques to make baguettes that have "classic" crust, crumb and taste. This is not them, of course, but I have also wanted to see if the pain de compagne dough, which has such a wonderful taste in a boule, would also make a good baguette. Well, the crumb structure and the taste are essentially identical to the boule. The baguette just has proportionately more crust.

The baguettes were scaled to about 10 oz. I preshaped them according to Hamelman's technique in "Bread," let them rest for 10-15 minutes, then formed the baguettes. I should have let them rest longer. The dough was very elastic. I attempted to be as gentle as possible in handling the dough. I proofed them for about 45-50 minutes only, until they were just swelled a bit, then baked with steam, starting at 500F and reducing the oven to 460F after 10 minutes. The total bake time was 25 minutes. They rested in the turned off oven with the door ajar for 10 minutes more.

The combination of the stingy proofing and the hot oven resulted in enormous oven spring. The bloom practically obliterated my cuts. For this "rustic" baguette, I'm not unhappy with the effect.

A word about how I steamed the oven: Hamelman's suggested method of oven steaming for the home baker was used. The oven was preheated with a pizza stone on the middle shelf and a loaf pan and a cast iron skillet on the bottom shelf. Just before spraying the loaves with water and scoring them, I placed about a cup of ice cubes in the loaf pan. Just after loading the loaves, I poured about a cup of boiling water into the skillet. The door was opened briefly at 10 minutes to remove the loaf pan and skillet. I did not spray water into the oven. 

David 

SF SD Pain de Compagne

SF SD Pain de Compagne crumb

This came out of the oven this evening in time to cool ... almost cool ... for our obligatory bedtime snack.

It is basically the same bread as that described in my last blog entry except that I built the dough directly from the starter rather than elaborating an "intermediate starter," and I made it with slightly higher hydration. As a result, it did not have the first clear flour, and it had proportionately more whole wheat and rye in the starter. This was a sticky dough that I avoided over-kneading. It fermented for 3.5 hours with one folding at 90 minutes. I shaped a single boule of about 830 grams. It was retarded in the refrigerator for 18 hours.

The boule was proofed in a linen-lined banneton and baked on a stone, covered with a stainless steel bowl for the first 15 minutes of a 40 minute bake. It was left in the turned off oven with the door ajar for another 10 minutes.

The crust was really crisp after 90 minutes of cooling. The crumb is tender but chewy, how I like it. The taste is medium sour with clear notes of whole wheat and rye which I expect to be more subtle by the morning.

My next project is to use the same dough at a lower hydration to make sourdough baguettes.

David

SF SD with WW from C&C

SF SD with WW from C&C - crumb

Having been raised on San Francisco Sourdough, if for no other reason, I prefer sourdough bread that is ... well ... sour.

 Peter Reinhart's formula from "Crust & Crumb" was the bread with which he won the James Beard prize, and it is my favorite SF-style sourdough. There are two overnight cold fermentations - One with the chef, which is a very dry levain, and the other of the formed and partially risen loaves.

 I have been adding some rye flour most times I bake this. This particular time, I left out the rye but used KA Organic Whole Wheat flour entirely for the levain. Then I used a mix of 1/3 high-gluten and 2/3 bread flour for the dough.

 There are two 690 gm boules retarding in my refrigerator, but I wanted to bake one loaf without the cold retarding, just to compare. I made this loaf into a batard, as you can see.  I baked it at 475F with steam for about 7 minutes, then at 425F with convection for another 25 minutes. I think it could have come out a couple of minutes sooner.

 The crust is still crisp and crunchy. The crumb is quite chewy from the high-gluten flour. (I think I'll use less next time.) It has a lovely taste. I like what the whole wheat does to the flavor. I'll use more next time I bake this bread. The sourness is less than usual, probably because i skipped the overnight cold retardation. You know, I like it either way. This is just good bread!

David

This is a concocted loaf of whole wheat with fresh basil from the garden, chopped green olives, and leavened with San Francisco Sourdough starter from Sourdoughs International